Chapter 3
Chapter Three
The bonus of having eclectic taste was that my fifties style dress would fit right in at an event tailored to a much older generation. I only needed to cover my hair and face. That’s what the huge sun hat in the back seat was for.
Mom came out of her large four-bedroom farmhouse in flats, a cream cardigan, and dark slacks. Her makeup was soft and subtle and she was beautiful. She was one of those best appearance forward every time she leaves the house type girls. She pulled open the door of my yellow Volkswagen Beetle and sat, placing her purse between us like she always did.
I sighed in relief.So far, so good. I peeked at her purse without being obvious, spying Mom’s phone. I’d only need a few seconds to grab it and turn on airplane mode. I couldn’t have her calling for reinforcements before I was ready.
“So, what do you need help with?” She grabbed her seat belt and buckled. Getting Mom to come help in a crisis was simple, getting her to stay after she realized the ruse would be the tricky part.
I had kept it vague on purpose, and said I really needed some extra help at the apartment. “Oh I have a few things to hang, and then I wanted to go through my closet.” I shifted into reverse, focusing on backing out of the long gravel driveway. Her tulips were blooming, and if I ran over them, it would not put her in a good mood.
“I could have met you at the apartment.” Mom shifted in her seat. She hated “being a burden,” as she liked to put it.
“I know you could have, but I was already out and about.” I smiled at her, not lying yet. “And you are helping me, so I’m happy to pick you up.”
“You are such a sweet thing.” Her eyebrow creased. “Which is why I worry about you alone in that apartment.”
I rolled my eyes. “How is that any different from you being alone in a big farmhouse all the way out in Caldwell?”
She waved me off. “I’m older, it’s different.”
“Nope, not different. If anything, it’s worse.”
She might not still be thinking I was sweet here in twenty minutes. The Brick House was near Eagle, so at least it was in the same direction as my apartment. I drove into town and merged onto the freeway.
I switched lanes and topics. “So how’s work?”
“It’s fine. They have mandatory overtime right now.”
“How are your knees?”
“My hands have been swelling a bit and my knee keeps acting up some. I guess I can’t blame the floors on me being over fifty.” She exhaled softly. “All in all, it’s a great job with a great schedule. So I can’t complain.”
“Mom…can’t we find you a less physically demanding job?” I hated thinking of her on her feet all day, moving heavy packages around.
“Oh, I’m fine. I don’t want you worrying about me. I’m your mother and you’re my daughter, not the other way around.”
The guilt I’d felt before now sat comfortably behind my righteous cause. “I was hoping to stop at a building in Eagle and check if they have anything for the shop. Do you mind? ”
Mom waved off my concern. “Oh, whatever you need, dear. I can’t believe Ivy’s baby is due next month. I’m so excited to go out and help her for a few weeks.” She turned toward me as I took the Eagle exit. “Have you talked to Ivy at all lately?”
Nope.
I hadn’t talked to her in a while. The last time we chatted she said if I spent more time dating and less “rummaging through old dirty objects,” I could be married too. She didn’t see the beauty in my store and I did not see the beauty of being married for the sake of a status symbol. If Mom knew we were fighting again, she would turn her attention to “fixing.” Space would work its magic, and Ivy and I would try again later.
Some things never change, whether we were eight or twenty-eight. We were raised in the same house by Mom, but somehow we were very different people.
“I haven’t called for a bit. I’ll try this weekend.” I lied. I needed another week at least. “I talked to Caleb last week though.” By talk I meant I’d texted him and asked if he was coming home for Mom’s birthday in a few months. For siblings, I thought we were decently close. We could eat Thanksgiving dinner without anyone throwing food. Seemed like a win to me.
Mom was always hoping we could be more like friends than siblings.
She nodded, satisfied that her babies were still communicating.
“How’s Spike?” I was amazed the cat was still alive.
Mom sighed. “She’s good, though still a terrible mouser. The other day she proudly showed me one that she brought in from outside… It was still alive. She let it go and didn’t even bother to chase it as it ran around the kitchen.”
