Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
Audrey grabbed a box of mint chocolate cookies and placed them inside her shopping cart. She glanced down at them, wondering what the expiration date was. She grabbed another box off the shelf and checked to see when it expired.
Oh, not until months from now, she thought cheerfully. That’s perfect. I’ll go ahead and grab another couple boxes for our snack table at the hotel.
Although Audrey’s official reason for visiting Shoreline Market was to replenish the groceries that she, Elaine, and Michelle needed, she was also using her time to stock up on fun goodies that they would need at the hotel.
She felt a flutter of excitement as she thought about traveling to the store someday soon to pick up all kinds of items for The Birchwood House’s daily menu.
She would need to get eggs, and bacon, and fresh fruit.
They would have to make sure they always had plenty of ingredients on hand for making pancakes and waffles—regular recipe staples such as flour and sugar, along with fun things to add to the batter such as blueberries or chocolate chips.
She began to whistle as she made her way down the bakery aisle.
The thought of chocolate chips had inspired her to bake a batch of brownies with peanut butter chips and marshmallows in it that night.
She grabbed chocolate and peanut butter chips, and then closed her eyes for a second, wondering if they had enough marshmallows left in the pantry.
She remembered having seen a big bag of them on the pantry shelf and smiled, feeling excited about baking the brownies.
The recipe was one of her favorites, and it was something that she and Michelle had come up with together.
Both of them loved it, and the taste of the brownies always felt comfortingly delicious.
She turned her cart around the corner and headed down the next aisle, looking for pasta. She stopped in her tracks when she recognized the auburn-haired woman standing in the aisle ahead of her as Penelope.
“Hey!” Audrey said, hurrying forward to hug her friend. Audrey had reached out to Penelope a couple of times since the dinner they’d had at Crossroad’s Bar and Grill, but Penelope hadn’t gotten back to her. Audrey was grateful for an opportunity to ask her friend how she was doing in person.
“Oh! Hi, Audrey.” Penelope’s smile, normally wide with enthusiasm, wavered slightly. “Good to see you. I’m sorry I haven’t replied to your texts. It’s just—well, you know. Life.”
“I get it,” Audrey said, knowing full well that the only times in her own life she’d ever not replied to texts for several days were when she was going through her breakup or something else truly devastating.
She knew that everyone operated differently when it came to replying to text messages, but Penelope had historically been someone quick to respond to messages.
Audrey had found her silence concerning, and seeing the troubled look in Penelope’s eyes did nothing to allay her concern.
She touched Penelope’s arm gently. “How are you doing?”
“Great.” Penelope’s smile was a mile wide, but her tone of voice sounded artificially bright. “I’m doing fine.”
“Are—are you sure?” Audrey dropped her voice a little, wanting to make sure that Penelope understood she would keep anything that was shared in confidence.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Why are you asking?”
Audrey couldn’t be sure, but she thought she saw her friend’s facade of cheerfulness waver for a moment.
She seemed to detect a glimmer of sadness in Penelope’s eyes.
“I just—well, you seemed a bit out of sorts the other evening. I just wanted to make sure that you’re okay.
You can tell me anything and I’ll always be here for you. You know that, right?”
Penelope bit her lip. “I’m not exactly doing the best.” Her voice wavered.
Audrey could sense that Penelope was fighting off tears. “Are you almost done shopping? Let’s go check out together and then we can sit outside on one of the benches.”
Penelope nodded. “Okay. I just need to grab some dish soap and then I’m all ready.”
“And I just need pasta.” Audrey smiled. “I’ll grab a few boxes and then come with you to get the dish soap.”
A few minutes later, both women had paid for their groceries and they were stepping outside into the late morning sunshine.
A delicious breeze ruffled the small trees that lined the sidewalk bordering the market.
The women made their way over to a few comfortable wooden benches that had been placed in a row underneath the trees.
Audrey and Penelope carried their bags with them and set them down on the ground next to one of the benches.
Audrey felt glad that she hadn’t purchased anything perishable, and it looked as though Penelope hadn’t either.
It was a warm day, and she had a feeling the two of them were going to be sitting there talking for a while.
“So, how have things been?” Audrey prompted gently. “I heard the hair salon is doing better than ever. That’s great news.”
