28. Megyn
CHAPTER 28
MEGYN
I eventually had to go back to work. June’s hospitality would only last for so long. I brought Suzie’s finished apron with me.
However, as soon as I walked through the doors, I knew I wasn’t going to have a snowball’s chance in hell at getting her alone so I could give it to her.
Maybe I can leave it in her locker.
I almost didn’t care if I got paid the rest of what she owed me or not. Pretty soon, all of this would come to an end. Once I moved, I would have to find a job closer to my new place. Suzie and I would never cross each other’s paths again.
Until then, I had to keep going, keep getting through this somehow.
Darren gawked at me from behind the counter and so did the new hire he was training, a shy and polite older man whose name I couldn’t recall. I ducked my head and hid behind my hair to avoid their stares and took my spot behind the register.
Pippa, the girl already behind the register, let herself be nudged out of the way without comment. She looked tongue-tied, like she’d forgotten how speaking worked.
A customer pushed through the front door and came right up to the register. I avoided looking at them, but their swaggering walk, glimpsed in the corner of my vision, told me they were a confident male figure.
“What can I get for you?” I asked.
“An interview,” he said.
I hissed in a breath between my teeth.
Undeterred, the man held up a press badge and pushed it at my face. “I work for Positive Press, a small newspaper dedicated to reporting on happy stories in this tumultuous time in our history. I’m sure you know why I’m here to talk with you in particular.”
“I don’t want an interview,” I said. “Can I get you something to drink? Maybe a scone?”
“How much for five minutes of your time?” He leaned in close and lifted his eyebrows.
This is what my whole day is going to be like. Reporters and crazed fans, coming in and bothering me in the one place where it shouldn’t happen.
I could see them coming out to my house, but to my place of work? Had they no self-respect to come and pin me into a conversation I couldn’t escape from?
A warm, strong presence approached me from behind. The new hire, whose name I didn’t know, leaned around me and glared at the reporter. Gone was his good-natured expression, replaced with a burning intensity rarely seen outside of wrestling rings; if he had leaped across the counter and body-slammed the other man, I wouldn’t have been very surprised.
“She said she doesn’t want to talk to you,” he growled. “And she’s working. You can either buy something or leave, before I drag you out of here myself.”
The reporter sputtered, looking indignant. He puffed up, squaring his shoulders, foolishly small in comparison to his gentle giant of a competitor. “Touch me and I’ll call the cops.”
“And then I’ll say hi to my buddies on the force while they drag you off in cuffs for harassment.”
The reporter hesitated, clearly weighing the threat. He grunted and stepped back. “Fine. But don’t think I’m giving up on this, Megyn. The world needs stories like yours in it and I’m not going to stop until I publish it.”
He scurried off like a mailman with a dog nipping at his heels.
I breathed out heavily and turned to my savior, resting my hand on his arm. “Thank you, Yancy. You’re my hero.”
His eyebrows went up and he grinned. “You remembered my name. I’m impressed.”
“I thought you were going to kill that guy,” Darren remarked.
Yancy chuckled. “I was first a police officer and then a bouncer. My wife just got a very good job, so I don’t need to work such dangerous positions anymore.” He set his big hand on my shoulder and looked into my eyes. “I saw the news program. If anyone ever comes in and bothers you for as long as this lasts, know that I will be around to ward them off.”
Tears sprang to my eyes from how touched I was. “Thank you, Yancy.”
“We’re all a family here, aren’t we?” Yancy shrugged. His cheeks colored pink All at once, he went from being my champion to just a regular, genial guy again. “Darren, can you show me that milk foaming thing again?”
“Uh, sure,” Darren stammered. He flicked me a look that seemed to ask if I’d just witnessed the same strange event as him, and then he led Yancy away.
The next customer was, predictably, another reporter. She had the same kind of lanyard around her neck as the first man, no doubt connected to a press badge, though she kept hers hidden inside her shirt. She acted like a normal customer, but I could tell she was taking notes, making observations about me.
After that, more customers came in and they all blurred together as the hours passed. I couldn’t tell who had seen me on the news and who hadn’t and who was there to try and get the scoop. My work surrounded me in a fugue and I was glad for it.
Another customer entered. I called out a greeting to her, not taking my eyes off my register screen. “What can I get for you?”
“Is that any way to talk to your best friend?”