“Oh no.” I chuckled as she told me about Spike’s new adventures and the Bunco group’s newest addition. I pulled into The Brick House’s parking lot. I had been seeing stuff about the renovations for a bit and was excited to go inside. All three floors’ interior lights were shining through the oversized windows set in a dark red brick exterior.
Mom turned and looked at the building. “Did you know this used to be a potato processing plant?”
I used her momentary distraction into the past to grab her phone and turn on airplane mode. Electronics were not her strong suit and it would take her a while to figure out what was wrong. I slipped the phone back in her purse.
“Nancy mentioned they had to shut down again for several months. Something about water problems.” She tapped her fingers on her leg. “Her son had his reception scheduled here, but they had to cancel at the last minute. She was livid.” Mom turned and faced me. “Informed us we were now boycotting the place.”
“Yep.” I grabbed my gray eyeliner from my purse and added light lines around my eyes and near my mouth. I tried to look at my face from different directions. It wasn’t great.
Mom scowled in my direction. “Em?” She leaned in. “Are you drawing wrinkle lines on your face?”
I jerked mid wrinkle line, causing a dark smudge. “No, um, it’s a new contour shading thing I saw online. Do you like it?” I gave up with the pencil and grabbed the large floppy sun hat from the back seat and began securing my light blond hair underneath it with pins. Mom leaned out of the way of the large brim.
“Honestly, no.” Mom held her hands up to protect her face. “It looks terrible.” She started digging in her purse. “Don’t worry, I should have a wet wipe in here.”
I hopped out of the car before she could attack. “It’s okay. I don’t think we have time. I’m just grabbing a few things, anyway.”
I’m pretty sure that lies don’t count when the accused was performing good deeds. It might not be in the Bible, but somewhere definitely says that.
I rushed toward the building hearing Mom’s door shut behind me.
“Geez, where’s the fire? ”
Her quick steps clipped on the sidewalk behind me and I glanced to see her waving a wet wipe as I climbed the concrete stairs.
I pulled up the tickets on my phone and ducked my head, blocking everything with the sun hat. A bored teenager scanned the tickets as she popped her gum and scrolled videos on her phone.
Nice! Maybe they didn’t care about the whole fifty plus thing.
Inside, the building was a breathtaking mixture of old and new. It had large, dark wooden beams and posts, exposed brick walls, old chandeliers, framed newspaper articles, and accents of sleek industrial metal. To the right was a series of rooms, and ahead, a set of stairs and the bathrooms.
“Wow.” Mom stopped and stared.
“My thoughts exactly.” It was gorgeous.
My mother huffed. “Speaking of gorgeous, you need to wipe that gray off your face and take off that god-awful hat. Is that a bunny on top of it?” Her lips frowned.
The hat was a Savers find. I went with whatever had the biggest brim. The animals and plastic fruit on top of it were a bit much, but taking them off would have ruined more than it helped. “It doesn’t matter. I’m not going to see anyone I know. And it’s not a bunny…I’m pretty sure it’s a mouse?” I waved her off, but then to the right I noticed a KISMET SILVERS EVENT sign on an easel next to the double doors that were propped open.
Shoot. I tried to block the sign with my body as we passed. Mom tipped her head to the side and moved behind me to read the sign.
“What is Kismet Silvers?”
It was too soon—she would bolt.
“No idea.” I looked around, desperate for a distraction. Perfect! Bathrooms. “I need to use the bathroom, then we can figure out where the inventory they want to get rid of is.” I nodded to the bathrooms off to the left.
She followed me to the restroom and began fluffing her hair and applying her lipstick. I stepped into the stall and carefully went over my plan.
Make sure no one looks at me.
Make Mom find a date.
Preferably a rich date.
When I came out to wash my hands Mom swiped my hat off my head, handed me a wet wipe, and threw my hat into the garbage in a swift ninja-like movement.
“Hey!” I felt where my hat used to be. “I just bought that hat.”
“Why?” Mom grimaced.
I straightened. “Um, I thought it looked good on me?” It was a stretch, but I couldn’t tell her it was a disguise.
“How much was it?”
