Next Time

by Alexander, Robin

  “What’ve you been doing?”

  “Working,” Ryann said with a sigh. “The high side is, I’ve got some really engaging students this year. One of my classes has really gotten into political debates. I see more future Democrats than I do Republicans. Have you written any new songs lately?”

  “I started working on something new to me.” Payton sat up a little straighter. “A movie. It’s not Disney or Pixar, but the company is moving up in the animation industry fast. I’m actually singing two of my songs on the soundtrack for them.”

  Ryann looked taken aback. “I guess I didn’t realize that you sang—I mean in a real voice, not the one you used that night in the bar.”

  “I don’t normally. I recorded the two tracks they requested so they could hear them, and the producer felt like my voice captured the character more than the vocalist they hired. I’m headed to Broadway next.”

  “Seriously?”

  Payton laughed derisively. “I wish.”

  “That ball was in!” Steffie the Squirrel yelled.

  “Honey,” Payton called out with a smile. “Stuff the squirrel back into the cage.”

  Lydia put up a thumb and whirled around ready for the next serve.

  Ryann sucked her teeth. “You’re gonna dump her, aren’t you?”

  “Just as fast as I can get her to the pound. The really sad thing is she’s a lot of fun. We have a good time when it’s just me and her, but she’s got a whole pack of animals…inside her.”

  “So you’ll get right back out there.”

  Payton shook her head. “No, I think I’m going to need some therapy before I’m brave enough to venture into the wild again.”

  “It’s a scary place, the wild. I guess now we can add rabies to the host of sexually transmitted diseases out there,” Ryann said with a grin. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be joking like that at Lydia’s expense.”

  “She would think that comment was hilarious. Don’t sweat it,” Payton said with a laugh.

  Ryann’s phone had been chirping since she sat down. She pulled it out of her pocket and sighed. “I hate group texts. My nine-month-old niece spit baby food all over her father, and my sister sent the video to me, my mother, and other two sisters. Now they’re all trading stories.”

  “How many siblings do you have?”

  “Three sisters and three brothers.”

  “Seven children?” Payton practically shouted.

  Ryann laughed. “You would’ve sounded like Maria in The Sound of Music if you would’ve said that with a British accent. Our neighbor used to refer to us as the ‘Family Von Trapp’ when I was kid. If Mom knew how to sew, she would’ve certainly made clothes for us out of the drapes. As we started to grow up and go off to college, she and Dad would say, ‘One out, and handful more to go.’” Ryann smiled and ran a hand through her hair. “That was a big joke because it nearly killed them to see us leave home.” She narrowed her eyes. “Then they moved to Tennessee, so that whole separation anxiety thing may’ve been an act. How many siblings do you have?”

  Payton returned her attention to the game. “Just a brother. Our parents died when I was eight and he was three.”

  “Oh, Payton, I’m so sorry.”

  “Thank you. They were coming back from a weekend trip, and there was an accident on the Causeway Bridge that made everyone come to a quick stop. The semi behind my parents’ car was unable to. My uncle and his wife raised us. It’s kind of awkward between us now. My uncle and mom were very close, and when he sees me, he gets all teary-eyed even after all the time that has passed. He says I look just like her, and I can’t stand to see him like that, so I don’t visit them as often as I should.”

  They fell into an awkward silence as Payton wondered why she’d just blurted all of that out. It was odd to her that she felt she could tell a relative stranger just about anything. Then again, maybe that was just it; sometimes it felt safer to purge one’s soul to someone unfamiliar. Suddenly, it made sense why so many poured out their innermost thoughts to a bartender. Well that, and the booze.

  Payton inhaled sharply. “So how many nieces and nephews do you have?”

  Furrows had formed in Ryann’s brow when Payton finally faced her. She cleared her throat, and her lips moved as she silently counted. “Fourteen, so that’s…ten girls, four boys—wait, eleven girls, I forgot to add Anya, so fifteen.”

  “Wow, your siblings have basically doubled the herd. And what about you?”

