Things feel different between us today, like a change in the weather. (The actual weather is holding steady at sauna levels of heat and humidity.) He really showed up for me last night. Maybe some people wouldn’t find it comforting to make a mini incident board while their grandmother is in jail, but playing detective was exactly the distraction I needed.
His head is bent, asking his grandfather something. Now he’s looking up, and around—it’s not a huge stretch to think he’s searching for me—and there it is. He’s spotted me.
My mouth is already lifting at the corners when I register his expression. It’s notOh goodie, I found Virginia!Felix looks tense. I point my chin at the empty seat beside me; he runs a finger under his nose, pointing at the doorway.
What am I supposed to do, fake a bathroom emergency? Also, what if we miss something important? He widens his eyes at me, already backing out of the room.
“I think Felix wants a word,” Mrs. A whispers. I could kiss her for the assist. It’s enough to make me overlook the excited shoulder dance she’s doing.
“I’ll be right back,” I tell her, hightailing it out of there.
As I follow Felix down the hall that leads to the lobby, I hear someone question Grandma Lainey about whether the coffee at the station tasted “authentically burnt.”
They could be at this for a while.
“Is your grandpa okay?” I ask Felix, thinking maybe they got bad news at the doctor’s office.
He blinks at me like I’m speaking a foreign language. “Oh, yeah. For now. We don’t actually know for sure.”
“But that’s not what you wanted to tell me,” I cleverly deduce.
He shakes his head, gesturing at the person waiting by the doors. “Sofia and I need to talk to you.”
“Oh.” Maybe he was just being friendly last night. Or he didn’t think he had a shot with a beautiful older woman until somewhere between Castle Claude and the medical plaza, sparks flew—
“Hey,” Sofia says, friendly as ever. “Okay, so this might sound weird.”
“No, I get it.” The heart wants what it wants.
Felix gives me a funny look. “You know what Claude’s sister has been up to?”
“I’m cool with weird things in general. That’s what I meant.” The twirly fingers really sell it. I focus on Sofia. “You were saying?”
“Bernie booked some rides with my sister Carmen. I don’t think she realized we were related, you know? We’re kind of invisible, like a bus driver.”
I nod, though my closest experience to this was working the snack bar at the pool last summer. Nobody pays attentionto the person who serves their soft pretzels. They just want their cheese sauce, stat.
“Anyway, we were looking at the calendar and I saw her name and I was like, ‘Hey, do you know who that is?’ And once I got going of course she remembered the whole story about the will, because that was a major day for all of us. Then Carmen was like, ‘Huh.’ And I’m like, ‘Yes?’ It’s super annoying when she does that, like we’re all going to stand there for five minutes until she finishes her thought process.”
I know exactly what Sofia means.
“Sorry, sidebar. After that Carmen goes, ‘She must be like one of those people who are always crashing weddings and bat mitzvahs, only her thing is wills and funerals.’ Because it turns out she spent the whole day after the reading of Claude’s will at this big law firm—and guess what they specialize in?”
To my relief, she doesn’t actually expect me to hypothesize.
“Estate planning,” Sofia finishes with a flourish.
It takes me a few seconds to catch up. “So… she’s writing her will?” Maybe she had to change it after Bradley died. That’s sad, even for someone low-key horrible like Bernie.
“Tell her the rest,” Felix prompts.
“Carmen said she came out of that place looking really happy. And a couple guys in fancy suits were with her, shaking hands and acting all full of themselves.”
Felix snorts at that. “They were lawyers, is what you’re saying.”
“That’s not all.” Sofia locks eyes with me. “She’s gone to see like four different psychiatrists in the last couple of days.”
Once again, I’m confounded.
