“Back here.”
“I brought libations,” Gina put a Tim Horton’s bag in Malinda’s hand and a box of TimBits on her bedside table.
Malinda smiled and pulled out a turkey bacon club on wheat, her favorite selection off the Tim Horton’s menu. She didn’t even have to open the box of TimBits to know they would all be glazed chocolate.
“So what happened?”
Almost emotionless, Malinda told Gina about the previous night, explaining how she and Laurel had taken JC to the hockey game, how JC had reacted to the way she behaved with Rhett and the team, accusing her of having more of a relationship with Rhett than she let on, and about the two choices she’d confronted him with, “So I laid it out for him, told him he can either take it or leave it; you get me, my daughter, my friends – male and female – or you get nothing. We didn’t talk about anything this morning. He’s not even gone yet. He opted to sit at a hotel until his flight later, which is at like six-thirty.”
“Wow,” Gina replied. “What a fucktard. I can’t believe he left without discussing it further.”
“Right? I am so pissed right now. I’m not even hurt, I’m just mad. For him to just walk away like that puts him in the same category as any other loser I’ve dated recently. Well, except Curtis and Rhett I suppose. They all bailed because they couldn’t handle the total package. All the others couldn’t take Laurel, this one can’t take Rhett,” Malinda growled. “I’m so angry at myself for falling so easily. At the beginning, I put the guard up. But he knocked it down so fast.”
Gina was quiet for a moment. Then she slowly started to shake her head. “You know what? I don’t think it’s over. I think he’s just being a guy that’s insanely jealous of his girlfriend’s best guy friend. Granted, he’s being a bit extreme, but he’s a Leo. They’re compassionate and emotional. Anyway, it’s understandable. The more I think about it, the more sense it makes. He doesn’t get to see you regularly, but you and Rhett are together almost every day. And now when he is here, you’re still involving Rhett in your time with him. I’m not trying to say that’s your fault,” she said quickly when Malinda started to fuss, “because it’s not. But if you look at JC’s side, that’s gotta suck. He comes all the way out here, and every time you go out, you go out with Rhett. I started to notice it at your party when Rhett brought you.”
“I thought it was the plan for Rhett to bring me.”
“It was.”
“So then what the hell was the problem?”
“I think it was just the fact that it was Rhett. It’s already been made pretty clear how close you two are, and I think seeing it in action really bothered him.”
“So tell him to get over it.”
“He’s in love, girl. And there’s another guy all up in his kool-aid. He’s going to be possessive.”
“Yeah, like a Neanderthal,” Malinda snorted. “Thanks for the Timmy Ho’s. I gotta get to the store. I’m not supposed to be there for a couple hours, but Lazy Lindsay is there, and I want a little extra time to watch her and go over some information. I think she might be stealing from us, and I don’t think she’s doing it alone.”
“That bitch! She’s got an accomplice.”
“Yeah. Whenever she’s on register, it’s always about twenty-five to fifty dollars short. And I thought I noticed that she always seems to be on register when the same customer comes in. So now I’ve been paying attention to see if the girl only comes in when Lindsay’s working. And I think I’m on to something. Mary told me she only seems to notice the girl on Lindsay’s shift, and Tyler said he’s seen her too, and that she only gets around to buying something once Lindsay gets on the register.”
“And you think they’re stealing together?” a sucker for juicy gossip, Gina had reached over and open the TimBits, and was now popping one after another in her mouth.
“Well, this girl comes in, and she doesn’t even try to blend in. She’s got neon pink-framed glasses, which you can’t help but focus your attention on, a streak of magenta in her otherwise black hair. Beacon, anyone? She’ll browse around until Lindsay’s on register, then buy something cheap, and pay with a twenty or something. What we think is going on is that she’s giving her extra change.”
Mouth full of chocolate doughnut, Gina said, “Fy-oh hew aff wow.”
Malinda laughed. “I wish I could fire her ass now. But I want her ass prosecuted, so I need to get more proof and go to the police with it. With all her other write-ups, I could easily get rid of her right now, but I want more than that. Plus, we need to find out if there are any more employees involved.”
“I hope not.”