  Ryann made a face. “I am reminded every time I step into a classroom why I don’t want to venture down that road. Last school year, I watched two fourteen-year-old girls entertain themselves by sticking their fingers into their armpits and forcing the other to smell them.”

  Payton blinked rapidly. “Ew.”

  “Uh-huh.” Ryann grabbed a covered tray sitting in the middle of the table beside them and pulled it close. “Want a pickle?” she asked as she peeked under the foil.

  “Not after what you just told me.”

  “I have much grosser tales if you’d like to hear them.”

  Payton pretended to shudder. “I’ll take your word for it. You know what I just realized? We both have unisex names.”

  Ryann regarded her with a look of amusement. “That was random.”

  “My brain works that way.”

  “My name is really Ryanna, but my siblings called me Ryann, and it stuck.”

  Payton shrugged. “I have no idea why my parents chose my name. My brother calls me Paypay.”

  Melanie laughed and hugged Jana when the volleyball bounced off her forehead. Ryann watched them with a warm smile. “You know, I knew that Melanie and Jana hit it off the night they met in person, but I’m still surprised at how fast they’ve completely fallen for each other. It’s sweet, like a fairytale.”

  “Yeah,” Payton said, and Ryann picked up on the derision in her tone.

  “You miss having your best friend all to yourself, don’t you?”

  Payton nodded. “It’s wrong to wish your bestie happiness, then be jealous when she finds it. She used to have trouble sleeping, and she’d show up at my place in the middle of the night with decadent treats. We’d eat and talk for hours. I’ve lost six pounds since she’s been with Melanie. You’ve lost weight, too, not that you had any to spare. Tell me you’re not dieting.”

  Ryann’s expression looked tense for a moment. “I…always drop a few pounds at the beginning of a school year and gain it all back during the holidays.”

  “I imagine it’s stressful, so many kids thrust into your life all at once. You’re probably the teacher they come to when they have problems that aren’t exactly academic,” Payton said as she studied Ryann’s face.

  “I take a few under my wing. It’s easy to spot the ones that have no home life. Sadly, the number always seems to be growing. There are times that I really want to hug them, but that’s so dangerous these days. We aren’t supposed to touch them, discipline, or talk to them very much on a personal level, but we’re expected to raise them in place of their parents. So, yeah, it’s stressful and a lot of times heartbreaking.”

  “Your job is one of many I couldn’t do, but I’m thankful there are people who can. I couldn’t work in the medical field because I’d be an emotional basket case. Same thing for animal shelters.” Payton smiled wryly. “I’m better off in my soundproof room where I write things that make people chuckle and children have fun while learning.”

  “We all need laughter and music just as much as food or water.”

  Payton pointed at Ryann with a grin. “I’m gonna use that on my website.”

  “Glad to be of assistance,” Ryann said with a bow of her head.

  Ryann wasn’t like she was the night they met, Payton noted. She smiled and joked, but there was something in her eyes. Like she held a secret that she wanted to divulge but didn’t know whether she should. “Maybe I’m imagining things, but you seem to have the world on your shoulders today.”

  For a second, R
yann looked as though she wanted to say something, then simply smiled and said, “You’re pretty observant.”

  Payton was determined to press, but the game ended, and Lydia joined them and let the squirrel out.

  *******

  Melanie hugged Leigh and Ryann tightly. She hung on to Leigh as she said, “We’re gonna do this again very soon. I’ll give you advance warning, and I want you to be here. I really miss y’all.”

  Payton was edging her way to the door, too, when Ryann turned suddenly and gave her a quick hug. “It was good seeing you again, Payton. I hope to see you at the next get-together.”

  “You too. Until next time,” Payton said lamely as she noticed Leigh staring at them. If Leigh had the ability to shoot actual daggers from her eyes, Payton was certain a dozen of them would’ve been in her forehead. She lingered as the couple made their way out the door, unwilling to be outside in the dark with someone who obviously wanted to kill her.

  Jana looked at her with concern. “Hey, why don’t you bunk here tonight?”

