“Not noon. One-thirty. I was actually on my way out the door. I have to pick Max up first. What are you doing here?” Rhett glanced at his own wrist timepiece.

“Didn’t you ever notice your fridge is cleaned out when you get back from your little road trips? You have a really bad habit of leaving stuff in here long after you should.”

“Look lady, I’m a bachelor guy. I don’t care what’s in there, as long as it includes beer and bread.”

“Even penicillin-flavored?” Malinda pulled out a bag of moldy bread.

“I can cut that off. You should save it in case someone gets sick.”

“I hate you right now.”

“I don’t think you could ever really hate me, but nice try. See you next Tuesday,” Rhett hoisted his travel bag up and pulled the strap onto his shoulder, leaning in to drop a kiss on the back of Malinda’s head. “Don’t touch the take-out from La Nova.”

“I think it might reach out and touch me first. Have fun,” she rummaged around inside the refrigerator some more before removing all of the offending leftovers. She made a list of the essential items she planned to generously restore and put it in her pocket.

Pouring herself a glass of iced tea that she knew was safe, as she made it two days ago, Malinda crossed the hall into Rhett’s bedroom, and plucked up the t-shirt that was on the bed, pulling it her chest and inhaling, wrinkling her nose. She dropped that shirt in the laundry pile and found a different one on the floor next to bed and sniffed at that one, smiling.

When the team had a long run of away games and Rhett was gone for over a week, Malinda popped into his apartment to steal a t-shirt to hang on to. She had no idea exactly what Rhett’s signature scent was exactly, as she had smelled each of the three different bottles of cologne he owned and didn’t find a match, but she always found it comforting. At a time like this, comfort was just what she needed.

It had been almost two weeks since she and JC had “broken up”, and he still hadn’t called. She resisted every urge to be the one to make the call, telling Gina and Madison that he knew damn well he was the one that should call, and that if he knew her at all, he’d know she would never call anyway. Madison confirmed this, informing Malinda that the last time she did his grocery shopping, she bought an apology card, leaving him a note that he could probably get by with just sending that if he was too afraid to call. He told her he wasn’t afraid to call; he was trying to figure out what to say.

“Translation: he’s afraid of the next verbal ass-kicking you’re going to give him,” Gina had said.

Still holding Rhett’s t-shirt, possibly one he had slept in, Malinda went into the living room and sat down on the recliner, leaning her head back against the cushion, sighing, wondering why males found it so hard to apologize and admit they were wrong. Even Rhett couldn’t do it. She recalled a time when they’d been debating over something stupid, like what was the actor’s name in some old sitcom, and she got online and looked it up, proving that he was wrong, but he still couldn’t just bring himself to say she was right.

Suddenly, the cell phone in her pocket began vibrating violently. She looked at the screen before flicking it open. “Hey.”

“Hey girl. Where you at?”

“Rhett’s.”

“I thought he was gone.”

“He just walked out the door.”

“Oh. Well listen, I was just at the store, and I talked to Tyler. He said the cameras are all in place, and he’s ready to go ahead and start.”

“Excellent. And yes, I am fully aware I just sounded like Keanu Reeves.”

Gina laughed. “So what are you still doing over there? Getting another shirt?”

“Shut up.”

“You two are so in love with each other. And you’re the only ones who don’t know it.”

Malinda sighed. “I wish everyone would stop saying that.”

“Oops. I forgot. Sorry. He still hasn’t called, huh?”

“What do you think?”

“Men. I tell you, they’re only good for like six things.”

“And those would be?”

“Well I don’t need to tell you all of them, but they include fixing my car.”

“You’re crazy.”

“I try. What are you doing after you swipe the shirt?”

“I have no idea. You got something in mind?”

“I don’t know. I’m bored. Remember how we used to just drive around aimlessly and do nothing? Let’s do it today.”

“Hey man, what’s up?” Justin called out cheerfully when JC answered the phone.

“Hello.”

“Ugh. Don’t get too excited.”

“I’m really not in the mood.”

“Oh, is that what you call this? Did you get the song?”

“Yes Justin.”

“And did you listen to it?”

“Yes Justin.”