“Me too. We cut back majorly and we can’t lose any more people,” sighing, Malinda said, “Alright, let’s clear out of here.”
“Come to New York for the weekend or something,” Joe Fatone, Jr.a said. “Hang out and relax. The VMAs are coming up. I know you said weren’t interested in going, but I think you should.”
“I don’t really feel like dealing with that crowd, dude.”
“Fuck the crowd. Hang out with me.”
JC took a deep breath and sighed. Spending time with Joe would definitely help his mood. “I guess I could cancel the flight and come out there instead.”
“Awesome. I’ll let Kelly know. You’ll be staying with me, of course, so we’ll have to get the room ready. It’s kind of like an old sewing room right now.”
“If it’s gonna be inconvenient – ”
“It’s not. It’s just that no one’s been in there for awhile. It might be haunted by now.”
JC laughed. Let the cheering up begin.
A few hours later, JC climbed into a cab outside LaGuardia airport. He rode in silence to his friend’s home, rudely pretending not to hear anything the cab driver said to him. When he reached the front of Joe’s building, he practically jumped out of the vehicle. No sooner has he gotten his two suitcases out of the taxi’s trunk when Joe appeared at his side.
“Hey man,” the two of them gave each other a brief, manly embrace before each grabbing a bag. They took the elevator up to Joe’s house. Before Joe opened the door, they could hear one-and-a-half-year-old Brianna warbling away inside along with some Disney song.
“Must run in the family,” JC commented. “Does she make the cheesy face, too?”
“Yeah, I have no idea where she gets it from,” Joe laughed heartily, opening the door. “Hey Brianna, look who it is; it’s Uncle JC!”
“Unka Jissy!” Brianna scrambled to her feet and half-ran, half-stumbled to JC, who had squatted down to floor-level to embrace his best friend’s daughter.
“How’s it going, kiddo?”
“Kid-do!” Brianna squealed. “Unk Kid-do! Unkiddo, unkiddo,” she started to sing, then caught a glimpse of the TV and her Disney movie out of the corner of her eye. She returned to watching it, immediately forgetting that JC even existed.
“Snubbed by two females in a span of twenty-four hours,” JC groaned, rising to his feet.
“You got some seriously defective pimp juice working for you.”
“Pimp juice, Joe? Pimp juice?”
“Sorry, I was talking to Justin yesterday.”
“Pimp juice,” JC repeated, and wandered into the kitchen, where he heard someone, he assumed Kelly, puttering around.
“Hey JC! You been talking to Justin too?” she closed the dishwasher after putting Brianna’s lunch dishes inside. “I swear that boy gets Joey saying the craziest things for a week. Anyway, how’s it going? Joey told me about Malinda. I’m sorry. It’s a shame I didn’t get to meet her.”
JC offered a weak smile. “Thanks. I never saw it coming. I mean, yes, we were having an argument, and yes, I was being kind of stupid, but I didn’t think she’d break up with me over it.”
“I’ll have to get the whole story later. Maybe I can give you a woman’s perspective so you can figure out what you have to apologize for.”
“Apologize?!”
“You want her back?”
“Well…yeah.”
“Okay then. We figure out why she broke up with you, and you apologize. I guarantee you’ll be back together immediately.”
“We’ll see.”
“Yes, we will. Over dinner. Now get out of my kitchen,” Kelly shooed JC out, as preparing dinner was her only real alone time, living with a toddler and Joe Fatone.
“Yes ma’am!” JC mocked her and searched for Joe, who had taken JC’s bags into the guest room and was now making Brianna laugh with his funny faces.
She saw the girl before she even got inside the store. She was getting out of her car in the parking lot beside her building when a bright magenta car pulled up to a parking meter across the street. Malinda watched as the girl got out and hurried across, disappearing into the bookstore. Malinda whipped out her cell phone and called the store’s number, knowing Lindsay was the only one on the floor. She had to keep her busy until she could get inside and see what was going on.
Lindsay answered on the first ring. She must have been at the register already. “Good morning. Thank you for calling the Page-turner. How may I help you today?”
