by Laina Turner
“Thanks for the ride.”
“No problem. The City aims to serve.”
I smiled. “Hey, do you know when we might be able to reopen the store? I’m not sure what will happen to it. I guess that’s now up to James, but I have some belongings there, as do some of the other girls. I know they will wonder what is happening, especially if we need to find new jobs.”
“Probably tomorrow afternoon or the next day. I’ll call and let you know when you and the store are all clear.”
“Great. Thanks.”
“Have a good night, Presley.”
“You too, Willie.”
Chapter 3
I can’t believe you didn’t call me last night. How could you hold out on me and not tell me all of this right away? I can’t believe you! And what the hell are you wearing?”
I was being peppered with questions. Too many questions for this early, especially when I hadn’t yet had a full cup of coffee. I wasn’t very coherent until after the first cup, not even completely coherent until the third.
“Oh, please. It’s not like you were waiting up for me to call, so don’t try to make me feel guilty. Besides, you told me you were going to bed early, so I didn’t want to wake you. You wouldn’t have answered the phone, and if you had, you would be such a grouch today no one would want to be around you. I didn’t call you for your own good.”
I had called my best girlfriend, Anna, first thing this morning to meet me for coffee before work—hers not mine, as mine was obviously closed until further notice—so I could catch her up on the night’s events. I knew she would be annoyed that I hadn’t called her the minute I had gotten home, though she wouldn’t have answered. She always left her phone in her purse at night and didn’t take it to bed with her like I did. Bad habit, but since I didn’t have a home phone, I worried about how someone would contact me in the middle of the night in case of an emergency. Therefore, I now had an additional bad habit of checking Facebook at that time. I would get so enthralled with what everything my Facebook friends were doing, I would be up for a couple hours, and it was wreaking havoc on my sleep. I wasn’t the only one, and wouldn’t be surprised if someone soon launched a twelve-step program for Facebook addicts. Maybe that would be a good business start-up if the boutique didn’t reopen.
We were at the Starbucks around the corner from her office, just a few blocks walk from my condo. It was packed with people needing a caffeine boost before work, people like me, who were zombie-like until they got caffeine in their system. Luckily it was sunny, because there was a line of people out the door. If it were rainy and snowy weather, there would still be a line out the door—and yes, I’d be one of those crazy people waiting in it. I couldn’t imagine how much money this Starbucks raked in every morning; made me wish I was wealthy enough to be a stockholder.
We ordered our coffee, venti skinny cinnamon dolce latte for me and venti Americano for her, with a couple of biscotti to munch on. We then stood chatting until we noticed a man getting up from a small table in the corner by the window, which was our favorite seat. It meant we could stare at the people walking by outside without it being obvious we were doing so. We sat down before he even had a chance to walk away, I think scaring him a little bit, but you had to be fast or lose out. Seats at this location were coveted.
“I was too tired last night. It was after one in the morning when I finished at the police station, and then Detective Landon had to take me back to my car so I could get home. I haven’t showered or even tried to get ready for the day yet.” When I woke up—if you could even call it that because I tossed and turned all night, oh yeah, and checked Facebook—I was exhausted. So I was wearing black yoga pants and an old white T-shirt with a menswear olive green cardigan over it. I knew it would be chilly at Starbucks in the air conditioning, and this was the closest thing to grab, when I was running out the door. I had no intention of doing anything but having coffee with Anna, so I didn’t really care who saw me at Starbucks.
As always, Anna looked beautiful in a white tank dress with red shrug, red heels, and red accessories. With her light blonde hair and bright blue eyes, she looked stunning. All the men walking into Starbucks on the way to order their coffee surreptitiously glanced at her. She was oblivious to their attention, as she was fiercely loyal, to a fault in my opinion, to her boyfriend Jeff.
I was jealous of her ability to wear white; she was the type of girl who could stay clean all day long and look as great at the end of the day as at the beginning. That wasn’t me. I would have spilled something on my white dress already, probably before I had even left the house. That’s why most of my wardrobe tended to be dark. Less pressure to stay spill free.
“Willie? You’re on a first name basis already with a bona fide detective?” Anna teased. “Is he cute? Please tell me he’s cute.”
“What kind of question is that? You know I’m not in the market for a guy right now. Plus, he is investigating the murder of my boss. Not boyfriend material.”
“You should be. At least go out and have fun. You can’t stay single forever. But I don’t mean you have to marry the guy, just go out and have fun. Let loose and be a little crazy.”
“You’re the crazy one, not me. I’m boring. I like to stay home and drink wine, not go out and dance on the tables.”
“You’re not boring. Besides, you know what I mean. You don’t need to be alone all the time. Now tell me already, is this guy cute? You’re blushing. You do think he’s cute. What does he look like, how big is his gun?”
“Okay, yes he is cute. Not at all what you would think of for a cop, and stop with the double entendres.”
“What do you mean?” Anna asked. “What makes him not cop- like?”
