the beginning of a whole new Ellie. From now on, no more bad boys.”
“Well then, this is perfect because he ain’t a bad boy! He’s my Cousin Peg’s kid. He’s got a real good job with the state government, he has all his own hair, and not for nothing, he serves as a junior deacon at United Methodist over on Cherry Avenue.” Brook’s smile sometimes scares me more than Amber’s. All I need is to become her new pet project. God or deacon help me.
“Thanks, but no thanks,” I say. “I think I need to be on my own for a while.”
“Now don’t you worry, I’ll sort out everything. I just know you’re going to love him!” Brook pats me on the arm and moves away, her eyes glazed over in pet-project euphoria. My psychic senses are already telling me this will lead nowhere good.
“Hey, honey, how was your day?” Luanne calls from the kitchen as I walk through the front door.
“Well, Brook broke it off with the Kar King and then I licked her wrist. Other than that, same-old, same-old.”
Luanne saunters into the living room carrying two plates of spaghetti, hands one to me and sits down on the sofa, her face stony as a granite quarry.
“Still better than my day. My truck broke down on the way to work and I couldn’t call anybody for help because I forgot to charge my dang cell-phone last night. By the time I made it to the bank that fat old bat Cara Lynn fired me for being late again. I told her, ‘That’s fine with me but I ain’t withdrawing my ass from this bank until someone calls me a tow truck!’”
“Oh no! Where’s your truck now?”
“It’s down at that body shop on 5th Street, waiting for a miracle. Apparently the radiator’s shot because of a faulty cooling system. Imagine that, a faulty cooling system during summer in Texas.” Luanne digs into her spaghetti with vigor but all I can do is push the food around my plate. My stomach is still all twisted up in knots over what happened with Tim, and I haven’t found my appetite yet.
“It’s going to cost an arm and a leg to get it fixed,” Luanne continues. “I guess I owe Angel a big-fat thank you for being such a lazy-ass.”
“Lu, let me pay for the repairs. I don’t know how long I’ll be staying here with you and I want to contribute.”
“Under other circumstances I wouldn’t hear of it, but I’ve got a tuition payment coming up next week that I can’t be late on.”
Luanne produces a fresh beauty school application from the pocket of her apron and shrugs her shoulders at me. If there’s anyone on this planet who understands big Texas hair, it’s her. She can tease the sex appeal out of a Mormon. On several occasions she’s tried to tame my long wavy hair into a proper debutant up-do, but even her skilled fingers can’t tame these rebellious locks.
“I’ll swing by the shop on the way to work tomorrow and write them a check. What’re you going to do about another job?” I ask, trying a small bite of the spaghetti.
“I guess I’ll talk to Aunt Jo about picking up a few more shifts at The Cavern,” she says through a mouth full of pasta. “I think I’ll be able to squeeze out three extra shifts a week until I can find something else. Speaking of, I need to get going if I’m gonna cover Angel’s shift tonight.”
Luanne takes her half-eaten plate of spaghetti back to the kitchen before disappearing into the bathroom. I take advantage of her absence and fish my cell phone out my purse. Amber forced me to turn it off and remove it from sight after I checked it for the five-hundredth time today. I know it’s weak of me to want to hear Tim’s voice, but I can’t help it. I mean, he could at least do me the courtesy of calling so that I can hang up on him.
I wait for the tell-tale beep, but there’re no messages. No boyfriend. No two-hundred and fifty guest list wedding tastefully set under the canopy of a white tent on a warm Texas night. No babies or family portraits at that cute little photography studio downtown. No happily ever after. I wish I could cry but I think I’ve used up all my tears already. I know he wasn’t The One, but I really wanted him to