Chapter Eighteen Lee
Chapter Eighteen
Lee
I wake up to the low murmur of Phoebe and Nico starting their day, and I drag myself out of bed and get dressed, sending Gran my daily text requesting proof of life.
She sends back a photograph of today’s paper and a ticket for this evening’s performance of Magic Mike Live.
It’s Monday, and my first official day as a fake resident of Roseport.
Had an early start and didn’t want to disturb you. I’m walking to the inn – left the keys to the truck so you won’t be stranded here.
N x
Nico must have taken Taco with him as well because the house is eerily quiet.
I drift around the kitchen, pouring myself a glass of orange juice and drinking it while looking out of the window.
The silence is soothing and I sit down to do some work, but despite the fact that I did an intense amount of socialising yesterday, it’s only a couple of hours before I start feeling restless.
It’s another beautiful day, and even though I know all those people at the meeting last night are out there, the urge to venture outside is overwhelming. Kat told me she owns a coffee shop in town and invited me to stop in any time. Coffee doesn’t sound too scary.
I grab my laptop and slip it into my bag before heading out.
I don’t drive much, and Nico’s car is the size of a small tank, but thankfully the wide American roads are a lot more forgiving than London streets.
Still, it takes me several minutes of driving around before I find a parking space enormous enough that I feel comfortable pulling into it.
‘Morning, Lee,’ someone calls as I clamber down from the truck.
I start. ‘Oh, yes, good morning,’ I say to the man passing me with his small, fussy-looking dog. I have no idea who he is, but it doesn’t seem to matter as he carries on his way.
I turn in the direction of the café, and get about three steps down the street, before a woman pushing a toddler in a stroller stops to say hello. ‘Good morning, Lee!’
‘Morning,’ I reply faintly, and I swear the toddler waves a tiny fist in greeting.
On the remaining walk to the café – which can’t be more than fifty metres from the car – seven more people say good morning to me. This is more social interaction than I typically have with people over a forty-eight-hour period.
When I push open the door to Bean & Gone, the handful of customers inside all turn and greet me in the sort of cheerful chorus you’d hear in one of those arty horror movies about a Stepford community that wants to offer up the newcomer to devil worship.
I mutter my weak hellos, and make my way to the counter where Kat stands, her hair scrunched up in a messy bun, a cloth thrown over her shoulder.
‘Morning, Lee!’ she deliberately echoes the creepy singsong voices.
‘Who are all these people?’ I whisper.
‘Is that a genuine question?’ Kat asks. ‘Because you are going to have to get to know everyone. I was thinking that you could use some flashcards.’
I brighten at this. ‘Actually flashcards would be great.’ If there’s one thing I am good at, it’s studying.
‘I was joking,’ Kat laughs, but when my face falls she quickly adds, ‘but I’ll get Mei on it – that’s the kind of crafty shit she gets a real kick out of. It’s the teacher in her.’
‘I’ll take all the help I can get,’ I say nervously. ‘I’m going to be terrible at this.’
She looks surprised. ‘No, you’re not.’
‘Oh yeah,’ I nod, ‘I am. I’m such a textbook anxious introvert. I have a very limited social battery, it can get drained pretty quick.’
Kat hums thoughtfully. ‘Yeah, we are a lot in this town. I’m used to everyone being in my business and having an opinion but I can see how it could be difficult.
Actually, it may surprise you to hear this, but I myself thrive on the attention.
’ She tosses her hair and fixes me with a wide grin, making me laugh.
‘I’m the total opposite,’ I admit. ‘I don’t love being perceived. If I could exist as a sort of nebulous energy cloud in public, that would be great.’ I sigh happily at the thought.
‘If I promise to try and perceive you as a nebulous energy cloud in great boots, will that help?’
‘Maybe,’ I smile. ‘Thanks.’
‘What are friends for? Anyway, I’m glad you took me up on the invitation to visit my place. What can I get you?’
I look over the giant chalkboard on the wall behind her. ‘A maple-oat latte, please, the biggest size you have,’ I say before turning to linger over the glass case of pastries. ‘These look amazing.’
‘Try the pecan muffins,’ Kat advises. ‘I buy them in fresh from this baker in the next town over. They’ll change your life.’
‘Sold.’
Kat gets to work making my coffee, chatting the whole time.
I can’t believe how easy it is to be around her.
In between the slightly overwhelming town meeting and the weirdly charged conversation I had with Nico, last night was surprisingly fun.
Nico’s friends are great, and I actually managed to relax and enjoy myself with them.