“Uh, yes,” Malinda began, trying to make her voice more like her mother’s. “I was wondering if you have the new Belva Plain book in yet?” she knew Lindsay had no idea who Belva Plain was. Also, with the way the store was set up, the P’s would be farthest away from the register, in a position where Malinda could slip in the door unseen.
“What’s the title, please?”
“Whispers,” which was an old title. Malinda boldly headed for the door, hoping Lindsay would actually go check, and not just lie to the ‘customer’.
“I’ll go check for you. Hold on one moment.”
Feeling like a spy, Malinda made her move. As soon as Lindsay dropped the phone to the counter and stepped between two rows of shelves, she made her entrance, passing the aisle Lindsay had just gone down and turning down the next one. She saw the pink girl hovering around near the register, paying little attention to anything around her. Malinda stood silently, waiting to hear Lindsay’s footsteps going back to the front of the store. When she did, she moved deeper to the back, so that Lindsay wouldn’t hear her in person and over the phone.
“Hello? Yes, we have seven copies here. Did you need me to put one on hold for you?”
“No. I’ll come in later. Thanks,” she was curt before hanging up the phone, again gliding toward the front, peeking around a shelf at the transaction taking place.
“Your total will be two forty-nine,” Lindsay said. “Out of twenty?”
From her post, Malinda could see she was counting out fives. Some quick mental math told her that the change should be seventeen fifty-one. The maximum amount of fives involved was three. Yet, she watched Lindsay count the change out loud as she handed five five-dollar bills to pink girl, when she should have been using singles as well. And then, to Malinda’s horror, she gave her the twenty back with the receipt.
She felt her eyes narrow and her nostrils flare. She was homicidal. For a split second she wanted to walk up and bust Lindsay right then and there. Then she thought about how she was going to get out without being seen. Luckily, just as she wondered this, Tyler appeared in the doorway behind the register.
“Lindsay, listen, the delivery guy at the sub place is sick, and according to the guy on the phone, his replacement can’t find his way out of a cardboard box, so would you please go pick up our lunch?”
After sighing like Tyler had just asked her to save the world, Lindsay agreed, and retrieved her jacket and keys from the back room, and left. Malinda sighed and entered the back room, bypassing the tiny table and coat hooks and knocked on the open office door.
“Hey!” Tyler jumped up. “What are you doing here so early? I didn’t even hear you come in. Oh, you must be the person Lindsay just told me she swore she heard come in.”
“Yep. I’m a spook. So…she’s stealing and she has help.”
“Did she just do it now? Did I miss it? Pink girl was here?”
“Yep. She walked in, just before me, bought something for two-fifty and paid with a twenty. That change should have been seventeen-fifty – three fives, two singles, fifty cents. But Lindsay handed her all fives – five of them, and then gave her the twenty back. That’s fifty five dollars this time.”
Tyler slammed his hand down on the table. “Can we take legal action now?”
“I want to get a camera set up behind the register. But I don’t want anyone else to know about it but us and Mary.”
“Mary opens tomorrow and then I’m here and you close. No part-timers.”
“Well, that might be a little soon. I’ll call Patrick and ask him who does the cameras there,” Malinda said. Patrick was the owner and manager of the bar she worked at.
“I hope she doesn’t steal my sub on the way back,” Tyler huffed, visibly elated that they were finally getting to do something about their problem employee.
“Ok, so JC, tell us what happened,” Kelly spoke while trying to cut up a sausage patty into chewable pieces for Brianna.
JC cleared his throat, “Well, we went to a hockey game. She’s all involved with the team, and she’s way too close with one of them.”
“What do you mean?” Joe asked.
“I told you about him. She’s got the pictures all over the apartment and he takes her to lunch after practice and everything.”
“Oh yeah. You think there’s something going on. More than what she says.”
“Oh come on man. There’s a bag in her closet with his clothes in it.”
“I told you that doesn’t mean anything.”
“That’s what she said.”
“Why do I get the feeling this is what the argument was about?” Kelly jumped in.
“It probably was,” Joe said. “He’s so jealous of this guy.”
The lack of response from JC gave both Joe and Kelly the answer.
“Oh, JC, you didn’t,” Kelly said.
