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“I said to my sister, Lucy—don’t tell her I talked to you about it,” he looked around and lowered his voice, “I said to her, what’s up with those two? Why are they still playing these games?”
Ava was shocked, had no idea how to respond to that.
“I-I don’t follow,” she finally stuttered.
Barney reached behind him and took out a cigarette pack. Looks like some cartoon gag where a character whips out something from thin air, Ava thought and chuckled slightly. He noticed.
“Wanna share the joke?” he’d already taken out a stick from the pack.
She shrugged, “I think it’s funny how the cigarette magically appeared in your hands.”
He smiled and looked at his hand. “Yeah? I have my ways with things, if you ask me. You mind?” he asked pointing at the cigarette. He was far enough from her that she didn’t, so she shook her head. He nodded, clamping down on the smoke with his lips when he had a thought and looked at Ava. “Want a smoke?” he held the pack to her.
“I don’t smoke any more, but thanks anyway.”
“Good girl, huh?” he scoffed and lit his smoke.
She shook her head. “I don’t smoke any more. It has nothing to do with my morals.”
“I like that reply.” He drew in sharply, his eyes dull and fixed straight ahead, and then blew out a cloud of smoke. “So, back to what I was sayin’…”
She waited for him to continue but he kept blinking rapidly and staring ahead.
“Yeah?”
He grinned and took another puff, blowing the smoke away before turning to her. “So, I ask Lucy about you two, and she goes all, I don’t know, vague and stuff. Her face just blanks out or something, you follow me?”
“I think I have a good idea what you mean.”
He nodded and smiled. “So why does my sister look like she just took a shot of whiskey—she hates whiskey, by the way—each time I ask about you?”
“I don’t know.” Perhaps that answer was too hasty. She looked at Barney; he was already sipping from a can of beer, and this time Ava genuinely wondered where he’d pulled it out from.
With a casual shrug he muttered, almost to himself, “Love sure can be a crazy thing, don’t you think?”
“Love? No way,” she scoffed. There is no love—at least not anymore. Shifting the focus from her, she asked, “How about you, are you married?”
His eyes glazed over for just a second and he stopped half-sip, a frown on his face. “Hmm, it’s complicated, not a happy-ending story.”
She smiled. “I work at a homeless shelter. Try me.”
Taking a sip and running his tongue over his front teeth, he smiled. “Yeah, at some point. But I don’t think I’m ready yet, you know.”
She leaned back and nodded. “I can respect that.”
Barney grinned. “You’re not so bad, Ava.” He got off the chair. “Not bad at all. My Bennie is a lucky man.”
For some reason, those very words warmed her belly just before turning to ice again. “I don’t think he would agree with you.”
He raised an arm, already walking away, “Yes he does. It’s my sis who needs to take a Xanax. Later…”
Gosh it felt good to hear Barney say it as it was. Ava relaxed in her chair, a real smile on her face. “I kinda like him,” she muttered as she watched Barney disappear into the house. If Lucy thought her own hatred for the lower class would extend to her and remove her from this house, than she was as far away from earth as the sun. Working with the homeless, and encountering plenty of families with different personalities, had helped Ava build up a high tolerance to all sorts of people. If this was all Lucy Radcliff had in her pocket, then Ava had already won this match.
