Careful What You Kiss For

by Jane Lynne Daniels

  “Okay.” Kate was close to drawing blood from her lower lip, as hard as she was biting it.

  “Remember the ‘Problem Solvers Club’ we cofounded in grade school?”

  The ghost of a smile. “Yes.”

  “This is just a bigger problem.” Tensley rolled her eyes. “All right, much bigger. Same principle, though.”

  “Bigger than the kid who kept farting in class and making us nauseous?”

  “Yes. Bigger. But we did solve that one.”

  “You’re right. We did. Except then we had another one to solve. He thought we had crushes on him because we brought him peanut butter sandwiches every day.”

  “He never figured out the crunchy part of the sandwich was Beano tablets.” Tensley sighed. “I wonder what he ended up doing in life. Something alone. Has to be.”

  Kate’s smile became a touch bigger. “I heard he’s a dentist now.”

  “No.” Tensley began to laugh. It felt good. “Can you imagine him asking patients if they want gas during their appointments?”

  “And they think he means the other kind.” Both women snickered.

  “Some dental assistant has to be sneaking him Beano now. Otherwise, it would be hazardous working conditions.” Tensley wiped the corners of her eyes. “So, fine. The ‘Problem Solvers Club’ is back in business.”

  “Guess so. Lead on, Tensley Theron Tanner-Starbrook.”

  “You had to go there.” Tensley rolled her eyes toward the ceiling. “You don’t remember we’ve been friends all these years, but you remember my middle name.” She couldn’t have a nice normal middle name, since she’d already been saddled with Tensley, which made people wrinkle their noses and ask how to spell it. No. It had to be Theron. Parents should be required to get a license before naming their children.

  Kate’s smile was genuine. “I did. I had to go there.”

  In spite of the head injury she must have suffered from landing at the bottom of the rabbit hole, Tensley smiled, too. “Apology accepted.” Then she locked her fingers together, moving into urgent project mode. “We need a ‘to do’ list. Now.”

  “I’ll get the paper and pen.” Kate followed Tensley out of the door. “While you tell me what happened when you saw Max again.”

  Tensley pulled up short, nearly causing the two women to collide. “That’s what I’d like to know.”

  • • •

  The first item on the ‘to do’ list, of course, was to go see Madame Claire. But that would have to wait until the next morning. It was nearly eight P.M. by the time they’d caught up on the little that was known about Tensley’s current bizarre life, settled the animals, and left the vet clinic.

  Tensley had been tempted to leave Gemini there for the night, but his furious yowl was a clear protest and she was too tired to argue. Kate had offered to let them stay at her house, but Tensley had declined. Her brain felt so full, she wasn’t sure how long she could continue to hold her head upright. On the other hand, if she tipped it to one side or the other, valuable information about her real life, like her address and phone number, might spill out. She couldn’t afford to lose them by jamming in more information about a life where she was a stripper, with a boyfriend named Razor.

  “Thank you. Really. Thank you,” she said to Kate in the parking lot. “I’d love to stay with you, but I’d keep you up all night, asking questions.” She paused. “And to be completely honest, I’m not sure I could handle the answers right now.”

  “Here’s my address and phone number.” Kate put a piece of paper into Tensley’s hand. “If you change your mind, call me. Otherwise, I’ll meet you at Madame Claire’s first thing in the morning.”

  “Yes.” The relief Tensley felt stretched the one syllable into several. Once everything had returned to normal, she wouldn’t need to think about anything else. Including the squirming cat in her arms, who would become somebody else’s problem. “See you tomorrow.”

  “Tomorrow.” Kate hesitated. “I’m so, you know. I mean … ”

  Tensley threw her arms around her friend, folding her in a hug. “We’ll figure it out.”

  “I know,” came the answer in her ear. “But I’m still sorry.”

  “So you’ll owe me. Big time.” Releasing her friend, Tensley walked toward the Ford Taurus. The closer she came to it, the more the cool, crisp night air seemed to have a calming effect on her. Or maybe it was the chant she had assumed to block the thoughts that threatened to derail her. Step. Breathe in. Step. Breathe out.

