Hannah waggled her fingers in an indifferent hello. She was clearly busy on a text thread filled with emojis of houses. Her nails clacked irritatingly against the screen as she typed.
‘So, the crochet night was actually super fun,’ said Alana, sipping her tea. ‘I didn’t have high expectations, given it was a library thing and all, but I had a good time. Everyone did.’
Effie smiled stiffly.A library thing and all. Well, a backhanded compliment was still better than an insult.
‘Tessa is great,’ offered Effie.
Alana nodded as she sipped again. ‘How’d you enjoy it, Theo?’
‘That’s right,’ said Hannah curiously. Setting down her phone, she looked askance at Theo. ‘Library craft sessions over a visit to the bar. Interesting.’
‘It was fun. I went home and made a koala,’ said Theo, who was holding one of the for-sale plants from the plant wall – this one in a sausage-dog-shaped holder spangled with glittery gold stars.
‘Someone must’ve put something in his drink,’ muttered Hannah to Alana. ‘It’s the only way it makes sense.’
Alana regarded the tea leaves in the bottom of her cup. ‘The library’s not so bad,’ she murmured.
‘What’s the verdict on this?’ Theo waggled the ceramic dogat Effie, drawing her attention away from the judgemental conversation going on right in front of her face.
Well, if this was the sort of dog Theo had meant when talking about getting a pet, Effie could abide it.
‘Cute,’ she said. ‘Could do with some grooming.’
Theo chuckled, then whipped out his phone to pay using the QR code stickered to the dog.
‘Coffee for Ebby and Neo?’ called Terrance from the counter.
Close enough, thought Effie. At least it wasn’t just her name getting butchered.
‘Here, Longdog can live there while I grab our coffees.’
Theo loped off to get their drinks, clearing the mugs off an empty table on the way. Hannah and Alana watched him go with raised eyebrows.
Hannah turned a hawkish gaze to Effie. ‘What’s the story there? Did you buy a love potion from your uncle’s shop or something?’
‘We just bumped into each other. In the rain,’ said Effie cagily. She tried not to flush as an image of the two of them huddled under her umbrella flashed through her mind.
‘In the rain, huh?’ Alana was not buying this at all. But beneath her bemusement she sounded almost pleased for Effie. At least one of Bonnie’s friends had some semblance of empathy.
Hannah tapped her pouty bottom lip with a perfectly manicured fingernail. ‘Does Bonnie know about your extracurriculars?’
Ah, that was more like it. It was almost comforting to be back to her usual defensive position.
‘I think Bonnie would be more interested inKirsty’s extracurriculars,’ Effie retorted.
Before Hannah could ask for clarification, Theo returned, cups of takeout coffee in hand.
‘Here ya go, Eff.’
‘Effie,’ she corrected. Effie did not abide nicknames. Especially from someone she barely knew. Even Tessa knew better than to try it. Still, Effie took the coffee, stuffing the pastry bag into her tote.
With Theo back, Hannah spun her phone on the table to face him. On the screen was a picture of the quaint cottage that everyone in town called the Dorothy House. Effie had always loved it. It felt like it had a thousand stories inhabiting its walls, and possibly a few ghosts as well.
A few years earlier, the owners had opened it up as part of a historic homes tour, with proceeds benefiting the Downtown Small Business Association. Effie and Tessa had spent hours poking around, investigating the decorative glassware on the mantels and conjuring backstories for the people in the watercolour portraits on the walls.
‘Theo, do you know anyone interested in this place? It’s a bargain compared with what you’d pay in the city,’ she added.
‘It’s cute,’ he said. ‘I’ll have a think.’