“Well, it seemed weird. She wore his jersey to the game, she called him ‘baby’, the other guys on the team act like they’re a couple. All the other wives and girlfriends don’t hang out with the guys the way she does, they go off on their own.”
“She’s not a wife or girlfriend, why should she hang out with the other ones? She probably feels out of place with them,” Kelly supplied.
“Madison really liked her, didn’t she?” Joe asked, and JC confirmed it. “Okay, and Madison is a girl who could hang with the guys far better than she could hang with the girls, right?” JC nodded again. “So it makes sense that Madison would like a girl similar to her. Maybe Malinda would just much rather hang out with the guys than all the wives. Have you met a lot of athlete’s wives? God, they’re annoying. And from the impression I got of Malinda, she probably hates women like that.”
JC thought for a minute. “She didn’t have anything nice to say about them, now that you mention it.”
“So let’s get to the argument,” Kelly urged the story forward.
“Okay. We got back from the game, and I questioned why she spends so much time with Rhett – that’s the guy – and why the rest of the team treats them as if they’re together. Basically I asked if they were sleeping together.”
“Are you crazy?” Joe asked.
“I guess you know what you got dumped for,” Kelly said.
“Well, I didn’t ask it myself, she asked me if that’s what I was asking her.”
“Same thing.”
Sighing, JC continued, “I don’t remember exactly what was said, but she eventually told me she wasn’t going to stop being friends with Rhett and that if you get her, you get all of her, including all of her friends, or you get nothing. Then she went to bed, and this morning we ignored each other until I left.”
Joe and Kelly looked at each other. Joe spoke first, “So when did she dump you?”
“Hello? Were you listening? The all or nothing speech?”
“Oh my God JC, you’re such a moron!” Kelly exclaimed.
“Mow-on!” Brianna chimed in.
“What?”
“She didn’t break up with you.”
“She didn’t?”
“No. But I bet she thinks you broke up with her.”
“I’m confused.”
“I’m gonna give you the summary, based on what you said, ready?” Joe asked. “You saw how close she is to male best friend and got mad. You accused her of having a relationship with him, and without realizing it, told her you can’t accept him as her friend. She came back, telling you that you can either accept him as her friend or get out. And what did you do?”
JC paled. “Oh, God.”
“I repeat; you are a friggin’ moron!”
“Unk mow-on!”
Kelly rose from the table and brought JC the cordless phone. “Are you gonna call, or do I have to dial for you?”
Remaining silent, JC got to his feet and laid down on the living room couch, trying to figure out what to say.
Any other day, Malinda would have welcomed a phone call from Madison Torres, but given whose neighbor she was and who had just left in anger, she was apprehensive when answering the phone, and expressed those feelings upfront.
“If you’re calling on JC’s behalf, you can just forget it right now, and if this is JC thinking he’s slick and calling me from a friend’s house like we’re in high school, hang up right now.”
“Wow, someone’s pissed.”
“I am. How are you doing? How’s your man?”
“I’m great. Orly and I are currently battling these incessant rumors of him and Kate Bosworth. He’s never even met the girl, for Christ’s sake.”
“That sucks.”
“Eh, we’ll get through it. Speaking of men –”
“Don’t.”
“Look, I’m not calling for him, like you said. But I did just talk to him and he realized that he totally fucked up. He said something about keeping extra clothes at my house in case of an emergency and I called him a freak. He lives next door. The only emergency we have out here is when the power goes out, and I don’t think that’s going to strand him at my house.”
“That’s what I said.”
“And that’s what he said. Jesus, Malinda, what do you see in him? He’s such an idiot.”
“What did he tell you?”
“That he got on your case about Rhett – and I told him we already had this talk – and that you told him he either accepts all your friends or her walks. And then he walked. But that at the time, he thought you were telling him to walk. He’s with Joe and Kelly now; they’re the ones who pointed out to him how stupid he is.”
“He’s still in New York?”
