Something She's Not Telling Us - Darcey Bell Page 0,24
workers, Ravi and Tengbo.
I said, “Can I ask them to take a picture of us on my phone? Oops. I guess I mean your phone. I left mine at work.”
“Sure,” Rocco said. “But I just lost my hard-on.”
“You’ll get it back. I promise.”
“In that case, go ahead,” he said. “Tengbo can take it on my phone and I’ll send it to you.”
Our fake kiss for the camera had turned real by the time we stopped. We were both a little flushed. Tengbo and Ravi looked down. I was sorry that we embarrassed them. But apologizing would only have made it worse.
Rocco saw that I sympathized with his workers. That sort of thing was important to him, and it made me like him even more.
4
Charlotte
Charlotte has gotten so used to passersby stopping to stare at Alma’s window displays that she no longer notices. So she’s startled when Alma says, “That woman out there is looking at you like she knows you.”
It’s been a while—three weeks, maybe—since Rocco brought Ruth to dinner and she made them eat those sticky buns. Charlotte assumes her brother is still seeing her. He hasn’t been staying with them on his nights in the city. But he hasn’t said anything, and Charlotte hasn’t asked.
“That’s Rocco’s new girlfriend,” Charlotte says to Alma.
Ruth must see that Charlotte is elbow-deep in a bucket of delphiniums, but as she walks into the shop, she says, “Is this a bad time?”
“Not at all,” lies Charlotte.
“I was wondering. Could we go out for a quick coffee? I know you’re busy. You can say no.”
“It’s a perfect time,” says Charlotte. Lying again.
“This place is amazing. Half these flowers, I don’t even know what they are. And it smells like . . . heaven . . .”
Charlotte says, “Alma, this is my brother’s friend Ruth.”
Ruth holds out her hand to shake Alma’s, smiling so engagingly that Alma—who’s not in the best mood—can’t help smiling back.
Ruth says, “I’m playing hooky from work. Just for a little while.”
“Is that all right with them?” Charlotte can’t help turning into the anxious big sister, making sure that no one’s getting in trouble.
“They probably won’t notice.”
“Half an hour,” Charlotte says. “We can go somewhere close.” She looks at Alma, as if for permission.
“I’ll be fine,” says Alma.
THE TATTOOED BARISTA at Big Cool Bean hardly hears Charlotte’s order, he’s so enchanted by the wide-eyed vivacity with which Ruth asks for a skim milk latte.
Ruth waltzes her coffee to a table. Charlotte sticks a dollar in the tip jar and follows Ruth.
Ruth says, “I used to work at a place like this. What matters is who you’re working with. Believe me, what matters is not ‘Should I leave room for milk and sugar, sir?’”
Charlotte recalls the intensity with which Ruth talked to Daisy. Something childish and odd about her spoke to Daisy’s shyness. Charlotte would have been wary if a man glommed on to Daisy that way. But people like it when childless women are comfortable with kids. Teachers, librarians, aunts.
“Daisy’s a great girl,” says Ruth, as if she’s read Charlotte’s mind.
“She is. I know I worry about her too much. My therapist—”
“You’re in therapy!” Ruth says. “I would never have thought that!”
“Thanks,” Charlotte says uncertainly. “Ted helps me keep everything in balance.”
“Ted?” Ruth says. “This is weird. I once dated a therapist named Ted.”
“Ted Lewin,” Charlotte says. “It couldn’t have been the same guy. Ted’s an older man—”
“What a coincidence that would have been! Sometimes I think that I should be in therapy. Seriously. I’m dealing with some unresolved bad-mom issues that surface when I least expect them.”
“Everybody is,” says Charlotte. “Everybody has some bad-mom issues. Daisy probably will too.” Charlotte regrets this the minute she says it. Why is she telling Ruth about the problems that her daughter may or may not have?
“I doubt it,” Ruth says. “You guys are so cool with her. I know Rocco had some problems with your mom. But he’s pretty closemouthed about it.”
It’s Rocco’s business to tell Ruth what he wants her to know. There’s a silence. Then Charlotte says, “Whom did you work with? At the coffee shop.”
Ruth laughs. “This guy Russ. We had this long vibey thing, and then this short hot something else. He had more tattoos than that guy, piercings everywhere. I thought, I’ve never made it with a guy like that, and I may never have another chance, so why not? Am