Chapter 12
12
Kieran
“Sorry for the wait,” I said for what was probably the hundredth time.
Next to me, Lila had been saying the same thing over and over again, that and “not yet,” when they asked if she’d come in yet.
It had been two days since the video, and we’d been slammed with a line around the block, despite the boarded-up window and display case. Stewie, true to Lila’s word, had delivered an audience, and the city had turned out to find out what happened and to get a chance to witness the reunion dotted with dollar signs. The local news had even picked it up, and though I never would have agreed to starting it, the crowdfunding site Stewie shared had already brought in enough to make the repairs. I was uneasy about all of this and kept waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Tom was behind the counter filling orders, and Granddad was at the cash register. He’d told me more than once to stop fussing over him, but I couldn’t help but worry this exertion and excitement would be bad for him. You wouldn’t know it to look his way, though. Every hour or so, he’d clap me on the back and shake his head, repeating “I just can’t believe it” with the widest grin on his face.
I handed the woman in front of me her coffee and a cruller. “Your speech.” She rested her hand on top of mine. “I have to tell you it was so sweet and so romantic. I hope she comes to find you,” she said with a kind smile. “I could hear in your voice how much it will mean to you for her to come back.”
In reality, Lila had taken one look at what I planned to say on the video and ripped it up, telling me it lacked heart. When I told her heart had nothing to do with this, she rolled her eyes and told me to keep the apron on while she made quick cue cards. In the end, I couldn’t read the sappy lies she’d scripted for me, so I’d just said what I thought women might want to hear. That was the only explanation for how I’d gone on about her smile. That wasn’t like me, even though it was true.
“Did she come back yet?” the trio of teenagers asked before ordering, and I shook my head.
The crowd didn’t thin as the day went on, and I’d stopped recognizing individual faces as people kept coming and coming just like the day before. I escaped the front of the shop to get receipt tape from the office and took a moment to regroup. The ticket was locked in a desk drawer, and I eyed its resting place, wondering what I would actually do if she never came back, if she lived somewhere else, or if she wasn’t connected on social media like me. I’d told Lila there was no way I would claim it, and I couldn’t now, but the crowds out front were my first glimmer of hope that we might be able to keep Joe’s open long enough for me to go back to school. The lightness in my chest was unfamiliar, and I reminded myself to stomp down that hope—this was all still unlikely to work.
“Kier? You back here?” Lila leaned against the doorjamb, studying me.
“Yeah. Let’s get back out there.” I swiped the receipt tape from the shelf and tried to push past her, but she didn’t move.
“I’m just waiting for you to admit I was right,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “Need cue cards? They’d read, ‘I should listen to you more often, little sister.’?” She laughed at her own joke, clearly amused by blocking my path, but I looked over her shoulder at Tom, who leaned in close behind Lila, making her jump.
“I think she’s here,” he hissed, his eyes sparkling. “Beautiful woman with big brown eyes and a smile like sunshine just got in line!”
“Tom,” I sighed. “That description didn’t even make any sense. Eighty percent of people in the world have brown eyes.” That was why I added her sense of humor and how charming she was. It wasn’t because those things had been living rent-free in my head.
“Yeah, but all those women aren’t beautiful like this,” he said. “Just come out and see for yourself. It’s what you wanted, right?”
Lila and I exchanged a glance, because I wasn’t sure either one of us had thought this all the way through. If Sybil showed up to get the ticket, the mystery was solved. No more human-interest story, no matter how well Stewie had convinced people they needed to be here to witness something special.
Tom ignored our silence. “Of course it’s what you wanted. C’mon.” He walked back out to the front, where two friends of Lila’s were covering the counter with him, and we followed. I scanned the space, looking at each face in search of Sybil’s, my heart rate rising. It wasn’t because of the attraction to her—it was just nerves about this boost in business drying up, and it wasn’t eagerness to be closer to her again, it was just wanting a redo of last time, only with no interruptions.
Tom unsubtly pointed to the back of the line near the door, where a tall, thin, redheaded woman chatted with a middle-aged man in front of her. I’d always hated the saying because it seemed overdramatic in addition to being physically impossible, but in that moment my heart really did feel like it was sinking down into my stomach, and I didn’t expect the disappointment to hit me so hard.
“That her?” Granddad’s voice carried and, in an instant, the entire store was looking around, the volume rising as they tried to figure out who she was.
“Who?” Where?” “She’s here?” “Who?” The questions flew from every corner of the store.
“Not her,” I said, directing my words at Tom, but it was too late and the redhead he’d been pointing out was looking around like everyone else.
“It’s not her,” I called out. “She’s not here,” I said again, trying to raise my voice over the crowd without success.
“Hey!” Lila had climbed onto a back counter, clapping her hands together the way our grandmother had. It was a louder clap than I’d ever heard anyone outside our family create, and the crowd quieted. “False alarm, she’s not here yet.” Lila’s voice carried over everyone, filling all the corners of the store, and then there was a moment of silence as the crowd reset from their frenzy of curiosity.
The moment of quiet lasted long enough for everyone to hear the chime on the door as someone else entered, and it was like the entire store turned as one to look.