“Well, for one thing, he actually styles his hair. With product and everything. He’s also very metrosexual, which for a cop just doesn’t seem to fit, at least in my own perception of how a cop should look. Then when we were talking he rolled up his sleeves, and he has full sleeves of tattoos on both arms. I admit it was sexy and totally not anything I would have expected. I just don’t expect cops to be stylish, which I realize is probably narrow-minded. I know I probably sound horrible, but it seemed so out of character.”
“You have a crush!” Anna singsonged.
“Hardly,” I said dryly. “Besides, I’m sure he hasn’t thought about me. He is off trying to catch the killer of my boss, not pick up girls.”
“Presley, I’m sorry. Here I was babbling on and on about the cute cop and haven’t even asked you about your traumatic experience, I guess because it seems so unreal. How are you holding up?” she said with genuine concern.
That’s what I loved about Anna. She was a caring person, even if once in a while she got off track about what she really was supposed to care about. “I’m okay. It seems so surreal, I’m having a hard time letting it sink in that I don’t have to go to work today or tomorrow or who knows when, and it’s because Solange is dead. I keep expecting her to call and tell me that I didn’t straighten the store out well enough, or I need to come in and help process the shipment. I mean, why would anyone want to kill her? She wasn’t the nicest person around, but hell, who isn’t a bitch sometimes? She didn’t deserve this. Part of me wonders what would’ve happened if I hadn’t left. Or if I’d come back a few minutes earlier.” I shuddered to even think about the possibilities.
“Don’t ever say that. It’s scary. You just never know what might happen. What are you going to do, I mean for work? Will the boutique stay open?”
“Not right this minute. It’s closed during the investigation. Technically, I guess the business goes to James, Solange’s husband. I know that was one of the things they kept fighting about, the money from the boutique, I mean. I doubt he wants to actually run it, and I can’t imagine why he would possibly want to. I’m not sure what is going to happen. I figured I would wait until next week, and if I haven’t heard anything, I’ll call James and ask. I hate to do that. It seems so morbid somehow, but
if I need to find another job I’d like to know sooner rather than later.”
My debt was bad enough as it was. A couple of weeks with no work and no paycheck…I didn’t want to think about it. Not only would my shopping days be over, but so would my condo payment and utility bill, and that wasn’t good.
“I wish I could take today off and hang out with you to keep you company. I hate to think of you being alone after such a horrible night, but I have this huge presentation that I can’t miss. This could be my big break.” Anna was a junior marketing director at a big branding firm in Chicago, and she was vying for a promotion to senior director. She had recently been given the sole responsibility for a big project that could make or break her career. She had been working really hard at getting noticed, and it was finally paying off.
I was touched by her concern. “Not a big deal, Anna, really. I don’t feel traumatized, at least not right now. Like I said, it just doesn’t even seem real. Besides, I need to call the other employees and then maybe try to take a nap. I didn’t get much sleep last night. Every time I closed my eyes, I just kept picturing Solange hanging. Even then it seemed like a nightmare, not something that really happened. I keep waiting for it to sink in.”
“I can’t imagine having to see that. I would be an absolute wreck. I am so sorry for you.”
“I told Willie, I mean Detective Landon, that I would do that for him. Call the other employees to let them know what was going on and tell them they needed to call him so he could get information from them.”
“Doing his work for him? You are sweet on him.”
“Stop!” I was getting embarrassed because she wasn’t that far wrong. I thought he was very attractive and completely datable. I just wasn’t ready for dating yet, or was I? I was so confused. “What’s going on with Jeff? You haven’t said one word about him.” Jeff was Anna’s on-again-off-again boyfriend. I thought I would try to distract her with redirecting the conversation, and it usually worked. She loved to complain about Jeff.
“He’s such an asshole,” she said vehemently.
And I was right. I took a deep breath. “What did he do this time?” It was always something with those two.
“I’m sure he’s cheating.”
“That’s what you said last time, and it turned out that he was having lunch with his sister. Didn’t that teach you a lesson not to jump to conclusions? Do you have concrete proof?”
“Why are you jumping to his defense? You don’t even like him.”
“I never said I didn’t like him, just that I don’t like the way he treats you sometimes, but you still have to give him a fair chance.” Okay, so I didn’t really like him, but as Anna’s friend, I tolerated him. I didn’t think he was nearly good enough for her.
“This time I’m not jumping to conclusions. It’s not just my instinct this time. He put a lock on his phone. People don’t put locks on their phones unless they have something to hide.”
“So, that doesn’t mean he is cheating. Just ask him why.”
“I can’t do that. Then he will know I’ve tried to look at his phone.”
“Anna, you’re nuts. This is a vicious cycle you two are involved in. If you don’t trust him, dump him. It’s not worth your aggravation.”
“But I love him and deep down feel he’s the right person for me.”
“Anna, you’re nuts.”
“I think you mentioned that already,” she said dryly. “I get it, I’m nuts. I’m nuts for a guy who doesn’t always treat me the best.”
“Well, let’s be real. You don’t trust him, and you seem to fight a lot. He has cheated before, which is why you don’t trust him now. I just find it difficult to understand how if you don’t trust him, why it’s worth it to you to try and make it work. Why do you keep going back and forth?”
“I already told you, I love him.”
“But aren’t you tired of all the drama?”