“Well, what did you think? Did you like it? It started out as just a song, then it was like, hey this is almost their story.”

“Yeah.”

“Did you like the part about working all the time? Huh? Huh?”

“Yeah, it was great.”

Justin sighed, “Okay, for real, did you even listen to it?”

“Yes, I heard it all, okay? I just don’t really want to talk about Malinda right now, so can we drop this for the time being?”

“Whoa, what crawled up your butt? What’s wrong?”

“I did something really stupid.”

“Please don’t tell me you cheated.”

“No, no, nothing like that. But you know this part in your song, about imagination getting the best of me and all that? Well, we got in a fight about her friend and I walked out on her.”

“You’re right; that was stupid.”

JC groaned. “Well, at the time, I was under the impression she was telling me to get out.”

“Again, you’re right; that was stupid.”

“Shut up Justin.”

“Alrighty then. I’m gonna go finish some tracks, hang out with people who are actually pleasant to talk to.”

“Have fun with that.”

“Talk to you later man.”

“Yeah,” JC hung up his phone and tossed it onto his dining room table. He was miserable. Justin had sent him a copy of a song he’d written, ‘Worthy Of’. It was a fairly innocent enough song, about a man wondering if he was strong enough, enough of a man to keep up his end of a relationship. He was always concerned he wasn’t doing enough, and worried she’d look elsewhere for what he couldn’t give her. Any other time, JC would have taken the tune in with a more welcome ear, but right now, he had proved to Malinda that he wasn’t man enough, wasn’t worthy of her love, and he truly didn’t know how to fix it. He knew he had lots of groveling to do. Groveling that he knew would mean putting every ounce of his pride on the back burner. Unfortunately, he didn’t even know how to do that.

He scoffed aloud, “Me, the great songwriter, can’t figure out what to say.”

“Who said you were a great songwriter? Someone lied to you,” Madison let herself in from JC’s poolside patio.

“I didn’t know you were here,” JC said.

“I’m like a cat burglar. I slip right in and no one notices. Which reminds me, why are they called cat burglars to begin with? They don’t steal cats, they don’t look like cats, and they sure don’t carry cats with them. What’s the story?”

“Madison?”

“Yeah?”

“Shut up.”

“Someone’s cranky. What am I, the fifth person you’ve told to shut up in the past hour?”

“You know, you don’t live here. You can leave any time you start to feel unwelcome. Like now.”

“Please, like your smartassed mouth even affects me. This Mr. Cranky-pants version of you is getting so very old. If you don’t pick up that damn phone and call her, you’re going to lose all your friends.”

“I don’t really care right now. I’m so sick of hearing how all of this is my fault,” he growled and stormed out to the patio.

Madison followed, “That’s unfortunate, considering it is your fault.”

“Yeah, but I’m sick of hearing it.”

“Then make the freakin’ phone call already. We really don’t need to keep having this same conversation over and over.”

“You know what, Madison? It’s not that easy, so why don’t you back off?”

“It is that easy. You’ve told me, you’ve told Joe, now you’ve pretty much told Justin. You’ve acknowledged to almost everyone that you fucked up, except to the person you should be telling. All you gotta do is tell her. It’s simple, just dial her number, and when she answers, say, ‘Hey Malinda, it’s the asshole. I’m sorry I was so stupid. I don’t expect you to forgive me yet, so call me when you do.’ And there you go.”

“Madison. Butt out. Please. Your smart-ass comments are not helpful right now.”

“Who’s being a smart ass? Look Jace, I’m trying to help you. Right now you are unbearable to be around. And you’ve been like this ever since you got home. And you’re annoying. Would you please get over yourself and call her? I can’t stand this, watching this. I’ve already talked to Malinda. I’m sure if you just call her you can straighten all this out.”

“Did I or did I not just say drop it?”

“JC, come on. Will you just call her and get it over with?”

“If it means that much to you, why don’t you tell her to call me?”

“Okay, now I know we’ve discussed this a million times. She’s not going to call. You messed up, so you gotta call.”

“I can’t do this, Mad,” JC finally broke and sat down hard on one of the chairs. “I don’t know what to say. What words can I possibly come up with that would be enough for her? What could I possibly say to make up for blowing up at her the way I did, for accusing her of what I accused her of?”

