Heart to Heart

by Layce Gardner

  The first bingo was called out. It was Edna. Mabel stiffened in her seat.

  Clara put a hand on Mable’s shoulder, hissing, “Behave yourself.”

  The calling continued and Amy was now bopping her own cards. After a few minutes, she tugged on Millie’s sleeve and whispered, “I think I’ve got one. I think I have a bingo.”

  Both Millie and Clara leaned over and looked at her cards. Millie grabbed Amy’s hand and held it high in the air, calling out, “We’ve got a bingo!”

  Jeb came over and checked it out. He chuckled. “Looks like the newbie just got her feet wet. It’s a bingo!”

  Mabel stood on her chair and shimmied in Edna’s direction, saying, “Take that!” Clara grabbed her by the cape and forced her back down into her chair.

  The game continued until all teams had been eliminated except the superheroes team and Edna’s quilter team. Jeb announced that the final showdown would commence after a fifteen-minute intermission.

  ***

  Parker and the rest came over. “Wow, aren’t you the hotshot! Your very own bingo,” Parker said. She kissed Amy on the cheek and handed her a cup of punch.

  “Beginner’s luck,” Amy said.

  Steph and Rosa appeared at her shoulder, holding cookies and punch. Rosa said, “It’s a good thing I’m here. If you all win, you might need police protection.” She nodded in the direction of the quilters’ team. Edna had them in a huddle and it looked like she was stirring them up.

  It was then that Amy noticed it was all women in the tournament. How had she not noticed that before?

  “It’s all women here,” Amy said.

  Parker explained, “Well, you see, it was decided about three years ago that they should separate the men from the women. Now there are two separate but equal tournaments.”

  “Why?” Amy asked.

  “Because they say women play bingo differently than men.”

  Amy knitted her brows. “In what way?”

  “Do you remember the Billie Jean King tennis thing?”

  “I’ve read about it,” Amy said.

  “It’s like that,” Parker said.

  “Like what?” Amy didn’t understand.

  Rosa leaned in and whispered, “We don’t talk about it.”

  “Don’t talk about what?”

  “It’s stranger than fiction. I wish Fannie Flagg would write a book about it,” Steph said.

  “Maybe Amy should,” Rosa said.

  “I’m strictly journalism. Novelists are amazing. They make stuff up. I only write about what’s already there,” Amy said.

  “Maybe I should tweet Fannie Flagg and tell her,” Steph said.

  Susan and Tess came over. Their hands were filled with cookies. “We couldn’t manage the punch,” Tess said. She dealt the cookies out like she was a Las Vegas blackjack dealer.

  “Thanks,” Steph said. “All this bingo excitement is making me hungry. Speaking of which, I need to have a word with Amy, alone.”

  Rosa smiled like a cat—knowing, but not telling.

  “Okay…” Amy said.

  Jeb rang the five-minute warning bell.

  Steph pulled Amy aside. “Look, I know about your hot date with Parker tomorrow night. I want to cater it. So lemon chicken or rosemary chicken and couscous or mashed potatoes, French bread or rolls?”

  Amy was overwhelmed. “I like anything. It all sounds good. Fix for Parker’s tastes. Are you going to be there cooking?”

  Steph shook her head. “I’ll deliver it and then, poof! I’m gone.”

  “Places!” Jeb called out. “Everyone take your places!”

  “Good luck,” the girls called out. Parker gave Amy one last kiss before heading back to her seat.

  ***

  Amy went back to her table. Millie leaned over and asked, “You ready?”

  “As I’ll ever be,” Amy said, picking up her dauber and looking determined.

  “Let’s kick ass, ladies,” Mabel said.

  Clara frowned at her.

  “I meant it figuratively, of course,” Mabel amended.

  “It better have been figuratively. I am not bailing you out of jail again.” Clara said.

  “I still had to spend the night,” Mabel said.

  “I had to teach you a lesson,” Clara said.

  Jeb called out, “Ladies, we will begin. First call, G-5.”

  Their daubers stamped to the beat of Jeb’s calls. Amy could feel adrenaline coursing through her veins. Then, suddenly, it happened—the unbelievable, the one in a million chance—the four of them called out bingo simultaneously.

