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“Just out.”
“Seeing anyone in particular?”
I didn’t answer, but Carter and Elias looked at each other knowingly.
“What?” I demanded.
“Nothing,” Carter said, tossing me my jacket. “Tell Cindy hi for us.”
I pulledup in front of Stephanie’s building and Cindy was already waiting out front. Of course she was. Cindy hated lateness. Even more than that, she hated keeping someone waiting on her. She’d rather run outside with her hair still wet, no jacket, and mismatched shoes than hold someone up.
Today, however, she was wearing matching shoes and her hair was dry. If she was wearing makeup, it was subtle. There was a light breeze that blew her hair around her shoulders. For a moment, looking at Cindy standing there, waiting for me, was like going back in time. I used to just lean over the passenger’s seat and open the door from the inside for Cindy. But today, without even thinking about it, I got out of the truck and walked around to her side, opening the door for her like a gentleman.
“Thanks,” she said as she hopped in.
“Sure,” I replied.
Having her in the passenger seat was both familiar and uncomfortable. Apparently, conversation was going to be just as stiff and difficult in person as it was in texts. But I would still rather have her here with me than not.
“Where do you want to go?” I asked.
“I don’t know. You pick.”
I started down First Avenue toward the center of town.
“No,” Cindy said. “Not the diner. Anywhere but the diner.”
“Why not?”
“I just… you and me… Marnie… comments.”
I nodded and turned down Mulberry Street toward Stella’s; a smaller coffee shop that opened a few years ago.
“Maybe not here either,” Cindy said. “And nowhere on Harp Street. And not Rook’s.”
“Cindy, not everyone in Blue Creek is going to start talking the second they see us together,” I told her. “I know this is a small town. But it’s notthatsmall.”
“It’s not all about that,” she replied. “People have a lot of questions for me. And there are a lot of things I’m not really ready to talk about yet.”
“You mean your time being a badass soldier?” I said with a smile. I turned to her, expecting her to smile too. But she didn’t.
“I mean like some of the terrible shit I’ve seen,” she stated. Her tone was a little detached and cold. “Maybe the day I was involved in an IED explosion and learned that my career ended.”
“Fuck, Cindy, I…”
Stunned, I kept driving, turning onto the parkway and leaving Blue Creek. We were silent for about ten minutes.
“Okay, so nowhere in Blue Creek,” I said.
“Thank you.”
Once we’re a few miles outside of town, I heard Cindy make a noise. It sounded like a scoff. Looking at her, however, I saw that she was laughing.
“What’s so funny?” I wondered.
“I can’t believe I just played the wounded soldier card,” she replied, relaxing against the seat.
“Why? Is it bullshit?”
