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At that moment, a different waitress sashays over to us and deposits Hana’s dish, then mine. “Alright, ladies, here are your delicious salads! Moira had to step out and she asked me to take over. Is there anything else I can get for you?”
Hana’s too busy drilling me with a glare to answer.
“I think this is everything,” I say, while planning to eat the salad as fast as possible, so this tense lunch will be over with.
While filling my water glass, she eyes me. “Oh, hey! You’re Roxie’s sister, right? Me and my boyfriend were at the diner a couple hours ago. Your family was talking about you.”
“Of course they were,” I grumble.
She chuckles. “Families, right?”
“Yep. They’re a bucket of fun.”
“Roxie was all worked up. She was gabbing with Fredricka. You know how that goes… Hard to keep the big news quiet with those two.”
Hana’s spine straightens. Her ears perk. Her glare intensifies. “What’s this about big news?”
The waitress winks at me. “You and that cute doctor, right? That’s what Roxie was going on about.”
That hardly makes sense. Roxie shouldn’t have any new “big news” to get worked up about. Not yet, anyway. I haven’t even told her about how Nick and I kissed in the diner, or our walk home.
“How did she—” I stammer. “I mean—what did she hear?”
The waitress moves over to fill Hana’s glass. Water clinks against ice cubes. “Ya know, how you were coming out of his place this morning all freshly showered.”
“Fredricka!” I fume.
The waitress flashes me a happy grin. “Congrats. He’s super cute.”
Hana’s face turns snow-white, and then a pale, ghostly green. She pushes her untouched food away. “I’ve suddenly lost my appetite.” She pulls a twenty from her wallet and presses it down on the white tablecloth. “Have a good day, Maddison.”
“Hana, wait—that’s not even true.”
I follow her to the gate surrounding the patio.
She pauses before stepping onto the sidewalk. “Here’s the thing. We had an arrangement. I fulfilled my part. You didn’t complete yours—not as I expected. Now all dealings between us are through. I’ve come to a decision regarding charges. You will see a bill from me, and I’ll warn you right now that it will be for every single hour I spent on your behalf—at my full rate. Also, I don’t need help with Nick anymore, Maddison, so stay out of my business from now on. We may be alumni of the same college, but we’re not friends.”
She stalks over to her car and gets in.
I return to the two plates of food.
Now I’m not hungry, either.
With a sick feeling in my stomach, I pick up the file folder and nestle it into my handbag. When I catch the waitress’s eye, I motion for the check.
My phone dings with an incoming text. I snatch it up, eager for a distraction.
It’s from Roxie.“Hey, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I think you should know. Sylvester just showed up at the diner. He’s asking where he can find you. Mom’s serving him pancakes. I think you should get down here as quickly as you can.”
My stomach twists into a knot.
Sylvester ishere…?
In Stillwell. At my family’s diner. Eating pancakes.
This can’t be good.
My throat feels tight, and the world around me becomes hazy. I feel like I’m looking through a tunnel as I reread my sister’s text, hoping I misunderstood her.
