He shut the door chivalrously for her, then stood and watched as she pulled away from the lot.
Was he really magic? she wondered, driving home on the familiar streets and not seeing a single one of them. Was the effect he had on her just physical? Did she imagine their connection? Was it just hope that made her feel like he was as into her as she was with him? He was so handsome and easy going, and Clarice felt sogoodwith him. Like she didn’t have to try too hard, and if she did, like he would understand why she was.
20
BRUNO
Eventually, after a rambling story about how Gil planned to swim to school when he was old enough, which necessitated moving to a beach, Gil’s boots were on his feet and Bruno was hustling him out of their front door to the truck.
“Don’t open your lunch right now,” Bruno warned him, knowing that it would end up all over the floor.
“I WANT TO SEE WHAT I GOT!” Gil said, continuing to unzip the brand new insulated bag.
“It can be a surprise for lunch,” Bruno said desperately.
That only made him pause for a moment, and by the time Bruno had buckled himself in, the new zipper bag was open, the chips had fallen between the seats, and the cheesestick was in Gil’s lap.
“What did I just tell you?” Bruno growled.
“I wanted to be surprised NOW!”
Gil spent most of the ride straining against his car seat harness trying to reach lost food and it took Bruno severalminutes to reassemble his lunch when they arrived at the elementary school. “Save some for eating at Tiny Paws after school,” he reminded Gil, sending him to the front door with a big hug. “I don’t have time to go home and make you another one.”
“BYE!” Gil cried as soon as he’d squirmed from Bruno’s embrace.
Bruno had to hurry to his office, cursing the traffic and the parking, and while he wasn’t late for his first appointment, he wasn’t early enough to go over all of his notes the way he liked to. He spent the entire day feeling like he was playing catch-up after that, and although he was good at shutting out distractions to give clients his whole attention, Clarice filled his thoughts again at every opportunity.
He kept remembering the way she laughed, how animated she got when she forgot to be shy. She was so complicated, Bruno thought, and he would never tire of peeling her layers away, and at the same time, she was refreshingly genuine. He could always tell when someone was being deceitful, whether with him or with themselves. Clarice had a level of purity that Bruno hadn’t expected, like he could see straight into the beautiful, bright core of her.
It was intoxicating.
And it was distracting. Bruno was nearly late to an appointment because he was stirring his coffee and wondering if he remembered how to make love to a woman when his alarm went off. He startled, splashed himself with coffee, and then had to make do with damp pants while he guided a widow through frustrations with her neighbor that were really more of an emotional deflection of her real grief and feelings of helplessness.
He was glad to send his last client of the morning outthe door with a gentle reminder to do the journaling that he thought would be helpful for her and rush to get Gil from kindergarten to Tiny Paws.
21
CLARICE
Clarice was not surprised to be the first to the office on Monday. Veronica often dragged in after lunch following a weekend, if she came in at all when it was this slow.
She was very surprised when Veronica came in just after noon with take-out…and she’d ordered for Clarice, too.
“Oh, you didn’t have to—” Clarice protested, when Veronica cheerfully put the bag on her desk.
“Ramen from the new noodle place down the street. They are very authentic!” Veronica said. “I got mild, I wasn’t sure how spicy you’d want it.”
“Mild is great,” Clarice said. The cup smelled amazing. She’d already eaten most of her bagged lunch, but she wasn’t going to turn down fresh ramen. “What do I owe you?”
“Oh, nothing, of course!” Veronica said breezily.
Clarice told herself that her immediate suspicion was misplaced. There was nothing to indicate that Veronica was being anything but kind. Certainly, Clarice hadwitnessed her streaks of generosity before. She was just rarely at the receiving end of them, and she tried to convince herself that it had nothing to do with her date with Bruno. Veronica still didn’t know that Bruno was associated with Tiny Paws, did she?
But she’d known his last name.
Clarice unpacked the soup, thoughtfully packed in two containers so that the hot broth didn’t make the noodles soggy, and poured one into the other. “Oh, this is delicious,” she said with no need for exaggeration.
Veronica took a seat next to her and watched her eat, to Clarice’s increasing discomfort. Ramen was hard enough to eat gracefully without someone staring at her, and there was no way not to slurp.
