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“Hm?” Gia asked, unsure the question but certain it was directed at her.
“Oh, we wondered, what’s your story? You’re so quiet.” Sister A proclaimed as Sister B looked on in a mirror image. They were carbon copies—tall and rail thin, with hollow cheeks and beady eyes, their brunette hair cinched so tightly in ponytails you’d have thought it was cranked in place by a winch.
“Oh, no story.” Gia shrugged.
“Youhaveto have a story,” Sister B insisted. “Everyone has a story. We have time. Let’s hear it.”
A glance out the window told Gia nothing—it was impossible to discern where they were from the middle seat of a station wagon when everything looked the same. Strip mall after strip mall. Stoplight after stoplight. It was a sea of sameness marked with blue street signs and “Only $.99” stores.
“Okay. What do you want to know?”
“Only everything!” Sister A enthused.
“How about the Cliff’s Notes version?” Gia succumbed to the pressure.
The sisters nodded in unison.
“Alright. I moved here over the summer from Austin and spent the first few months wondering why I moved to the surface of the sun. A few years ago, I needed to get out of a rut, so I learned how to climb and fell in love. I’m a manager at the market, but someday I want to run a non-profit to get kids into climbing. I guess that’s it.” Had she given them enough to back off?
“No boyfriend?” The sisters asked at the same time and laughed.
“No.” Gia flashed a tight smile—no teeth. Why wouldn’t they stop? Worse, when were they going to get where they were going so she could get off this god-forsaken ride? It if were Disneyland, she’d have already pulled the emergency alarm.
“You know—” Sister A leaned closer to Gia’s ear and whispered, as if Ynez and Carmen in the front wouldn’t be able to hear. “Rumor is you’re a lesbian.”
“Is that right?” Gia looked forward through the windshield at a line of brake lights.
“It’s just a rumor.” Sister B shrugged.
“Does it matter?”
“Only because—if it’s true, we want to set you up with our friend,” Sister B smiled.
Ah yes. The “I know one other lesbian, so you should be together,” ruse.
“Well, it’s true. But I’m not looking to date right now. Taking a break to focus on me.” Gia looked out the window again. They had to be getting close, right?
“That’s too bad,” Sister A said. “Roxi is a catch. She’s not usually on the market long—must be in a dry spell. Let us know if you change your mind. She’s really pretty and super fun. We went to high school together, so we go way back.”
“Roxi Delgado?”
“You know her?!” they screeched in unison.
“I do. She’s great. But like I said, I’m just focusing on me for now. Thanks, though.”
Of course, their friend was Roxi. And—were they there yet?
Like a grandmother
Gia answered the unknown number on the second ring. She’d started answering all her calls—known or not—since she mailed the letter to Lorrainne Mitchell of Pasadena. You just never knew when it might be her. If it might be her. She was still in bed, snuggled under a soft white duvet cover and surrounded by a pillow wall in her shared room with Sisters A and B. Courtney must’ve been playing mind games with her to put them both in the car and hotel together, but the joke was on her. Once they’d gotten past the “we want to set you up with our friend” discussion, the sisters hadn’t cared about Gia any more than she cared about them. A sleepy glance toward the bed next to hers confirmed what she expected—they weren’t there. Probably out jogging ten miles or attending a sunrise yoga class on the beach.
“Is this Gia Barone?” a soft voice asked.
“It is.” The voice seemed too young, but could it be? “Are you Lorraine Mitchell?”
“Weird. Okay, no. I’m her granddaughter. She got a letter from someone named Gia Barone and I wasn’t sure if it was a scam. Are you a scam?” A dog barked in the background with high-pitched ferocity.
“Um—not that I know of. I wrote Lorrainne a letter, hoping she might know a friend of mine. That’s all. No scam here.”