I started, jerking my head up. Maggie jutted out her hip, her hands planted on her waist. She grinned down at me.
“Maggie!” I said. Without thinking, without caring about what had happened between us, I went around the counter and hugged her.
Maggie bent over me and squeezed me tight. “I am so glad to see you, Megyn. I missed you so much.”
“I missed you too,” I murmured to her shoulder. I pulled away and looked over my shoulder. “Are you guys okay if I take my break now?”
No one minded, and this afforded them a bit of time to get Yancy familiar with the register, anyway.
Maggie grabbed my hand and pulled me outside. After the stifling heat of the coffee shop, the chilly wind was like heaven on my face.
Maggie leaned back on the building. “I’m sorry for betraying your trust, Megyn.”
I took her hand and shook my head. “I forgive you. But it’s not like I’m entirely innocent in this whole thing. I overreacted. I’m just…glad you’re still my friend. I’m glad you’re still here with me.”
“Hey,” Maggie said suddenly, “have you checked your phone today? Has anyone expressed interest in the house?”
“The agent said…” I stopped. I hadn’t checked my phone, and Maggie sounded as if she knew something and was trying not to give it away.
I pulled out my phone and found several missed calls and even more messages, all from the realtor who was working for me. She had left a voicemail.
I showed my phone to Maggie. “What do you know about this?” I asked suspiciously.
Maggie avoided my eye in a rather uncharacteristic way. “You should listen to it and see what it’s about.”
My suspicions grew stronger. She knows something. She’s been plotting something behind my back again.
I pressed the button to check my voicemail, put it on speaker, and held the phone to my ear. There was an awkward pause, typical of voicemails, where the caller is busy summoning words after listening in silence to the beep. Then, my realtor spoke in her unhurried manner. “Hi, Megyn, I have some great news for you. Your house has been bought. Someone has made a very high offer of $150k for it. I went ahead and initiated the process myself, as I’m sure you’ll gladly sell to them. Please call me back at your earliest convenience and if you have any questions or concerns, don’t be afraid to ask. Thank you.”
The call ended.
The phone slipped through my numb fingers, clattering on the ground. I put my hand over my mouth, my heart beating so fast I could hardly feel it. My vision swam. $150k? That was so much more than the house was worth. Could there have been some mistake? But the agent would have known if it was and wouldn’t call me with the knowledge it was wrong. She had already initiated everything, it seemed like. All I would have to do was sign some papers and—
And I could move.
Maggie was smiling as she picked my phone up off the ground.
I grabbed her and pushed her against the wall. “What are you smiling for?”
“What?” she said. “I can’t smile?” But she started trying not to smile and that really confirmed it for me that she had been up to something.
“Not when you have that look on your face.”
“What look? I don’t have any look on my face.”
I pushed my fingers to her armpit and she squealed with laughter. “You do too have a look on your face! It’s a look that says you know who bought my house!”
“I can’t tell you!” she yelped, squirming around to try and get free.
“If I beg like Carter begged, will you tell? Or do I have to keep tickling you?” I wriggled my fingers up and down her sides, making her shriek and contort in on herself.
“Okay, okay!” Maggie cried. She grabbed my hands and held them, panting and laughing. “I admit it! It’s Carter! Carter is buying your house! But I swear I had no idea he was going to pay so much for it?”
I dropped my hands, stunned beyond comprehension. “Carter? What does Carter want with my house?”
“He’s buying it to turn it into your sewing store,” she blurted out.
“Shut up!” I cried, astonished. “No way! Why? Why would he do that?”
“Because he isn’t going to let this stupid media circus ruin what he has with you.”
Tears started to come. I pushed my hair back from my face and spun in a circle, completely uncertain what to do with myself and my body. I couldn’t believe what Carter had done. It was making my heart sing and my hopes soar. I turned and then turned again, back to Maggie. “This will be my dream come true. He’s making my dream come true.”
“He knows you’re worth investing it.” Maggie grinned and held my hands and twirled us in a circle around in front of the building.
I twirled with her, laughing, letting myself be a silly girl for once, just dancing on the sidewalk unmindful of the way it made passersby stare at us.
Maggie released my hands and spun away, flopping on Effervesce’s wall. “He wants you to stick around.”
The world came grinding to a halt. I cried, “Maggie, wait! I didn’t have time to prepare. I don’t have an apartment. Once I sign over the house, I won’t have anywhere to go!”