  “Bingo, bingo, bingo, bingo!” Mabel chanted as she danced an honest-to-god jig.

  Millie checked Amy’s card. “Bingo,” she called out. “And a bingo for me.”

  “And me, bingo,” Clara said.

  Edna was on her feet immediately. “That’s not possible. They cheated!” she screamed. She looked like a cartoon character who had steam coming out of its ears.

  Luke snapped a series of photos, flashes popping.

  “Now, Edna,” Jeb said, stepping toward her. “Let’s check this out before you get your business in a wad.”

  Edna scrunched up her face and put her fists on her wide hips. But at least she stopped yelling.

  Jeb walked over to Amy’s table. Each woman dutifully handed her card over. Jeb checked them out one by one. The room was silent, awaiting his verdict. He looked up and smiled broadly. “Everything checks out. The winners are the superheroes,” Jeb said.

  Mabel, never being a gracious winner, jumped up on the table. She held her hands over her head in a victory pose and sashayed down the table, leaving scattered cards in her wake. Luke snapped photo after photo and the crowd went wild, shouting and stamping their feet.

  Suddenly, Mabel’s victory dance took a turn for the worse… Mabel tripped over her Green Lantern cape and fell off the end of the table, landing on her face.

  The room went quiet. After several silent beats, Edna’s loud laugh rang out.

  That sent everybody running to Mabel who was still lying prone on the floor. Clara quickly squatted down next to Mabel and turned her limp body onto her back. “Mabel? Honey, you okay? Mabel?”

  Mabel slowly opened her eyes and blinked.

  Clara breathed, “Thank god. You’re alive.”

  “I’m neverth wearing this fuckingth costume ever again,” Mabel hoarsely whispered.

  “She gets fined twenty-five dollars for using profanity,” Edna said, jabbing a finger at Mabel’s prone form.

  “Fuck off, horsey-faceth,” Mabel said, sitting up.

  “Fifty! That’s fifty,” Edna said, dancing around the fallen Mabel like a little Chihuahua eying a treat.

  Rosa stepped in and blocked Edna. She took Edna by the shoulders and pushed her away from Mabel and the crowd, ordering, “Let’s go outside. You need some fresh air.” Parker joined Rosa, and together they herded Edna out the nearest exit.

  Clara craned her neck, looking around. “Susan? Dr. Susan? Help, somebody, get a doctor over here! I think she’s had a stroke!”

  Susan appeared, pushing her way through the crowd. She knelt over Mable and looked into each of her eyes. “How do you feel?” she asked.

  “I’mth mad as hellth,” Mabel lisped.

  Clara said, “See, she’s lisping. I think she’s had a stroke.”

  “Smile for me,” Susan ordered.

  Mabel grinned. The crowd gasped. Mable was missing one of her front teeth.

  “What’sth wrongth?” Mabel lisped.

  “You’re missing a tooth,” Susan said.

  Mable spat her dentures into the palm of her hand and looked at the plate. “Dammit! You know how much these teeth cost me?” She popped her dentures back in her mouth, jumped to her feet and said, “Whereth is that horsey-faceth? I’m gonna killth her!”

  Clara intervened. “Oh no, you’re not. Sit down.”

  “She needs to go to the hospital and be checked for a concussion,”
Susan said.

  The crowd began to disperse, people gathering up their things, heading out the door, gossiping about the latest turn of events.

  “I thinkth I swallowed my tooth,” Mabel groused.

  “That, too, shall pass,” Susan said with a smile.

  “Ha ha,” Mable grumped.

  “C’mon, I’m driving you to the hospital,” Clara said.

  “I’ll go after the partyth.”

  “What party?” Amy asked.

  “The victoryth party,” Mabel said.

  At that moment, there was an ear-piercing scream from outside. It sounded like a primal shriek.

  Amy headed for the exit door. In all the commotion, she had lost sight of Parker. She was worried that something had happened to her. She ran outside and found Parker and Rosa trying to calm Edna down. Edna was having none of it. She hopped up and down, screaming obscenities.