I can’t remember the last time I felt so comfortable with new people.
‘This place is lovely,’ I say, looking around in appreciation. ‘The perfect spot to get some work done.’ And it is: it’s light and airy and full of dark shining wood and splashy green plants. Kat grinds some coffee beans and the rich smell fills the air.
‘Thanks,’ Kat nods as she moves easily around the giant silver coffee machine. ‘It’s been a lot of effort, but I love how it turned out.’
She hands me my coffee, and I reach for my purse with my other hand, but she stops me with a wave. ‘Nope, first one’s on the house.’
‘Oh!’ I stop, tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. ‘That’s so nice.’
The bell over the door rings.
‘Hello, Kat. Good morning, Lee,’ the dapper-looking man approaching us calls out as the door closes behind him.
‘Hi, Gerald. You want the usual?’
He nods in agreement.
‘Hi, Gerald,’ I repeat after Kat, trying to commit his face and name to memory.
We make conversation for a couple of minutes while Kat makes his coffee, and I feel unnecessarily proud of myself for asking him two questions instead of just nodding politely. Look at me! I’m doing it! I’m integrating!
By the time Gerald heads back out the door (with a coffee for his husband Carl) a queue has formed, and just as I realise that I’m being trapped in a sinking quagmire of small talk, Kat interrupts.
‘Lee has a ton of work to do, so stop yapping at her and concentrate. Who wanted the maple scone?’
As the hungry crowd turn their attention to Kat, she winks at me and mouths the words nebulous energy cloud. Gratefully, I take my coffee and muffin and head for a table in the back where I pull out my laptop.
For the last couple of weeks I’ve been working on a complicated money laundering case that involves investigating several years of accounts across multiple businesses and I lose myself for a while in the soothing familiarity of the work, sipping my delicious coffee, devouring the sweet and spicy cake and hoovering up all the crumbs as I try to untangle the puzzle in front of me.
They look innocent enough, but my gut says there are secrets hiding inside all these numbers, and I’m going to ferret them out.
‘Lee,’ a voice breaks through my concentration and I blink, lifting my eyes from my computer screen, like I’m coming out of a deep sleep.
Kat is standing over me, her hands on her hips. ‘I said your name, like four times.’
‘Sorry,’ I wince. ‘I get a bit involved in my work.’
‘I can see that,’ she says, eyeing my computer screen. ‘It looks like you’re trying to crack the Matrix.’
‘Something like that,’ I agree, and when I catch sight of the clock in the corner of the screen I realise I’ve been sitting here for over two hours.
‘Nico called in his lunch order and I wondered if you wanted to take it over for him?’ she asks. ‘He’s working up at the inn, and you have his truck, right? I think Luke was going to pick it up for him later but as you’re here…’
‘Oh,’ I say, glancing back down at my computer. ‘Sure. I’ll get something, too, if that’s okay.’
I order a sandwich, as well as a bag of muffins to take home with me, aware that I’ve been taking up a table all morning without paying for anything, not that Kat seems at all bothered. She wraps everything up, her fingers moving deftly as she talks a hundred miles an hour the whole time.
‘Anyway, me and Mei want to take you out for a girls’ night,’ Kat says as I tap my card against the card machine. ‘So let me know what evening suits you.’
I smother a laugh. ‘I literally have no plans,’ I say. ‘Also, like I said, I don’t exactly have a thriving social life, so I think it should probably be what suits you.’
‘Sweetie,’ Kat gives me a pitying look, ‘you didn’t think you were getting away that easily, did you? Every social club in town has pencilled you in as their guest of honour. Plus it looks like you and Nico have a couple of date nights planned, right?’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘You do know you and Nico have a public calendar?’ Kat asks. ‘He and Magda set it up.’ She swipes at her phone and shows me a calendar absolutely teeming with appointments.
‘What the…’ I stare at it in mounting horror. What is displayed before me is literally the stuff of an introvert’s worst nightmares. This is my Stephen King novel.
‘Take it up with your husband,’ Kat shrugs, handing me a weighty paper bag and a cardboard tray with two to-go cups in it.
‘Oh, don’t worry, I intend to,’ I agree as I head for the door. I can’t believe Nico would set this up without talking to me about it.
‘And text me about girls’ night, okay?’ Kat calls after me as I leave.
By the time I bump off the road and down the drive towards the inn I’m wound up pretty tight, my fingers drumming an anxious tattoo against the steering wheel.
I pull to a stop and open the door, already forming my imaginary arguments. I won’t freak out, I tell myself, but I will, calmly, lay out the facts.