“I told you. Just apologize, tell her you made a mistake.”

“And when she tells me to go fuck myself?”

“Then you hang up. At least you’ll have gotten your apology out, and given her something to go on, a reason to forgive you. And really, I doubt she’d say that. Maybe a good ‘screw you’, but probably not that.”

“I really screwed this up,” JC sighed and raked his fingers through his hair. “I was so nervous about the whole thing from the very beginning, and just when it starts getting really good, just when it looks like it’s gonna be easier than I thought, I do this.”

“Jace,” Madison said softly. “I swore I wouldn’t be a liaison through this, but I can’t take it anymore. Just call her. It will be fine.” She stood in front of her friend and squatted to eye level. “I guarantee she is not going to hang up on you or curse you out. I promise.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because she’s not mad at you the way you think she is. I mean, she is, but not so much that your phone call won’t fix it. However, the longer you wait, the angrier she’s gonna get. She misses you. She was really happy with the way things were going between you. Right now she’s so torn up, trying to figure out if you and Rhett can ever get along. Please call her JC.”

“And when me and Rhett can’t get along?”

“You’ll try.”

“And will he?”

“He’s her best friend, I’m sure he’ll make an effort. He’s not gonna make things harder for her, knowing the way things just went down.”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you realize how asinine all these repetitive conversations are?”

“What? What do you want from me?”

“I want you to call Malinda and apologize so you can be happy, that’s what! Stop doing this to yourself, and to her.”

He groaned. “God, at times like this, I think maybe being single forever is the way to go.”

“You know you don’t mean that. You love her. And she loves you. So call her. Call her today,” Madison held her own cell phone out to him.

He recoiled as if it would bite him. “Tomorrow!” he screamed, practically pleading. “I’ll do it tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow never comes,” she said philosophically, walking to the side of the house, and left JC alone to ponder his next move.

“Wow, he really is afraid of me,” Malinda mused in response to Madison’s report. The very first thing the redhead had done upon returning to her own house was lock the door so JC couldn’t sneak up on her the way she did to him. The second thing: call Malinda.

“Well, afraid of getting hurt.”

“By me. So, technically, he’s afraid of me. Oh, it’s too cute.”

Madison laughed, “I’m back at my house now, just waiting for him to run over here crying. Seriously Malinda, this man is such a baby. Surely you can do better.”

“At this point, I’m starting to wonder. I think the grace period for an apology expired.”

“I already know what you’re gonna say to me, but maybe you should call him. No, wait, listen,” she broke in when Malinda started to protest. “Don’t actually call him. Like, let it ring once, just enough for it to show up on his caller ID, and hang up. This way, you can cater to his manly pride, because it looks like you’re the one who caved and called him first. Then, when he calls you back – and you know he will – technically, he called you first.”

Malinda was silent for a moment. “That is far too complicated. And very Gina-like. I can’t wait to tell her. Who’s to say he’ll even call back? And what if he picks up on the first ring?” There was no answer on the other end. “Hello?”

“Sorry, sorry. I’m upstairs, and I’m looking out the window, where I can see a little ways down the hill…would you believe Britney has another new car? It must be nice. This is like her seventh car in two months. Jesus, I think I was only on my third car by the time I was her age.”

“Excuse me, what?” Malinda was only on her second car. Ever. The third wouldn’t come until the Bravada either died or got wrecked – hopefully the former – and then that third vehicle was expected to last until she was no longer able to drive.

“Yeah. I think it was a Mustang. Wait, no, it was the Beamer. Yep. Royal Blue. My friends and I called it Mr. Bluebeam.”

“Uh, Madison? You know, it never really crossed my mind before, because I don’t usually pay attention to these things anymore, but what exactly do you do?”

“Well, my parents both work for production companies. That’s how I had a lot as a kid. And nepotism is definitely not dead in this town, so I got a job at ABC, where I’ve been for four years now. I know I make twice what I should be because of who my parents are, but at the risk of sounding greedy, I don’t care. I’ve been spoiled all my life, and now I can spoil myself.”

“Damn, how do I get that job? You live like a rock star. Can I say I’m your cousin?”

