AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Shoshana punched the button to turn on the speaker a little more vehemently than was necessary.
“Goldman’s,” she said, forgoing even the most cursory of polite greetings. The store wasn’t open yet, they were lucky she was answering at all.
“It’s a good thing you answered,” Leah said, her voice sounding tinny and far away, “I was about to call the sheriff and demand a wellness check.”
“What do you want, Leah, I’m busy,” Shoshana said.
“I want you to answer the damn door. We’ve only been banging on it for five minutes,” Leah said, and someone else answered something that sounded like agreement. She was on speaker phone, because of course she was. Shoshana rolled her eyes heavenward.
“I don’t have time--”
“Sho,” Abi said, using the voice she typically used for small children, “open the door, we’re not asking.”
“Oh for,” Shoshana said, lifting the receiver and slapping it back into the cradle to end the call. She was going to yell at them when she got to the door. She unfolded herself from the chair, wincing as she put her weight on her foot. It had fallen asleep at some point and the pins and needles were sharp. She grabbed her keys from the corner of the desk and shuffled to the door of her office.
There were at least five people waiting on the other side of the glass doors.
By the time Shoshana made it from her office across the dark showroom to the door her muddled brain was even more confused. She wanted to be irritated at the interruption, but mainly she just didn’t understand why there was a crowd of people on her doorstep.
“Well it's about damn time,” Abigail said, shouldering past her as soon as the door was unlocked and slightly ajar. “Ladies, if you please.”
The group of women followed. Shoshana stared, counting as the women filed in. Including Abi and Leah, there was Patti, a teenage girl who was probably Becca, and Evelyn--who was wheeling a large, leopard print cooler behind her. Once all the women had gathered in the showroom, Shoshana let the door fall shut, locking it behind them because the store still wasn’t open for business. She leaned against the front counter, hoping her expression was quizzical and not openly hostile.
“Can I help you?” she asked, trying to sound solicitous.
“I told you we should have done this last week,” Leah told Abi, giving Shoshana the kind of look, one typically reserved for sad houseplants at a garden center.
“For the record, I was planning to change before the store was officially open,” Shoshana said, shifting under the weight of the scrutiny. She was wearing yoga pants and an old V-neck tee shirt because it was comfortable.
“Uh-huh,” Evelyn said, rolling her eyes to show she believed it but she still didn’t like it. She looked at Abi, spreading her hands wide. “So, what are we doing? Is there a list?”
“Oh, there’s a list,” Abi said, pulling a leather-bound planner out of her bag. She snapped it open and adjusted her glasses.
“Now wait just a minute,” Shoshana said, one of her hands settling on her hip. “What exactly is going on here?”
“This is an intervention, dear,” Evelyn said, as though it was obvious. “We’re intervening.”
“I--excuse me?” Shoshana said, glaring at Abi, Abi, unperturbed, was scrutinizing the list in front of her. “Abi, what the fuck?”
“You didn’t think we’d let you get away with ignoring us for weeks at a time, did you?” Leah said, as though this were perfectly reasonable,shewas perfectly reasonable, and Shoshana was the one with the problem.
Becca was openly taking in the showroom. She had stepped away from the group and was slowly turning in place to look at everything. Under normal circumstances this would have enchanted Shoshana. At this moment, it just irritated her because the place was mostly in shadow. She reached around the back of the desk to the light panel and flipped some switches. Lights switched on and Becca stepped further into the space.
“I wasn’t ignoring you, I definitely responded to texts,” Shoshana said, still unwilling to admit shehadbeen avoiding.
“One-word answers and the occasional animated gif are not exactly what I would call regular responses,” Abi said.
“If one of my kids did that, they would be in so much trouble,” Patti said, nodding in agreement with Abi. She glanced behind her at her daughter and smiled at the look of obvious fascination on Becca’s face before looking back at Shoshana. She made a point to take Shoshana in from head to toe. “You’re exhausted, aren’t you?”
“I’m--I mean, I’m adjusting okay, I think,” Shoshana said, fidgeting under the scrutiny. “I knew it was going to take some time.”
“You’re trying to be five people,” Evelyn said, reaching down into the cooler and producing a bottle of orange juice that she presented to Shoshana, “The last time a woman did that, a psychiatrist wrote a book about it and it turned into a whole syndrome.”
“She’s not Sybil,” Patti said, a little disapproval in her voice. “And I need for you to not make light of mental illness, even if that specific thing got debunked, old woman.”
“She still tried to be five different people, and it didn’t end well. My point is factually accurate,” Evelyn said, sounding pleased with herself. She rummaged in the cooler a second time and produced a large bottle of vodka.
“Evelyn, you promised,” Abi said, closing her planner over her fingers to mark the place, “We’re not going to run interference all day. Also, it's too early for booze.”