Penelope nodded, her eyes on a seagull that was swooping across the clear blue sky overhead. She squinted slightly, as if studying the bird was important. Audrey had a feeling her friend didn’t know how to start talking about what was bothering her.
“Hey, I bought some of that killer local caramel corn,” Audrey said, rummaging in her bag.
“You want some?” In her experience, snacks tended to make things feel easier, especially if they were sweet snacks.
“I know it’s kind of early in the day for a lot of sugar, but we can treat this like a special occasion, I think.
” She pulled out the container of caramel corn and unscrewed the red lid.
Penelope laughed and made a good-natured grimace. “Talking about my problems is a special occasion? I guess so. Sure, I’ll take some caramel corn. You know I love caramel.”
“I did remember that.” Audrey grinned triumphantly. Her smile faded a moment later when she saw how Penelope’s hands were shaking a little bit as she picked a few pieces of caramel corn out of the jar.
Penelope chewed the popcorn and let out a satisfied exhale. “Mm, that just hits the spot.” She chuckled. “Thanks so much. I’ll have to remember to buy this the next time I go to the store.”
“Take this one,” Audrey said. “I bought plenty of other goodies for us.”
“Aw! Are you sure?”
“Yes.” Audrey nodded gravely. “On one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“That you tell me what’s bothering you.”
Penelope threw back her head, laughing, and then she groaned. “Okay, okay, you win. I just… it’s not that I don’t want to tell you, it’s that I hate thinking about it. Avoiding talking about it is like avoiding thinking about it, you know?”
Audrey nodded. “I understand. But sometimes talking about things helps. Thinking about them too much usually doesn’t help.”
“Don’t I know it.” Penelope shook her head. “I feel like I’ve tied myself up in knots thinking about this. Like I’ve turned myself around and around in circles so many times I’ve just turned into a mess.”
Audrey cleared her throat gently. “And what is this thing that you’ve been unable to stop thinking about? Please? I’m weak with suspense here.”
Penelope laughed at Audrey’s joke. “Sorry.” She took a deep breath. “Okay. It’s—well, I know I told you things in my marriage weren’t great, but they’ve really gotten… extra not great.”
Audrey watched her friend’s face with concern. She wondered what exactly had been going wrong in Penelope’s marriage. Relationships were so complicated, there could be any number of things that were affecting Penelope’s marriage.
“My husband isn’t a bad guy, it’s not that, if that’s what you’re thinking.
” Penelope popped another caramel corn kernel into her mouth and chewed it thoughtfully.
“Well, he’s not a wonderful guy either. But he’s not mean to me.
He just… it’s like he doesn’t care anymore.
He hardly notices me or talks to me. He never seems to want to spend time with me.
I feel like an accessory in his life, and a totally disposable one at that. ”
“Oh, honey.” Audrey wrapped her arms around her friend.
She’d felt similarly before her husband Clark ran off with someone else.
He’d seemed to lose interest in their relationship, and she knew that kind of distance could be painful even without infidelity.
“I’m sorry. Have you talked with him about it? ”
Penelope shook her head. “I tried to way back in the day, but lately I’ve completely given up on him. When I told Harper about all this, she said, ‘Men are weasels and they should never be expected to better themselves.’”
Audrey’s jaw dropped. She felt taken aback by two things—first, that sweet Harper had said something so absolutely cynical and that Penelope had confided in Harper but not in her. “She actually said that?”
“Verbatim. I mean I was crying into a box of tissues at the time. I think sometimes women say things they don’t really mean when their friends are crying into a box of tissues, but she said it with a lot of emphasis. I think she really does think that.”
“Wow.” Audrey shook her head. “I know Harper’s heart got broken in the past, but that’s still—I mean, why does she think that about all men? I don’t know where that ultra-cynical view is coming from.”
Penelope shrugged. “I guess you’d have to ask her that. Although that may be the kind of question even she doesn’t have the answer to.”
Audrey nodded. “My other question is,” she said more slowly, “how come you didn’t come to me for advice? I mean, I used to be married. It’s something we could have talked about—it’s not like I don’t know what it’s like to be mistreated by a husband.”