“Come on out here. I’m only a PA, so I’m kind of a gopher-bitch. But then again, since I’m making more than the people bossing me around, it all works out in the long run.”

“Nice. That’s how my second job is. Over the years I’ve gotten to be something of a crowd favorite, and a bunch of the bars nearby want me, so I’m worth a lot more to the owner to stay put. I think I make more than the manager. Plus, I make a lot more tips than anyone else. It’s a pretty good deal.”

“What do you do again?”

“Bartending.”

“Ahh…so you’re like, the ‘it’ girl, the one everyone wants their drinks from. What, you mix ‘em the best or something? Fast service?”

“You could say that. Doesn’t hurt that I dance on the bar and I dress like a ho.”

“Nice. I’m assuming your customers are mostly guys.”

“Ninety-nine point nine percent.”

Laughing, Madison peaked out her window. “Oh man. Guess who’s on his way over.”

Malinda prepared to hang up. “Have fun with that.”

“What? No, don’t leave me,” the doorbell rang and she changed her voice to a whisper, “I don’t want to answer it.”

Malinda pictured her cringing and pressing her body against the wall like a burglar was at her door. “You have to. He’s needy. And stupid.”

“Ugh, I hate this. Alright, let me go see how fast I can get rid of him. Talk to you later.”

“Girl, it is worse than we thought,” was the first thing Tyler said when Malinda answered her ringing phone, dropping her weight to the couch.

She sighed dejectedly. “How much are we talking?”

“She’s averaging about a hundred dollars per shift in straight cash. When you add in the stuff her friend takes, it’s only like twenty bucks in merchandise. Now that they’re getting more comfortable, they’re taking books instead of just bookmarks.”

“She’s taking the money straight from the register, isn’t she?” Malinda asked Tyler. “Not just that whole extra change scam? Because a hundred seems like a lot.”

“Yeah. Now, I’m wondering if she knows that you’re onto her, because the only shift that she worked with you, she only took twenty.”

“Interesting. So Tyler, what should we do? Do we do this now?”

“You talked to the police already, right?”

“Yeah. Lieutenant Gill and Detective Haak. They said we can handle it however we want. We can do it now, with the five hundred or so that she’s up to, but it’ll be a lesser charge. If we wait until she gets to a thousand, it’s a felony charge. But we’ll have to take the extra loss.”

“Won’t she have to pay it back?”

“It’s not a guarantee.”

“Mindy, babe, it’s your store. What do you want to do?”

“It’s your too. You and Mary have just as much a say as I do.”

“Yes, but the whole thing was all your idea, your dream. Mary will be here later so I’ll double check on her stance, but she already hates the girl, so I’m sure she’ll gladly lose the money to see her get a harder charge. Personally, I’d like to do it now, just to get rid of her faster. But you know more about the law stuff, so your opinion will be the deciding factor.”

“All I know is what Gill and Haak told me. She’ll have far less of a punishment if we do it now. It’s only a misdemeanor, and she’s never been in trouble before, so it’s likely all she’ll have to do is pay us back. If we let her steal a thousand, then it’s grand larceny fourth, which is a felony, and while she still probably won’t go to jail or anything, she’ll at least have something, probation or something, and then she’s more likely to have to pay us back,” Malinda pinched the bridge of her nose. “I just can’t decide. There’s really no guarantee that she’ll have to pay us back either way, so it’s a gamble on how much we’re willing to lose.”

“And what about Pink Chick? Do we want to bring her into it?”

“As far as she goes, I’m even more conflicted than I am on Lindsay. Haak thinks that with them working together, he can charge them both for the same total. Gill says he can only charge her for the merchandise one her. Because we really have to proof she knows about the money Lindsay’s taking.”

“What about the change scam? Of course she knows about that. You’d have to be bloody retarded to not realize you were always getting the wrong change and getting your money back.”

“In theory. Unfortunately, being oblivious isn’t a crime,” Malinda paused. “Bloody?”

“I was reading Marian Keyes again,” Tyler told her. “So let me know what you want to do. I’ll go over the books again to see how much we can afford to lose, and when Mary gets here I’ll have her check the register records again to make sure no one else is involved.”

