June: Why?
Mae: Is he married?
June: lol no, why?
Mae: He admitted to coming into the shop purely to flirt with me.
June: LOL. How did you respond to that?
Mae: I told him I needed to talk to you to confirm.
June: AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA
June: Not once in the history of Cooper have I heard of a woman skeptically flirt with him. HA!
June: Don’t misunderstand me. He’s not some playboy, but I don’t think a woman has ever turned him down.
Mae: But I didn’t turn him down… I wanted to think about it. But also he didn’t directly ask me out.
June: Fair enough, but are you opposed to the flirting?
I stare at the text. I like June a lot, but we don’t know each other that well. It’s not like I want to give her my life’s story over text. Then again, she’s my only friend here.
June: I get off work in about an hour. I’ll meet you at the Crawford property with a bottle of wine. I have a feeling you need it.
Mae: That sounds great. I’ll make dinner.
June: Deal
Chapter 12
Mae
Istirthesoupas a knock echoes through the house.
Walking through the dining room to the front door, I peek through the window and find June standing there with a bottle of wine in her hand.
Flipping the lock, I open the door. “Hey.”
June smiles. “Hey girly, I don’t think I’ve met a single person in this town who locks their door.”
I shrug, leading her into the kitchen. “Force of habit, I guess.”
“Fair enough. Where’s your corkscrew? Let's get this baby open,” she says.
I’m still learning where everything is in the kitchen, so it takes me a second to find it. When I do, I hand over the corkscrew and check the soup.
“What did ya’ make?” June asks, looking over my shoulder.
“It’s called pasta e fagoli, an old Italian family recipe, one of my favorites.”
“Smells awesome. Wine glasses?”
I open a few more cabinets and find them at the top of the shelf. Being so short, I hoist myself onto the counter to pull them down.
June fills each one more than halfway and hands me a glass. I take a long pull and sigh.
“So I’m not one for small talk. Spill. But also, please remember Cooper is family, so please, I beg of you. Keep the details minimal.”
