AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Mm-hm.”
“And I know the lady who lives next door to me, Mrs. Edelman.” Giadidknow Mrs. Edelman. She’d helped her retrieve her cat from the fronds of a 40-foot palm just the day prior, her own cat-like climbing skills coming in handy to help a neighbor.
“How old is Mrs. Edelman?”
“I dunno—85, maybe?”
“And these are your friends?”
“Well, no. I told you I don’t have any friends besides the group. But—”
“You’renotattracted to me?”
“I wouldn’t say—” Gia shifted on the bench seat. Its plastic covering had a death grip on her bare hamstrings. And—Roxi had her.
“Sí,you are attracted to me,” Roxi said, pretending to toss her hair over each shoulder and then brushing them off—two swipes per side.
“Okay, maybe a little. But—”
“Pero?”
“I’m celibate.”
Roxi laughed a deep, rollicking chortle that led to a snort. “Sure you are. And I’m The Virgin Mary.”
“No, really. I promised myself no sex for a year. I said, ‘Gia, don’t fuck it up this time. Go start over, but this time, really fucking do it. Absolutely no fucking.’ Sex leads me down a path that I have a hard time finding my way back from. So, I’m celibate.”
“Oh, shit. You’re serious.”
“Yep.”
“Well,chica¸good on you. You’re still buying me coffee, though.” Roxi was three steps away by the time she’d said the word “coffee,” and back with two mugs before Gia could say “no.”
“Salud,” Gia offered her mug toward the woman in front of her and congratulated herself for turning down one of her biggest vices. She’d banned the wordcheersfrom her vocabulary. No more Good Time Charlie. It was all about health now. “To friendship.”
“A la amistad,”Roxi tapped her mug to Gia’s, its contents spilling over the top and dripping on the table. She wiped the drip with her index finger and licked it in slow motion.
“You really think I’m a dude, huh?”
“No sé. I don’t know what you are, except new in town and trying too hard to be good.”
“I should go,” Gia said when it hit her—shewastrying to be good, and Roxi was nothing but trouble.
“Don’t go! I’m only kidding. It’s fun to fuck with you. I’ll stop. Promise.”
“Okay, but you should know I have a three strikes and you’re out rule. You have one strike. For the record.”
“So serious.”
“I have to be. It doesn’t work for me any other way.”
“Okay, I understand. Let me see if I can do it. How was your interview?” Roxi sat straighter in the booth and clasped her hands together. Her interlaced fingers showed off tidy, trimmed fingernails. Gia told herself not to think about those fingers. Or what they could do.
The thudding in her head said to take a breath, calm down. The thud appeared when she needed a moment. It beat with the precision of a metronome clocking a waltz—1-2-3, 1-2-3—her mental reminder that it was her life; her pace. If she wanted to slow things down—it was perfectly within her rights to do so.
“I start tomorrow. Graveyard shelf stocking, but I’ll take it. Comes with perks—all the day-old bread I want, and occasionally produce and other items that haven’t sold.”
“¡Felicidades!” Roxi raised her coffee mug. A peace offering.