“Thanks Tyler. I’ll talk to you later,” Malinda hung up the phone and stuffed it in her pocket. Her stomach lurched; she was starving. As she put a frozen pizza in the toaster oven, the front door opened.

“Hello!” Laurel called out.

“Hey honey. Good timing. I’m making a pizza. You hungry?”

“As long as it’s the one in the red box and not the cheap yellow one again.”

Malinda laughed. “Yes, it’s the red one.”

“Good. I’ll be right back,” Laurel took her backpack to her room and returned to find her mother sitting at the table, waiting for her pizza. She sat down next to her. “How was your day?”

“It’s been better. Madison says hi. Britney Spears has a new car.”

“How’s Junior?”

“He’s good. Actually, he’s been staying with Madison the past week or so, while JC’s been working on his CD.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“Did he –”

“No.”

“Oh.”

Malinda smiled weakly at her. “Go turn the pizza,” she got up to use the bathroom. She’d been urinating like a faucet the past few days.

Once the pizza was ready, Malinda cut it in two, and put half in front of Laurel. She got a pitcher of iced tea out and poured Laurel and herself a glass. When she sat down to eat, the aroma of the pepperoni on the pizza didn’t induce the usual salivation. Instead, her stomach knotted. Not wanting to show any sign of illness in front of Laurel, she took a deep breath and managed to get through her snack. After Laurel had gone to her room to do her homework, Malinda called her doctor, realizing it was time for her yearly anyway. She got an appointment for that week.

The next day, after Malinda dropped Laurel off at school, she went to work at the store. Mary pounced on her as soon as she walked in the door.

“I am so glad you decided to wait. God, I want to nail this girl good!” One side of Malinda’s mouth curled up. “I’m glad we have enough money to work with.”

“I think Tyler’s a little sad we’re not bringing the cops here sooner. He was so looking forward to it.”

“You were too, so shut up.”

“Hey! So were you.”

“It doesn’t count, I’ve had a crush on Lt. Gill since I was a little girl. If only his son looked anything like him, then I might never have fallen for the asshole.”

“But then you might not have had Laurel,” Mary pointed out.

“This is a good point.”

“Okay, so I figure with this Lindsay thing, in order for her to get to a thousand, we only need to wait five more days.”

“I still haven’t decided what to do about Pinkie though.”

“Me either. It might not be worth doing anything. We could just talk to her ourselves. Lindsay usually takes the money towards the beginning of her shift, and her friend comes in at some point after the halfway mark. So we could give Lindsay the chance to take the money, bring in the cops and get rid of her, then when Pink Girl shows up, tell her what happened to Lindsay, and maybe we can scare her into bringing our stuff back. Then we can see what we can still sell to recoup our losses.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Malinda said and checked the schedule in the office. “I can’t wait until this is over. It’s so stressful.”

“It’ll be over soon.”

Malinda pointed to the schedule. “She’ll be here today. Day One. Only a few more.”

“We’re really doing this!” Mary’s eyes were positively glittering. “I’m excited. Really excited. And that scares me a little bit.”

“We’re like blood-thirsty pirates.”

“Arrr, matey!”

The two women laughed and set about getting the store ready for opening.

Thursday afternoon, Malinda drove away from Dr. Prenhart’s office, half in shock, half satisfied that her hunch was right. Her first stop was the salon where Gina worked as a receptionist. When she walked in the door, Gina waved in greeting and began to get up from her post, then she saw the look on Malinda’s face. Before she had a chance to ask what was wrong, Malinda silently pushed a sheet of paper across the Formica countertop. Gina looked down at it and froze. She continued to stare, her mouth slowly falling open. When she looked back up at Malinda, her eyes were sorrowful. Coming out from behind her desk, she ignored the ringing phone and wrapped her arms around her friend.

“Option A or Option B?” she asked softly.

“My first instinct is A.”

“Oh, Mindy. How long?”

“Three weeks.”

“Let me know when the appointment is.”

“I will.”

“Talk about a flashback, huh? Didn’t you pass me a note just like this one in class once?”

“Followed by about sixty-three more. Call me later, okay? I have some calls to make.”

With a smile, Gina gave Malinda’s hand a squeeze and sent her on her way.