“Just here for a visit, Darlene.” I spot my brother rolling his eyes. “How have you been?”
“Not too bad. My girls are all grown up now, sixteen and seventeen. ‘Bout the same age you left us, ain’t that right?”
My mom coughs awkwardly, and Annie continues coloring, none the wiser.
“About then, that’s right.”
“Well, good thing Carter Corbin ain’t around. Otherwise, I’m sure you turning up alone would cause a stir.”
“I’m sure me turning up without him here does that enough, Darlene. Nice to see you again.”
In other words. Fuck right off.
I hope she doesn’t spit in my milkshake.
When the food comes, we’ve moved past the awkwardness. But the twinge in my chest reminds me of why I don’t visit often. And if I do, why I don’t come into town.
The jingle of the bell rings out, and I hear Darlene using her sickly-sweet voice to anyone she deems attractive. Some things never change.
“It seems you’re not alone after all, Mia. You always did have a thing for older men, didn’t you?”
She shifts to the right, a smug look on her face, as Alfie Adams comes into view.
My pulse trips, and I look to my family to double-check they’re seeing this too and I’m not just hallucinating him.
His face is stern, almost heated as he holds my gaze a little longer. Then everything softens, his teeth unclench, his jaw slackens, even his eyes seem to warm up. Is it seeing me? Or seeing me look so shit?
“Mia.”
“Alfie.”
“Annie!” my niece calls out, lifting her head from her coloring. “That’s my name.”
The neon light of the diner logo mounted onto the wall illuminates his features in a soft lavender hue. It perfectlydichotomized the frown and concern etched across his face. I almost want to smile. Seeing him is a relief in some ways and a heavy ache in another. He’s come here for me; there’s no doubt about it. And despite Annie’s babbling and youthful ignorance, my brother and my mom sit and wait for me to do something.
“You wanna order something?” Darlene eventually says.
Alfie doesn’t move. He simply waits a beat and then says, “I’ll take what she’s having,” before sliding into the booth opposite me.
The red leather booths are built for six. But Annie and I took up one side; my mom, my huge-ass brother and Alfie the other. There is something quite odd seeing the two burly men jostling for elbow space.
“We should go and let y’all talk things out,” my mom starts, indicating for everyone to shuffle back out of the booth.
“Nope.” I hold my hand up to stop her wiggling. “We’re gonna eat our dinner and then we’re gonna go back to the house where I’ll talk to Alfie in private. We’re not doing this out in the open.”
Not for everyone to see and hear. The whole town knows far too much about me as it is. I didn’t need anyone talking about why my boss had to fly all the way from Seattle just to get a word out of me.
Awkward conversation and pleasantries resume. It isn’t like my family hasn’t met Alfie before. They visited Seattle a year or so ago, and when I last came to visit, Alfie had come to visit Austin and Olivia and had picked me up from the house on the way through. Back then, my mom thought something was going on between us.Why would a boss drive nearly three hours out of his way to pick up his staff member, Mia?
But now my mom was certain, you could see the concern on her face. Narrowed eyes, pursed lips. She thinks Alfie’s hurt me, or rejected me in some way, and I suppose she’s not wrong. It’sjust not quite what she thinks it is. Given my history with men, and ones in a position of power at that, it’s not unbelievable that she would be extra cautious of Alfie.
Luckily for him, he can’t see beyond the checkered shirt-covered chest of Levi, who is providing protection to Alfie without even realizing. His eyes are stuck crooning over the four-year-old to my right, who was showing him a godawful drawing of a tiger. He’s talking to her and admiring it like it’s a damn Picasso. He even hands it to Alfie to admire, which of course he does.
“Fantastic lines here. You have an excellent grasp on proportions,” he says in all seriousness.
Levi looks at him like he’d just complimentedhim.Then he pulls the piece of paper back and holds it flat against the surface of the table.
“We’ll keep this one, Annie, what do you think? Should we frame it?”