“Yeah. Joe invited him to stay with him for the weekend or something. But seriously, what in God’s name do you see in him? The man clearly can’t handle himself in a good fight, jumps to conclusions, and has a jealous streak to rival the green-eyed monster. Nest time I catch one of my nieces staring longingly at the other one’s toys, I’m going to say ‘looks like someone had a case of JC Chasez’. Of course, they won’t get it, but they don’t get it when you say green-eyed monster either.”
“The green-eyed monster doesn’t have a jealousy problem; he is a jealousy problem.”
“Oh please, it’s all the same.”
Malinda laughed. “What else did he say?”
“That Kelly told him he has to apologize. Joe told him he better apologize big, and that he knows he’s probably going to have to grovel for a month. Oh, and that it really bothers him how much time you spend with Rhett, but he’ll have to figure out how to deal with it, so that you don’t have this fight again.”
“He did not say that.”
“I swear to you, he did.”
“Well, when he calls me and tells me that, I’ll believe it. Until then, I have way bigger problems to deal with.”
“Like what?”
“I’ve got a girl that’s stealing from my store. She’s been taking money and she has a little accomplice that takes merchandise.”
“Oh God.”
“Right? So I’ve got to look into that now.”
“How are they doing it? How did you figure it out? What are you gonna do? Why haven’t you fired her yet? Are you gonna call the police? Who’s the other girl?”
“Slow down there, killer. We’re going to set up some camera surveillance on her to see what the problem is. We noticed it because the drawer is always short when she’s working, and we just started watching her a little more closely, which is how we noticed there’s a girl that only comes in on the days she’s working and buys something small and gets way too much change back. So now we’re really going to watch her.”
“Good. Nail her ass. Then call JC.”
“Madison.”
“What? He’s my friend. And if you don’t call him, that means I have to deal with him and listen to his whining and complaining. Joe’s getting the first draft now, but I’m gonna hear it non-stop when he gets home. Please don’t subject me to that shit.”
“You’re crazy.”
“No, I’m right.”
“Why doesn’t he call me? He screwed up; it only seems fair.”
“Shall I pass that message along?”
“If you would be so kind.”
“Alright then. Other than that, what’s going on in the B’lo?”
“I did not just hear you say B’lo.”
“Isn’t that what they call it up there?”
“Yes, but I can’t believe I heard you say it.”
“I’m down with the lingo, chick.”
“Again, you are crazy. Anyway, things are pretty tame here, I suppose, other than JC being here and the stealing at the store. Laurel’s in middle school now, so things are good with that. Like I predicted, this girl that was giving everyone trouble has backed off, there are lots of people bigger than her now, so everything runs smooth for Laurel and the girls.”
“That’s good. How’s Rhett? I tried to watch a game on TV when they played the Kings, but I can’t follow that. It was way too fast for me. Give me a baseball game any day.”
Laughing, Malinda said, “Rhett’s fine. He’s doing great this season. Has the highest plus/minus score on the team right now.”
“I don’t know what that means.”
“Let me put it in baseball terms then. It’s like he’s a pitcher with the lowest ERA. Something like that. Basically, when he’s on the ice, the other team doesn’t score.”
“But when he’s not, they do score?”
“Well, not all the time, but yeah.”
“Okay. That makes sense. Any women in his life?”
“No one important.”
“That’s a shame. Why not? How about you ditch JC for him? I did get a glimpse of him while I was watching, and damn Malinda! He is gorgeous. I don’t know how there can be no sexual tension between the two of you. If that was my best friend, you can bet your life I’d be trying to become more. Let’s trade: Rhett for JC.”
“You forget I have both. You have nothing to trade.”
“Ah, but technically, at the moment you don’t have JC.”
“If he’s really as sorry as you claim he is, I totally have him.”
“You know you’re gonna call.”
“I most certainly am not. He’s going to call me, because I refuse to give in and call him. The only thing I can think of that I did wrong was fuel his fire when he started to get angry. I goaded him, and I know it. But he really fucked up when he grilled me about Rhett – no – when he accused me of having more of a relationship with him than I have. I’m so sick of having that conversation, and it really upset me to have it with him yet again.”
“And what are you going to do if he doesn’t call.”
“Keep going to work and hanging out with Rhett and Gina and Laurel.”