  “The only thing I had to drink was a beer around three o’clock, I’m fine, just tired. And you forget that I still have to take Lydia home.”

  “Where is she?” Jana looked around.

  Payton sighed and stared up at the ceiling. “She’s gathering acorns in your front yard. She says she likes the big ones.”

  Jana clamped her lips together tightly to keep from laughing. “They haven’t begun to fall yet.”

  “She’s rooting beneath the hedge. Apparently, she found another squirrel’s stash from last year.”

  Jana covered her mouth with both hands. “Oh, Payton.”

  “Yeah,” Payton said with a sigh and noticed that Melanie hadn’t waited around to give her a hug like she had the rest of the guests. “Call me this week if you’re not busy, we’ll go grab a pizza or something.”

  “Okay.” Jana wrapped Payton in her arms, and her body shook with silent laughter.

  Chapter 4

  “Okay, wait, I have questions,” Olivia said. “What was it like seeing each other again?”

  “Painful,” Payton said as she stared into space. “That was a day of reckoning for me. She affected me the night we met, but she was in a relationship, and I respected that. I did my best to push her from my mind and go on, but that day…” Payton craned her head back and looked at the ceiling. “God, she looked so beautiful. I just wanted to be the one she left with, and it was so hard to see her go with Leigh. It made me ache, and after that day, I really lost the desire to get back into the dating world.”

  “Disconcerting is the word I’d use,” Ryann said as she ran her finger across Payton’s cheek. “I was dealing with so many different emotions while I was preparing to end my relationship with Leigh, but when we got Melanie’s invitation, I can’t deny, my heart skipped a beat. I knew Payton would be there. I wanted to see her, and at the same time, I didn’t because the interest I tried to ignore made me feel guilty.”

  Olivia made a note on her paper. “And Leigh didn’t know what you were contemplating at this time?”

  Ryann shook her head and looked away. “We barely saw each other, and we didn’t talk. She was maintaining the same work schedule, and that made it easy for me to be complacent. The only reason she took time off work for that party was because Melanie begged her. We were done, it just wasn’t official yet.” She drummed her fingers on the table. “I hate to admit that I was waiting for Leigh to come home and say it was over. I don’t know why it was so hard for me to take that step. It was just so sad to me to be the one to close the book on eight years. Some part of me was waiting for her to give me one shred to hold on to. Walking away was so scary.”

  *******

  ******

  ***

  Payton took a break from work and went outside to collect her mail. She could hear the scrape of doggie nails on the pavement as Trevor shot down the sidewalk toward her. She knelt with a smile and petted the excited Jack Russell terrier.

  “Dirt on the muzzle, you’ve been digging again. Are you helping your momma in the garden?”

  “What he’s been doing isn’t what I’d describe as help.” Grace Harrison stood on the other side of the picket fence dividing their property with her hands on her broad hips. A straw hat covered her white hair, and her pink T-shirt was splattered with dirt. She brushed at it as she glared at her dog. “I’d make a rug out of his hide if it’d cover more than six inches of floor.”

  “She doesn’t mean that, Trevor,” Payton whispered with a smile as she stood and wiped sweat already forming on her brow. “What’re you doing out here midday, Grace? It’s way too hot even for October.”

  “Janet had to make a business trip, Sophie’s staying with me. She’s got one of those videogame things, and the noise gets on my nerves. I have her restricted to two hours of play per day, and right now is that time. I haven’t seen you lately, where’ve you been?”

  “I’ve been working on a few projects.” Payton moved closer to the fence. “I’m totally stumped by a hypochondriac hippo.”

  Grace shook a finger at Payton. “Good, I’m glad that’s finally being addressed with children. Nowadays, we’re all too quick to run to pills to cure our ills.”

  “Good rhyme, can I use it?”

  Grace held her head high. “Absolutely. Back in the day, people were tougher, they just rode the sickness out.”

  “They died a lot younger, too.”

  Grace was thoughtful for a moment. “You may have a point. Hey, you’re looking puny. I’m going to teach Sophie how to make a casserole for dinner. I’ll have her run you a plate over.”