  Gemini shot her an exasperated look.

  “Go with it,” she told him.

  She unlocked the car. Gemini scrambled onto the passenger seat, tail thrashing against the vinyl, and glared at his faux owner. He’d apparently missed the soothing chant part of the agenda. “Relax,” she commanded as she fit the key in the ignition.

  He didn’t. She could feel his eyes burning holes into the side of her head as she backed the car out of the parking place, gave Kate a wave, and began a less frenzied drive than the one she’d undertaken several hours before.

  By the time she parked in front of the apartment and got out of the car, the events of the day had drained her so much, her legs wobbled and wiggled as she walked and it took a few minutes for her to locate her key and remember how to turn it in the lock. Gemini, for once, remained perfectly still.

  When she opened the door, the cat shot from her arms and disappeared in a flash of fur. Tensley wouldn’t have blamed him, she decided, if he’d gone back to his hiding spot on top of the kitchen cabinet. But then he wasn’t the only one who had had a rough day. She wondered if that spot was big enough for her, too.

  Speaking of rough … She turned to lock the apartment door from the inside and then grabbed a chair, dragging it across the hardwood floor to prop it beneath the knob. Razor Burns wouldn’t be walking in here as he pleased tonight. She gave the chair one more push to make sure it was tight up against the door and walked down the hallway, her legs no more steady than they had been a few minutes earlier.

  Tensley dropped onto the comfy couch, resting her head against its back and dropping her purse next to her. Now if she could just empty her mind. No. Not empty. Just draw a curtain over it so that she didn’t have to think, feel, or do anything until Madame Claire’s shop opened in the morning. Once the psychic had put everything back, Tensley would be in her regular, blessedly normal life. With every problem she couldn’t wait to have again. Because they wouldn’t be these problems.

  She closed her eyes, wondering if she would remember any of this once Madame Claire had undone the damage. Would she know that her dance moves could put men into full drool mode? Would she still clench her fist at the sound of Rhonda Reardon’s name?

  On second thought, she would do fine never remembering either one of those things. Instead, she’d gulp her pride and beg her mother for her job back. She’d consider herself lucky to have escaped a close call with someone like Bryan and she’d be more cautious next time. A woman did not need to have a man in her life to be happy.

  Although, maybe, just maybe … she’d look up Max, now that she knew where to find him. She felt her mouth begin to curve in a smile as she thought of seeing Max again as herself, her real self. She’d wear her red silk dress. Or she’d first go to the gym for a month or two and then she’d buy a new dress. No more paying for a gym membership every month, while slapping the alarm off to go back to sleep every morning.

  She’d be a new person. Or a new … old? … person.

  Her head ached. Just get through tonight and it will be all over. Her fingers fumbled for the “to-do” list she’d left on the table next to her. Her cell vibrated. Tensley opened her eyes and pulled the phone out of her purse, staring at the display. Private number, it said.

  The phone stopped. Then started again. It could be anyone on the other end. She pushed the button and ventured a hello.

  “Tensley.”

  Her stomach dropped five stories. Oh God. It was him. “Yes?” Her v
oice cracked.

  “It’s Max.”

  I know I know I know I know. “Hi.”

  “You know when I said we needed to talk?”

  I haven’t forgotten a single word you said. “I remember.”

  “Can you meet me tonight, Ten?” His voice was low, urgent.

  She didn’t hesitate. “Of course.”

  “Just you and me.”

  “S- Sure.” The fact that her heart had leaped into her throat made it hard to breathe, let alone talk.

  Max gave an address on the other side of town. Tensley grabbed the pen and paper and scribbled it down. His promise to see her in half an hour reached through the phone to caress her every nerve ending until her cheeks flushed with anticipation and she had to stand just to get her equilibrium back.

  She was seeing Max again.

  This was so not a good idea.

  CHAPTER NINE

  The Taurus groaned to a stop in a parking place right in front of the address Max had given Tensley. It was a restaurant, with the appetizing name of “Sol’s Good Eats.”