  Clara, Mabel, and the rest of the gang were close on Amy’s heels. They stopped, forming a ring around Edna.

  “What’s wrong with her?” Amy asked, raising her voice over Edna’s screams.

  Edna caught sight of Mabel and lunged at her, yelling, “You did this!”

  Mabel quickly hid behind Clara’s bulk. “Proveth it!” she taunted. “Proveth it!”

  Edna lunged again. It was only then that Amy noticed something that looked like chocolate pudding was smeared on both her hands.

  “What’s on her hands?” Amy asked Millie who had appeared by her side.

  “Well, I don’t think it’s pudding,” Millie said.

  Edna finally caught Mabel and wiped her hands on her Green Lantern costume. “There!” Edna shouted. “Now we both have dog poop on us!”

  With that, Edna raised her pointy chin in the air and stalked away.

  Mabel looked down at the brown streaks smeared across her chest. “Canth I get a new costumeth now?”

  Clara, Millie, and Amy gathered around Mabel. They were joined by Parker and the rest of the gang. The looky-loos took that as the cue that the fight was over and began to amble away.

  “What did you do?” Amy asked Mabel. She rationalized her curiosity by remembering she was being paid to report the news.

  Mabel shrugged and said with a mischievous glint in her eye, “Somebody mayth or mayth not have smeared something brown on the door handle of her Buick.”

  “Oh my god. You really put dog poop on her car?” Amy asked.

  Mabel laughed. “Who said it was dog poop?”

  Chapter Twenty

  Amy looked in the mirror for the hundredth time in the past hour. She had changed her clothes about as many times. She didn’t like the outfit she had on now. Studying the clothes she’d thrown on the bed, she didn’t see any more options. She bit her lip and sighed. She wanted to look nice, but not dressed like she was going to a ball. She also didn’t want to dress too casually and make it look like she didn’t care. She needed something in between.

  There was a light rap on the bedroom door. “Can I come in?” Millie asked.

  “Sure,” Amy said as she morosely stared into the full-length mirror. She knew that whatever she wore, Parker would think she was beautiful. Amy knew she really wasn’t beautiful, but to see yourself in the eyes of your beloved is to see the beauty of your own essence.

  Amy just wished she had the clothes to capture that essence.

  Millie entered and looked at the heap on the bed. “Wardrobe issues?”

  “You could say that,” Amy said. “I want to look nice, but not formal…”

  “And sexy but not slutty,” Millie finished for her.

  “Something like that.”

  “How about this—go to the kitchen and pour yourself a nice glass of iced tea and I’ll pick out your outfit,” Millie said.

  What could it hurt, Amy thought. She went to the kitchen, poured a glass of iced tea, and opened her laptop. She wanted to see if Jeb had gotten back to her on the story she’d written about the Bingo-a-thon. She’d spent part of last night and this morning working out the piece and she wanted his take on it. She still had the afternoon to work on his suggestions. There were five hours and twenty-three minutes and four seconds before her date with Parker—not that she was counting.

  She opened her email and found a response from Jeb: ROTFLMAO.

  That was a good sign. She emailed him back. “Any corrections?”

  He emailed back immediately. “Nope, other than one misplaced comma. I’ll fix that on this end. You’re going to be famous by tomorrow. Great job. I owe you lunch.”

  That brought a smile to her face. “I’ll hold you to that,” she wrote back. She could hardly wait to see her byline in the Sunday edition.

  Millie came out of the bedroom holding an outfit. It was a light blue shirt, a pair of white pants, and sandals. “Well, what do you think?” Millie asked.

  “It’s perfect. Why didn’t I come up with that?”

  “Because your head is in the clouds,” Millie said. She sneaked a peek at Amy’s computer screen, asking, “Did you hear back from Jeb?”

  “Yep, he loved it,” Amy said. “The story will be in the tomorrow’s paper.”

  Millie did a fist pump. “I can’t wait for Mabel to read it. You’ll have a friend for life. I did think that you gave Edna a fair shake considering her behavior.”

  “I was trying to be objective,” Amy said.

  ***

  Parker knocked on her door at six sharp.

  “I like your outfit,” Parker said, opening the car door for her.