“Two dollars…”
Mom rolled her eyes, dug in her purse, grabbed two dollars, and thrust them into my hand. “Consider yourself reimbursed.”
She lifted her chin, “I’m sorry dear, it had to be done. I’ll buy you a new one. One without an entire farmers market on top of it.” She shuddered and nodded at my face and its gray lines and then the wet wipe.
She did not look sorry at all. Hopefully they wouldn’t care too much about the fifty and up thing, because this had just gotten much harder.
Mom stepped back, taking in my appearance. The blond hair was now straight against my collar bone, my face had no wrinkle lines, and my knee-length vintage dark blue and white polka-dot dress met with her nod of approval.“You are beautiful, Emma.” Mom gave me a quick hug. “Inside and out.” Her eyebrows fell. “But that hat, again.” She shuddered.
I chuckled. “Fine, let’s go see what we can find.”
We left the bathroom and headed into the room with the open doors. It smelled like peppermint and a very strong floral perfume.
Large groups of people mingled throughout the room. I looked at the round table near the entrance, and a woman with a pointy nose and glasses studied her clipboard. “Names.” Her nasal voice startled me.
“Hannah Woods and guest.” I tried my best to keep my chin tucked and to avoid eye contact. I really hoped I wasn’t caught before we even got inside.
I heard the scratching of paper and saw her check Mom’s name off the list. She looked quizzically at me as she handed us two name tags, and I looped Mom’s elbow in mine and pulled her into the room. Hopefully, if nothing else we could get lost in the crowd.
“Why was it my name on the list and not yours?” Mom asked, as she looked back at the round table.
“Hm.” I did my best to ignore the question as I looked for future hiding places.
“Em.” She pulled me to a stop, her blue eyes full of questions as she looked around the room. “Why did they have my name and not yours?” Several men nodded in her direction. “It doesn’t look like there’s inventory they want to get rid of in here. It’s like a reception or something.” She looked at the front of the room with the stage. “Are we at the wrong place?” She turned toward the front door.
I searched the room, desperate for something to distract her. I nodded to a table piled with desserts toward the back of the room.
“Look, maybe we are in the right place after all.”
“Emma! Are you thinking of stealing desserts?” Mom chastised me in a whisper.
“Mom, we’re on the list. I think they are for us.” I pointed to our name tags.
Mom’s lips frowned, but she didn’t resist as I pulled us to the table. I picked up two glass plates and handed her one. I went along the white lace tablecloth and grabbed a cookie and a slice of cake. I waited at the end of the table for Mom, and while she was distracted by the desserts, I scanned the room for potential dates.
“What are you looking for?” Mom asked .
“Geez!” I jumped, nearly dropping my plate. “You scared me.” I nodded to a table in the back corner. “Want to sit and eat? Then I will see if I can find someone with the inventory.”
She nodded. “Sure.”
I led us to a table on the edge of the room, trying to recognize faces and attach them to profiles I’d seen. I picked up my cookie and took a bite.
The sound system clicked on, and I looked in horror at the stage and the older gentleman in a suit standing behind a microphone stand. He was about to welcome everyone to the singles event, and the perfect moment for confession hadn’t come.
Looked like the jig might be up.
Crap! Crap! Crap! I looked around for some way to kill the power.
Mom looked up from the bite of angel food cake poised in front of her mouth.
“I would like to welcome everyone to the first of many Kismet Silvers events.” Applause scattered through the room.
Mom raised her eyebrows.
I admit it, I even considered throwing my high heel shoe, in hopes of knocking out the old man and shutting him up. I looked everywhere but at Mom.
“A safe dating environment for patrons fifty and up,” the man continued.
Mom’s eyes grew wide.
“I don’t know about you, but I have found it hard to meet single people with similar interests and close in age. I started this event hoping we may all find friendships and company in our aging years.” He chuckled. “I may be sixty, but I think I still have good years of life to live.” He winked at the crowd.
I was so dead.
I fidgeted in my seat.
Mom turned her body to face me, fire blazing in her eyes.
I cleared my throat. “So…how’s the cake?”