He wasn’t wrong. Still. A woman didn’t want to show up looking homeless the day after she’d been sacked. “In case you forgot, I was just fired from here yesterday. And the food really isn’t all that good anyway. Not since cheapskate Rodney took over.”
He didn’t bother arguing with me, just pulled open the door and headed inside, leaving me out in the cold with no purse, no phone or car. Before the door closed, I caught a whiff of chili and my stomach growled. Okay, some of the food kicked-ass. Besides, I hadn’t had anything solid since the day before.
Fine, better to go into the café dressed in too large sweats and eat a hot meal than to stand in the parking lot waiting for Robin to poof me back to my mother’s car.
The bell above the door jingled, announcing my entrance to the patrons and staff. Rodney sat behind the counter and his eyes nearly bugged out of his head at my arrival.
“Joey?” he asked a tad nervously.
“Just having lunch with a friend.” I could feel every eye in the place looking at me and blood rushed to my cheeks. There was a world of difference between having people watch me perform a well-rehearsed gymnastics routine in a competition and being fodder for the gossip mill.
Robin was seated at a booth in the far back section of the café. He was chatting up a woman I didn’t recognize. A pretty young blond girl wearing a tight sweater tucked into skinny jeans. She must be my replacement because she wore an apron and held a pad and pen, though she wasn’t making any effort to write anything down.
Feeling like a schlub, I sidled my way over to the table. I had to squeeze past the waif to slide onto the duct-taped vinyl bench seat.
“Ah, and here she is, my lovely friend.” Robin snagged my hand and brought it to his lips. “What will soothe your soul on this blustery midwinter day, Joey? Perhaps something hot to fill you up?”
Was he trying to start gossip? I could see Winnifred Bates and her sister Flo staring at us from the counter. He might as well chum the waters for sharks the way he was carrying on. I kicked him under the table even as I said, “A bowl of chili and a coffee, please.”
“Make that two,” My companion dimpled at the girl.
“What the hell, Robin?” I hissed at him the second she was out of earshot. “That little speech of yours is going to be greasing the gossip wheel for months.”
“Probably,” He nodded. “You’re welcome, by the way.”
“For what?” I hissed, jerking my hand back. “Making me seem like the town slut?”
“Making you appear desirable. You were concerned they would be gossiping about your apparel. I gave them something else to focus on. Honestly, lamb. Aren’t you too old to worry so much about other people’s perception of you?”
“Too old?” I huffed. First, I was dubbed fat and now old.
He waved it away with an easy gesture. “I simply meant that you should be past the point in your life where the opinions of those around you ought to sway your perception of yourself so easily.”
Only slightly mollified by his answer, I leaned back and allowed skinny jeans blonde to set a mug and saucer before me and fill it up with steaming java. She kept casting surreptitious glances at Robin, which he didn’t seem to notice. All his attention was on my face.
When she was gone, I asked, “What? Why are you looking at me that way?”
“What way?” He tilted his head to the side.
“Like I’m a puzzle you’re trying to solve.”
His lips twitched. “Perhaps because you are more complex than I first believed. You fascinate me, Joey Whitmore.”
I blushed and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.
“Tell me about October 3, 1996,” Robin said. “Specifically, what is it you want to change?”
My gaze drifted over the café, the familiar sights, and smells. “The accident that ruined my career in elite gymnastics before it ever really began.”
Robin waited for me to gather my thoughts.
“I was a level ten gymnast. My”— harridan hardass —“gymnastics instructor was helping me reach elite status. I’d been doing it since I was a kid and the gym was always my favorite place to be. My family and I had gone to the ‘96 Olympic Games in Atlanta. That was the year team USA, the Magnificent Seven, took home