Page 51 of Flying
This move is accepted by Stef who shrugs knowing nothing about gardens while Nessa is defiant as always. “Don’t deflect Lily Jayne, it’s beyond transparent what you are doing right now.”
Motherfucker, I grumble to myself.
“We know nothing more than he came back with a bigger crush than ever, which having watched that boy pine for you from afar while you dated shitheads, is saying something. He knows you have to come back for Stef, he has Gemma & Alice fixing up the cottage he’s left blank for two years so you can live someplace without being near your folks. The two of you clearly have fucked by now,” she pauses, glaring, hoping to use her therapist tricks to make me admit it or something.
“Lil, you spent the week together but he’s been tight lipped to us. Which, frankly, after we helped keep tabs on you to him during those early years is an insult. We are going to get the dirt from you. So drink up.” She pushes another round of martinis my way. The full round, three drinks meant for the table are piled in front of me.
Passing one to each of them, I raise a glass and say, “Cheers bitches, it will take more than caffeine and alcohol to break open this vault.”
Challenging Nessa was absolutely notmy best plan. Another three rounds later and we’re having a giggle fit as I describe my ‘housekeeping error.’
Light, airy, sighing, I’m a woman obsessed as I say, “He’s justbeautiful, he’s dedicated. You can tell from how he treats Elizabeth and Jonathan, but also his freaking body.”
Nessa tosses a napkin at my face. “For the drool.”
I sigh at the memory. “He was just so fun, like he was when we were little. Before puberty, and the apparently huge and awkward crush he was hiding.”
They laugh. “Hiding? Sure thing, if you were blind maybe.” Nessa doesn’t sugar coat it.
“But he is rooted in Peacock Springs, and I’m…” I trail off as Stef gently grasps my hand.
Nessa says with her usual fiery nonchalance, “Fuck Belinda.”
Cackling, though my eyes are welling up with tears, I raise my fourth martini to Nessa and say, “Fuck Belinda indeed.”
Out of nowhere surprising us both Stef clinks her glass along with ours and says the most shocking addition for her, “In the ass, with a pineapple!”
I nearly spit my drink out with the hearty laugh that follows.This right here, this is that home feeling I have been missing so much. Can I have it there too?
thirty-seven
River
February
River:
It’s been a while since I was able to catch you on video chat, working a lot to wind down the season?
River:
Sad I didn’t get you yesterday, it’s been a long day here. I miss hearing from you. We don’t have to talk about next month. Let’s just watch the next episode of that show we started together
Lily:
Later this week? People keep leaving for new gigs and my schedule changes non-stop…
Lily isn’t coming back just yetand I’m worried she’s trying to put it off, so I’m headed to approach the Salvatore women about their meeting plans. Cautiously opening the door to Curl Up & Dye, I see Bella standing at the reception desk with her little sister Sofia and their cousin Chaira.
Looking like Carmela Soprano, Anna Lucia is drinking espresso in a little seating area and waves me over before I can even greet the group by the door. I breathe out because this means it will be going to the moms instead of handling this with my peers.My peers seem to agree the punishment is weird, unnecessary, and ridiculous on its face. Why is Ava Marie so hell bent on this?
I don’t have to wonder for long, as Anna Lucia gestures for me to sit and join her. She snaps her fingers and Bella rolls her eyes but leaves the group to go to the small kitchenette where they store the staff lunches and hair dye supplies. A few awkward moments of silence stretch between us, until Bella places two more espresso cups on the wood and gold cafe table.
The navy ceramic cups are a traditional shape but the paint matches the town aesthetic, as do the small golden spoons topped by an engraved peacock feather. I’m anxiously tracing the engraving over and over when Anna Lucia breaks the silence finally,
“River, son, are you familiar with the background of the peacock?”
On a deep sigh, I say what we learn in school growing up, “Sure, they are the symbol of eternity and royalty. Peacock Springs was right by the Delaware Crossing, so it was initially because of the Red Coats adoration for King George until it became an ironic take on the way that royalty was the opposite of our values.” This rolls out of me like the good townie I’ve grown into.
