“You sure know a lot about his schedule and eating habits.”
“And you sure care a lot about the delivery of this cake. Are you okay?” She crosses her arms, raising her eyebrow.
“Again—I’m making conversation.”
“Again—you’re making conversation about stuff you never cared about before.” She reaches out, placing her hand on my forehead. “You ain’t got a fever, do you?”
“Not funny.” I roll my eyes, pulling away from her touch.
She laughs, shrugging. “I’ll just have to get the cake to him next weekend. He’ll understand. He ain’t all fussy about sentimental stuff like you are.”
“I amnotfussy about sentimental stuff.”
“Okay—you just don’t like folks to feel forgotten because you’re anxiously attached or whatever your therapist used to say. I know…I know.”
I roll my eyes. “Please don’t make it sound like I need another grippy sock vacation with DePelchin.”
She pulls her readers from her face and chews on one of the tips. “I wonder if…nah, nevermind. I gotta go back out to Manvel. I can’t be late for the first clean. It’s abiggghouse sitting on about thirty acres of land. Can you imagine living on thirty acres?”
“Right…the mysterious Manvel client that lives outside of your fifteen-mile radius.”
“They’re not mysterious. I met them at New Bethel’s Fall Festival, and they’re paying a nice chunk of change for me to clean their place. You know I don’t like turning down good money.”
I snort out a low laugh. “True, but what do you always tell me? All money ain’t good money?”
“Well, this, my Lovebug, isgoodmoney. It’s worth the long drive.” She sighs, sitting her readers on the counter. “So what you and Terrica got planned tonight?”
“Me and Terrica?”
“Yeah, it’s Saturday. You know you usually run out of here on Saturdays for her…or AJ. And since you and AJ are…” She hunches her shoulders up. “On a break. I figured you’d be with T tonight.”
I swallow a gulp of the bleach-filled air, looking away from her hard stare. “Yeah, I’m…I’m supposed to meet her so we can go see Meechie’s new apartment.”
“New apartment? What’s she moving for? Hazel told me she just moved a few months ago.”
I shrug, pulling the mop out of the bucket, flopping it onto the floor. “You know Meechie. She can’t sit still.”
That mucky feeling skips up my spine and settles on my back while Rich’s deep voice tickles my ears, teasing me about telling lies just to see him again. I glance at Aunt Faye out of the corner of my eye, smiling at her phone again.
“You know me and T can bring it, right?” I blurt.
She looks up. “Bring what?”
“The cake. I can walk over to Copeland’s from T’s and pick it up, and we can drop it off to him on our way to Meechie’s. You don’t even have to bring me to T’s shop on your way to Manvel. I have money. I can Uber there from here.”
She raises her eyebrow. “You andTerrica?”
“Yeah, she says she knows Rich.”
She eyes me up and down from my busted Nikes to the black headband keeping my curls from my face. “Yeahhh, I don’t know about that. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Her tone is just as loaded as it is when she talks about me and AJ because Terrica’s history with guys from the Bottoms is just as sordid as ours.
I gulp in another deep breath and blurt, “Is it because Rich sells drugs like the other guys you and Uncle Kenny tried to help?”
“Drugs?” Aunt Faye yelps.
It was probably a stupid thing to ask, but AJ always said that I could be a stupid girl sometimes—especially when I was curious about life outside of him.