  The “n” was burned out of its neon “Open” sign. Sol’s was, the sign announced in pink ringed by purple, “Ope”.

  Tensley turned off the ignition and sank against the headrest. Here she was, leaping straight back to high school at the sound of Max’s voice over the phone, at the chance to see him again so soon. She’d thought she’d gotten over him years ago. But no. That would be something people who actually knew how to move on would do.

  Now that she let herself think about it, she’d probably been comparing every man she’d dated since high school to Max. This one hadn’t ever read Hemingway and didn’t even mind. That one’s smile was a too perfect. Another one laughed at the right pitch, but too loud. Still another would brush the side of her face with his hand, but never make it up to her ear lobe, even though she’d practically get her head in a horizontal position, hoping he would.

  Damn it, Max. All your fault.

  A man with scraggly hair and hands shoved deep into his jacket slowed his step long enough to peer inside her car. She glared a warning and he kept moving. What she really wanted to do was get out, toss him the keys and tell him to take off with the car.

  People who drove a car like this were married, drove their kids to music lessons, knew what colors to paint the walls in their houses and what to cook for dinner.

  People who drove a car like this didn’t date good looking men with the attention span of a flea, work in the family business because it was easier than not working in the family business, and keep hoping no one would find the huge, gaping hole inside her where a real person should be.

  Next thing she knew, Dr. Drew would show up. Why not. What better reality show than Tensley, the only woman to screw up not just her life, but also her second chance.

  Scraggly man was back. He ventured closer this time, bending down to look at her. Tensley flipped on the ignition and laid on the horn, hoping to frighten him away. He shook his head and kept walking.

  She stared at her fingers, resting on the steering wheel. Minus her customary large, sparkling rings, they looked like someone else’s hands. Bare. And vulnerable.

  Then again, they were someone else’s hands. A felon’s.

  To hell with it. Tensley got out of the car, slamming the door hard on her thoughts. So she’d see Max for a few minutes. Tomorrow, she’d be back at Madame Claire’s and back to her life. And she’d get some new mental Tupperware to put him in. With a better seal.

  She tried throwing open the door to “Sol’s Good Eats” for dramatic effect, but the doorknob was greasy and it took her three tries to make it work. As soon as it did and she stepped inside, she grabbed a paper napkin from the table, her nostrils constricting at the smell of onions and coffee.

  The welcome mat and the checked curtains were in need of a wash. Stuffing poked out of the red barstool seats at the counter, leaving vinyl edges that looked as though they could shred the butt of the toughest pair of jeans. Two customers sitting a few stools apart, denim butts still intact, sat hunched over their plates of food. One glanced up at Tensley, but then went back to his French fries, drowning one in a puddle of ketchup before shoving it in his mouth.

  No greeting. No wait staff. A sign by the door that said “Please seat yourself.”

  She looked around the place. Also no sign of Max.

  A twenty-something woman bounded out of the door to the kitchen, giggling at the man behind her, who was wiping his hands on a stained white apron.

  The woman pulled up short at the sight of Tensley. “Hey. Sit anywhere you want. I’ll be with you in a sec.” She tossed a smile over her shoulder at the cook, who grunted and turned away.

  “I was supposed to meet someone — ” Before Tensley could finish, the woman had disappeared again.

  If this was Max’s idea of a joke, she was going to kill him. She told herself to leave, but the message didn’t make it all the way to her feet, which stayed rooted to the mat. Then she saw a man lean out of a booth in a back corner. Max. He beckoned to her.

  Go, she told herself. Stay. No, go.

  This time, she managed to take a step back toward the door. He tipped his head, questioning.

  Stay.

  Her heart, traitor that it was, had sped up at just the sight of him and heat flooded through her until she felt as though her crotch must be glowing its own neon “Ope” sign.

  The waitress swung through the kitchen door, a glass carafe in her hand, following Tensley to the booth. “Coffee?” the woman asked as Tensley slid onto the dark red leather seat opposite Max.