  “Don’t go to any extra trouble for me. Jana’s supposed to come by this evening, and we’ll probably go get a pizza.”

  “Then eat the casserole for lunch tomorrow.”

  Payton nodded as her stomach turned. Grace was a horrible cook. She paired things that didn’t belong together like her chicken asparagus pot pie or her okra berry cobbler. Payton felt guilty about throwing out Grace’s creations, then lying about eating them because her neighbor treated her like gold.

  If not for Grace, her yard would’ve been a barren landscape of grass and cement driveway. Grace constantly rooted things and planted them in Payton’s yard. In the spring and summer, her place looked like something out of a gardening magazine. When Jana wasn’t available and Payton needed to talk, she’d join Grace in the shade for a cup of coffee and grandmotherly advice.

  “You know…if you don’t want to go to the trouble of making dinner tonight, I could pick up a pizza for you and Sophie. That’s gourmet fare for a teen.”

  Grace waved her off. “That child eats too much of that crap at home. At Grandma’s house, she gets her vegetables. How’re your bowel movements? Are they regular?”

  “Grace, you know I love you, but let’s not talk crap.”

  “Speaking of, how’s your love life?” Grace batted her lashes when Payton frowned at her.

  “That’s a coffee chat. I’ll come see you when Sophie goes back home.”

  “Will you cry in your coffee or make me blush?”

  “Neither. I need to get my mail and get back to work.” Payton started to back away from the fence.

  “Hey, I rooted a crepe myrtle for you. I think it would look great next to the birdbath over there. I have some herbs for you, too. They’ll keep you regular, especially if you’re eating pizza all the time, and I know you are. I’ve seen the boxes in your trash can. You need to stop drinking so much soda,” Grace shouted as Payton jogged to her mailbox.

  *******

  “Why is it when people cross the threshold of seventy, they become obsessed with shitting?”

  Jana regarded her slice of pizza with a frown. “Grace got after you again?”

  “Yes, she’s apparently growing herbs now. What I find even more alarming is how at length she wants to discuss consistency and—”

  “No.” Jana shook her head. “Just…no.”

  �
��Sorry.”

  Jana regarded Payton for a moment. “What’s up with you? You’re kinda sullen.”

  “Distracted with work, I suppose.”

  “No, I know distracted. Your eyes glaze over, and you kind of nod and mouth the words of a song you hear in your head. This,” Jana waved her hand in front of Payton’s face, “is glum.”

  Payton shrugged. “I dunno.”

  “Are you constipated?” Jana asked with a grin.

  “None of your business, Grace Junior.” Payton toyed with the crust of her pizza. “Be honest with me. Melanie doesn’t like me, does she?”

  “Of course, she does.” Jana smiled. “I don’t think she likes sharing me very much. Isn’t that cute?”

  Payton frowned. “No, it’s not. Right now, you’re in that goofy new love stage where everything she does is adorable. You don’t even realize that she’s slowly lowering a cage down on you. I’ll bet she cut a backflip when you asked her to move in with you. By the way, you haven’t said anything about that.”

  “She said no. Well…not exactly. She’s got a while left on her lease. We talked about it a long time, and she basically stays at my place anyway, so we’re doing this trial thing. If we continue to cohabitate peacefully, she’ll move in with me when the lease is up. Besides, she paid a big deposit, and she wants it back. Now let’s get back to you. Something’s up, I can tell. I know you better than anyone on this earth. I know you in the biblical sense.”

  Payton’s brow rose. “Does she know about that?”

  “Oh, dear God, no. Don’t you ever let that slip in conversation.”

  “Oh, yes, that could happen so easily.” Payton turned in her seat and began talking as though someone was sitting beside her. “That reminds me of the time in college when Jana and I drank a pitcher of margaritas and had sex on her kitchen floor. It was then I learned that she has a birthmark at the top of her thigh, and she has deplorable housekeeping skills. I found a fry stuck in the crack of my ass.”