Abigail straightened.“Wait.I thought everyone was all right and no one got hurt in that raid.”
“She is.They didn’t.And just to say, Hutch and I had a very short, his part grunted bickering session about this because he couldn’t believe I thought I’d done the wrong thing calling him first.He’d ended it by saying, ‘Always put the mask on yourself before aiding others,’ then he walked away.And I don’t even know what that shit means.”
“Have you not been on an airplane?”she asked curiously.
With that, it struck me.
You can’t help someone else if you were passing out from lack of oxygen.
“You know,” I returned to bapping, doing it this time irritably, “sometimes it’s the worst when he gets all wise and stuff.”
“Oh, I do know.Brett and I have an unspoken agreement that he’ll take his win silently and move along.”
Finally, something made me smile.
“But you get to rub it in,” I guessed.
“Naturally,” she said.“Now, how are we pricing these puppies?”
I told her.She wrote out the tags.I finished entering them in inventory.Then we wandered around to figure out how to display them at their best.
After we accomplished that, she turned to me and said, “I love you.But I’m going to Aromacobana to get us some coffees because you look like you’ve slept about two hours in the last week.”
She wasn’t telling me something I didn’t know.I freaked when I saw my tired eyes and drawn face in the mirror that morning.
Still.
“Thanks,” I said saucily.
“That’s code for, get some sleep tonight.It’s also code for, I’m using you so I can get a salted caramel cookie.Last, that’s code for, if you pass out, I don’t want to be the one to have to explain to Hutch Hutchison I let you faint on my watch.”
And finally, something made me laugh.
It was then, Abigail and me bickered about who was going to pay.
I won.
I didn’t rub it in.
But when she was about to open the door, I called, “Honestly, do you think he’s falling in love with me?”
See?
There was that infernal hope.
She turned her head my way and replied, “Honestly, I think you’re so wound up in worrying about being hurt again, not to mention worrying about him worrying about the same, you aren’t seeing what’s right in front of you.No judge.If I had your history, I’d be the same.That doesn’t mean you don’t need to wake up, Mabel.”She smiled.“Because once you get through this uncertainty part that every couple goes through, that’s when you get to the good stuff.”
With that, the bell over the door rang when she opened it, and she headed to Aromacobana.
She returned, and not ten minutes later, Lillian and Nadia came in to see if I was okay.
We had a fun chat, and I got some cuddle time with Cicely.
By the way, the Chanel and Louis Vuitton bags were gone by the end of the day.
THIRTY
Whole Wheat Spaghetti