  “Thank you. You’re not so bad yourself,” Amy said. Actually she thought Parker looked ravishing. She was wearing a pair of khakis, sandals, and a sage green linen shirt. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail. It never ceased to amaze Amy that someone as good looking as Parker had any interest in her.

  Parker got in the driver’s seat and looked over at her. “What’re you thinking about so hard?”

  “I’m going to plead the Fifth on that one,” Amy said coyly.

  Parker raised one eyebrow and started the car. Millie waved goodbye to them from the front door. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” she called out as they drove away.

  The summer air was warm as they drove across town. Parker reached over and took her hand. She raised it to her lips and kissed it. Neither of them spoke. Parker put in a CD. It was Rita Coolidge. Amy eased back into the seat and relaxed into the strains of Your Love Has Lifted Me Higher.

  They passed by Brookside and Amy recalled her mother telling her how she’d fallen in love with her father. It sounded so wonderful. Amy told herself that this was her own chance at finding happiness—hopefully without the heartache that had fallen on her mother later. She wished her mother goodnight and hoped she’d find peace in sleep. Amy closed her eyes letting the music pour over her. She, too, was trying to find peace.

  When Amy opened her eyes, she saw that they were outside the city limits and circling the lake. The water was shimmering with the last light of the day.

  “I always forget how beautiful the lake is at dusk,” Amy said.

  “Not nearly as beautiful as you,” Parker said.

  “You’re just buttering me up,” Amy said.

  “For what, I might ask?” Parker said.

  “Um…”

  “Pleading the Fifth on that one, too?”

  “Yes,” Amy said. “I am definitely doing that.”

  Parker parked the car and opened Amy’s door. They went into the house and Amy smiled at what she saw.

  The table was set with candles, crystal glasses, and fancy silverware on top of a white linen tablecloth with napkins. There was a bottle of champagne in a silver bucket of ice.

  “Wow,” Amy said. “This is amazing.”

  Parker smiled, evidently delighted that Amy was impressed. “Shall we have a drink on the deck?”

  “I’d love that.”

  Parker picked up the champagne and began to open it. “I hope you like champagne.”

  “I
love it. No one has ever treated me so special.” Amy’s eyes glistened and she willed herself not to cry.

  Parker expertly popped the cork and poured. She handed Amy a flute of champagne. Parker raised her glass and toasted, “To us.”

  “To us,” Amy echoed, tapping her glass gently against Parker’s. They each took a sip.

  Parker led Amy out to the deck. They stood against the railing, facing the setting sun, and watched the clouds catch the last of the evening light. Pastel pinks and oranges washed the clouds.

  “Breathtaking,” Amy said. “You live in an amazing place.” She inhaled deeply and shook her head in wonder.

  “I’ve been fortunate,” Parker said. “Except in the finding-a-soulmate department.”

  “There is that,” Amy said.

  “But I have a feeling my luck is about to change,” Parker said.

  Amy didn’t know what to say, so she said nothing. Parker looked over at her and studied her face.

  “What’re you thinking?” Amy asked.

  “That I’d like to take you to bed right now,” Parker answered plainly.

  Amy set her glass down on the railing and said, “What’re you waiting for?”

  ***

  Parker led Amy to the bedroom. She opened the curtains. The moonlight glimmered through the windows, causing shadows to dance sensuously about the room.

  Parker walked up to Amy and stroked her cheek. She ran one delicate finger down her arm and traced her way up Amy’s stomach, ribs, and back to her neck, her ear. Amy stood still, sensing that Parker wanted to take her time and make this moment, each moment, count fully. She watched Parker’s eyes linger on every part of her body.

  Amy shivered deliciously under the warm gaze.

  Parker slowly undid the buttons on Amy’s blouse, one by one, taking her time.

  Amy closed her eyes as Parker opened Amy’s blouse and slipped it from her shoulders. She felt Parker’s warm breath on her neck. Then her lips. Parker kissed her way up and down Amy’s neck, while her fingers expertly unclasped Amy’s bra. It fell to floor as Parker’s lips lingered on her collar bone, gently nipping, sucking, kissing.