  “Please.” Vodka would be better, but she doubted it was on the menu at Sol’s.

  The waitress turned over a cup and splashed dark liquid into it. “Something to eat?”

  Max lifted a forkful of scrambled eggs to his mouth. He’d sprinkled them liberally with pepper, Tensley noted, but there wouldn’t be any salt on them. He didn’t like salt. Damn. She didn’t want to remember little things like that. Butterflies took off inside her, bumping against her rib cage. “I’m good with coffee,” she managed to say.

  The waitress refilled Max’s cup of coffee. “How’re your eggs?” she asked him, hip thrust in his direction. “They okay?”

  “They’re fine. Thanks,” he said, never taking his eyes off Tensley.

  The woman bounced away, sneakers screeching. She’d been gone less than a minute when the giggling began again.

  Tensley took a sip of her coffee while her heart engaged in a full-out battle with her head. Her head won, but barely. “So what’s up?” She averted her eyes, mentally talking the butterflies down, mid-flutter.

  “How well do you know Gary?”

  “I don’t. Please tell me that’s not what you wanted to talk about.”

  He didn’t answer. After the silence had stretched over several seconds, she looked back at him. He was gazing through the window, his jaw working, as though trying to decide what to say next.

  When he turned back and his deep blue eyes locked on her, the butterflies took off in a panic. She leaned forward, knocking the coffee cup with her hand and splashing hot liquid onto her skin.

  “Here.” He grabbed a napkin and her hand, blotting the coffee. “Did it burn you?”

  Her skin tingled at his touch. She shook her head.

  “It’s red — ”

  “I am never going back to that place.”

  Max’s chin lifted. “Fired?”

  As if. She bristled. Tensley Tanner-Starbrook had never been fired from anything in her life. “No. I wasn’t fired.” Wait. Had she been?

  “You can go back then.”

  She wasn’t so sure she liked Cop Max, who seemed to have a single-minded focus. “Why should I? So you can watch?” Narrowing her eyes, she folded her arms in front of her. If he ever saw her naked again, and he should be so lucky, it was going to be on her terms.

  The butterflies, no longer needed, flew an escape route.

>   He dipped his head, staring at his coffee. When he raised his eyes, his half-lidded gaze washed over her. “Because I need your help.”

  A dish crashed to the floor somewhere in the vicinity of the kitchen, followed by the raised voices of the waitress and the cook, one accusing, the other defensive. A barstool squeaked as a customer left. The door banged shut.

  And Max needed her help.

  Her cup had a hairline crack that had turned brown. She ran a finger along it, thinking. “I don’t understand.” She wanted to, though.

  “Gary’s a bad dude.”

  She looked up. “Tell me something I don’t know.”

  “I can’t tell you much until you agree to help.”

  “And you’re saying that to help you, I would have to go back to Gary’s Gorgeous Grecians.” Just saying the name made her want to vomit.

  He nodded, his eyes never leaving hers.

  “I can’t.”

  “That’s hard to believe.”

  He had no idea what she’d just been through. Anger flashed through her. “I haven’t even seen you for years, Max. All of a sudden, you show up at that — place. And then at my apartment and now you have me come here, just so you can ask for a favor. How exactly does that give you the right to not believe me? You don’t even know me anymore.” Ow. Really. Ow. This conversation wasn’t going well.

  “You’re right.”

  Of course she was. But she didn’t know what to do about it, maybe because it occurred so rarely. A half-snort escaped before she could catch it.

  Neither of them spoke for a few minutes.

  Then Max’s fingers covered hers. He dropped his voice to barely above a rumble. “I’ve been working on building a case against Gary, and whoever he’s working with, for months. But I’ve hit a wall. I need someone on the inside who can help me put the pieces together so I can nail this guy.”

  The butterflies were back, their wings banging against her ribs at the touch of Max’s warm, strong fingers on her skin. “So let me be sure I understand.” she paused to clear her throat. “Are you trying to say you want me to be that person on the inside?”