“Yeah, but I keep hoping it will get better. Because when it’s good, it’s really good. It’s just really bad when it’s bad, but the good has been outweighing the bad lately. I mean it, I’m not looking at this with rose-colored glasses.”
“Is it good enough to put yourself through this over and over?”
“Yes,” Anna said without hesitation. “I know you don’t agree, but he is a good guy and most of the time good for me. He just has an issue with commitment.”
“Of course I don’t believe it. He doesn’t want to commit and he has cheated on you. I want you to be happy and will support whatever you do. I just hate seeing you get hurt by anyone, and it seems like he is always hurting you. But I’m not going to hound you, I will stand by you no matter what, you know that.”
“Yeah, well, everyone makes mistakes. Now enough about me, back to you, because this is much more interesting,” Anna said and then sipped her coffee. “Are you sure you’re okay? You’re not going to be traumatized with all this. I know you’ve been involved with murders before, but this is much more personal. This detective Willie, are you going to ask him out?”
“Anna! I told you he’s not looking for a date. He’s doing his job.”
“What? This isn’t the 1950s. You don’t have to wait for the guy to make the first move.”
“I know that, and you know me. I don’t normally have an issue asking a guy out, especially when it’s on a get to know you level, but this is different. We have a professional relationship, and he is investigating the murder of my boss. I don’t think asking him out would be appropriate. I think I might feel weird.”
“So just wait until all this is over and then ask him out. Then all the professional stuff will be out of the way.”
“That’s true, I could. Let’s stop talking about it, could we please? I’m more concerned about him catching the killer than going on a date. That’s the priority here.”
“Of course you feel that way. You never put enough importance on your love life, but in this case I have to agree with you. I will try to refrain from hounding you. Are you afraid to go back in the store? Does your detective think the killer might come back?”
“I’m not afraid to go back into the store, at least I wasn’t until you just mentioned it. But maybe I should be. Willie didn’t say I should be worried, but then he hasn’t said I shouldn’t be either. Like I said earlier, it hasn’t really sunk in yet. I would prefer to be busy, as I feel at a loss not having anything else to do.”
“You should have brought some of your writing to work on after I left.”
“True, but I’m so tired. I really hope I can go back to bed for awhile.” Taking a mid-afternoon nap would be a perk of being at home. Kids didn’t know how good they had it being able to have naptime.
Anna looked at her watch. “Crap. It’s late. I need to run.” She gathered her stuff and slung her red purse over her shoulder. “Wish me luck on my presentation.”
“Good luck!”
“Call me later.”
“Will do. Bye, Anna.” I almost felt jealous that she had something she was jazzed about at work, and I didn’t have anything I was passionate about to go to everyday. Guess I just needed to stop worrying so much about it and think about what was truly going to make me happy.
Chapter 4
I still had some of my latte left when Anna left, so I decided to just sit and drink it and continue to people watch. It was a rare occurrence when I could just sit without a place to rush off to. It felt really weird to essentially be unemployed again, or even worse than unemployed, because I didn’t know what my next step was. If the store didn’t open back up, I wasn’t sure what to do. I didn’t have a backup plan, which didn’t bother me as much as it probably should have. I had an In Style magazine in my bag. I tried to always carry a magazine or book with me in case I had a free moment,. I also had a notepad in my bag in case I got the sudden inspiration to write. So I pulled out In Style and thought one benefit of not having a job was I could leisurely hang out at Starbucks and read my magazine. If only it paid, it w
ould be a great gig.
My phone rang, and I saw a Chicago number I didn’t recognize. Maybe one of the girls from the boutique was calling me from a different number that wasn’t programmed into my phone. I had only been able to get ahold of one of the three: Steph, luckily the one who was supposed to work today. The rest I had to leave messages to call me ASAP without sounding frantic. I was sure they had already heard, since it was all over the local media. But I was somewhat surprised they hadn’t called me already, so maybe I was wrong and they didn’t watch the eleven o’clock news.
“Hello?” I said tentatively. I hated answering the phone when I didn’t know who it was. It usually ended up being someone I didn’t want to talk to, usually a sales person.
“Presley?”
“Yes, this is she.”
“Hi. It’s Willie.”
“Oh, hi.” I felt myself blush. I think I might kind of like this guy if this was how I was going to react to him calling. I got a little flirty realizing it was him. “I didn’t recognize your voice.” As much as I had been thinking about him, I should have.
He chuckled. “That’s okay, we haven’t known each other long, although it somewhat seems like it.”
My sentiments exactly, last night on the ride home I felt we really connected. “Did you need something?” I asked and then immediately regretted it. I had just made it sound like he was putting me out even though I was happy, surprisingly so, that he was calling me. “Not that you need to have a reason. I just assumed you did. That you wouldn’t just call for nothing, I mean.” That was worse. I’d be better off not saying anything. I always babbled when I got nervous.
He laughed again. Great, now he was laughing at me.
“I called to tell you that you were in the clear, officially that is. Like I said last night, I didn’t think you were a real suspect, but I had to follow procedure. I did the follow-up legwork early this morning and can officially extend the “all clear.”
