I was going to go home and get the later train and totally miss my welcome massage, but now I don’t have to!”
“Um,” I said, trying to follow all this. “And why is that?”
The (all-black) watch on her wrist lit up and she frowned at it for a second, before tapping it again and turning the screen back off. “God! My train’s in like ten minutes. Okay,” she said, like she was trying to get herself to focus. “If you guys wouldn’t mind running it back over to my apartment? You would help me out so, so, so much.” She smiled hopefully at us.
“Sorry,” Stevie said, shaking her head, her voice firm. “We’re seeing a show tonight, actually, so we can’t.” I smiled, glad to see that Stevie was as excited about the show as I was. I knew she would be—just that she might need a minute to get there.
“What time’s the show?” Mallory asked, not missing a beat, eyes locked with Stevie’s.
“Eight,” Stevie said with real reluctance. “But—”
“That’s perfect!” Mallory said, clapping her hands together. “Because I promise that it won’t take long, like fifteen to twenty, tops, and you’ll still have plenty of time before your show and you’d be helping me out so much.” She motioned for us to follow her over to the side, out of the way of people passing, where there was an optical shop that had closed for the night.
“I just…” Stevie’s voice trailed off.
“I know it’s in here.” Mallory dropped her duffel to the ground, and then started going through her enormous purse, handing things to Stevie as she searched for something in its depths. “So all you need to do is bring the wallet back to my apartment. And you can even do it after your show—my roommate is working tonight. She acts like working in the mayor’s office is so important, I swear.…”
“Well,” I said as Mallory piled an iPad, a planner, a scarf, and an oversized pair of headphones into Stevie’s arms, “isn’t it?”
But Mallory rolled right over me like I hadn’t spoken. “And apparently, they have to do the budget or something, so she’ll be working late. Aha!” She retrieved from the depths of her bag a small red leather wallet. Her phone beeped again and she groaned. “Okay, I’ve got like five minutes and I’m not going to have time to get a Starbucks apparently. God! Can you believe today? I cannot even. So here’s the wallet. Just drop it off on the kitchen counter, since that’s apparently where Flora thinks a great place to leave wallets is.” She took all the things she’d put into Stevie’s arms back and swept them into her purse. “My keys,” she said, holding them out to Stevie along with the wallet. Stevie took both with what looked like extreme reluctance. “I’ll text you my address—I have your number, right?” She pulled out her phone, scrolled through it, then nodded. “I do. Great.”
“How should I get the keys back to you?” Stevie asked, putting the wallet and keys in her clutch with a sigh.
“You can just leave them in the apartment—the door locks when you close it.”
Stevie widened her eyes at me, basically an eye roll that she was too polite to do in front of Mallory, and I could tell that she was getting very annoyed by this. “So do you live far?” I asked, trying to wrap this up.
“No, super close.” Mallory glanced at her watch again, then started to walk in the direction of the trains, and Stevie and I followed after her. “But I’ll give you cab fare.” She pulled out her own wallet as she walked and looked through it. “Ugh, all I have is a hundred. Well, it’s your thanks for helping me out,” she said, pulling out a crisp one-hundred-dollar bill and handing it to me. “Thank you so much!” She swooped down on Stevie and kissed her cheeks again. “You’re just the best. You’re saving my life!”
She’d only walked a few steps toward track twenty-one before she jogged back toward us. “Oh—Brad will be there, but just ignore him. He’s so spoiled it’s unbelievable. And he might cry when you leave, but don’t let it worry you. It’s all just for show.”
“Wait, what?” I asked, but Mallory was now running in her heels toward her train, duffel bumping against her hip.
“You’re the best! Thank you!” she called with a wave over her shoulder. Then she started running even faster—which was honestly impressive,