“What a trooper. You’re really ready to throw the whole thing away over this?”
“Madison, I love you, I’m really glad I got the chance to become your friend, and no matter what happens with JC and I, I hope we’ll always be that way, but you are not going to talk me into backing down.”
“I’m not trying to, I’m just saying.”
“If Orlando accused you of sleeping with JC, would you be angry?”
“Well, I’d think he was insane, since I don’t do anything to make him think that way.”
An awkward silence carried over the line. “So…you’re saying I brought this upon myself? You’re saying I give the appearance of having an affair with Rhett?”
“No! No, that’s not what I meant. Trust me, I believe you. If you say there’s nothing going on, then there’s nothing going on. But I guess I can see how JC could get worried. But then again, if he trusts you, it shouldn’t be a problem. You obviously trust him, which just goes to show how amazingly strong you are, given your past experience with those of the male persuasion. And I think it’s great how you stand by what you say, how you’re not one of those chicks that gets all mad at her man and then goes and calls him the next day, apologizing, when she didn’t even do anything.”
“Wait…what do you mean, my past? He told you?”
Madison paused. “Um…well…yeah. Is that bad? Did I just give you something more to be mad at him about?”
“Well yeah, it was hard enough for me to finally tell him, so, no, I don’t entirely appreciate him telling anyone. But I guess it’s okay, seeing as how at some point I knew I’d tell you the whole story. It’s just easier on me to let people see it how it is on the surface; that I’m someone who got knocked up as a teen.”
“Do you ever wonder what happened to him? Since you’ve seen him last, I mean.”
“If I tell you this, will it stay between us?”
“Yes.”
“Promise?”
“Cross my heart.”
“I saw him around my birthday.”
“What?”
“That’s why I was late getting to that party JC planned. I got a message telling me to meet the president at a restaurant. I assumed it was going to be JC, so there I went, scampering off, all excited. I get there, and I tell the hostess I’m meeting the president. She doesn’t even bat an eye at me, just leads me to the back of the restaurant, to this secluded little table. He’s got his back to me, and in the dark, it really could have been JC, with a haircut. So now I’ve got little chills, thinking about all this secrecy and how romantic and thrilling it is, so I didn’t even look at him until I sat down. I look up at his face, and guess who it is.”
“He tricked you?”
“That’s the only way he knows how to do anything. I’m not keeping track of what he does with himself, but I do know what he does with his life, and he’s this big businessman who pretty much swindles companies and takes over their businesses.”
“What a dick.”
“Yeah. And he had the nerve to ask me about Laurel, and made some snide comments about JC,” Malinda shuddered. “It took me awhile to recover from seeing him, and then longer to process the reality that here I was sitting across a table from him, that he had poured me a glass of wine. I seriously couldn’t believe it. I felt so gross, so dirty. I got out as fast as I could and went straight into the shower when I got home. He only grabbed my arm but it felt like he touched me everywhere. I turned that water on hot and could have showered forever. Then Rhett showed up.”
“And brought you to the party?”
“Yes. Where JC was pacing around, thinking Rhett was keeping me away from the party on purpose.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“I told you he was being a jealous punk about the whole thing. It’s just ridiculous. And despite the fact that Rhett and I are so close and that we hang out a lot, I’ve done nothing to make him act this way. So I’m not just gonna sit here and act like I screwed up. If he wants to fix things, he’s going to have to call me. He obviously doesn’t know me well enough if he can’t believe me about Rhett and can’t figure out whether or not I’m breaking up with him. Idiot.”
Madison giggled. “It’s like being in high school.”
“You have no idea. Anyway, I’m gonna get going. I gotta get Laurel, she just started taking dance classes with Alicia. Which is cool, but I’m getting a bit bored. The upside to having a daughter at such a young age is being able to hang out with her.”
“You two are so cute. Listen…I’ve got vacation time in a month, maybe I’ll come visit. Have a real northeast winter. What do you think?”
“That’ll be so much fun. You, me, and Gina – look out world.”
“I’ll start looking at flights. You have a good night. Don’t cave in and call JC.”
“Trust me; I do not plan on it. He knows what to do to fix this.”