Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Winnie found herself humming a cheerful little melody as she perused the cheese section at Country Corner Market.
Tonight was another book club meeting and, to make up from her previous time showing up without a single snack in sight, she was going to make the best darn charcuterie board that those women had ever seen!
Not that she was putting too much pressure on it or anything.
She smiled as she put a container of mozzarella pearls into her basket.
Grandiose promises aside, she was feeling shockingly not nervous about going back to book club.
Everyone had just been so kind, even with her somewhat fraught history with some of them.
She and Miriam had gotten into a good-spirited debate about one of the novel’s side characters, and the elderly woman had even texted Winnie a few other book recommendations over the past few days.
Winnie looked at a few bottles of those little tiny pickles. Why did they sell so many different kinds? Were they somehow different? She picked one at random. That would have to be good enough.
She was trying to figure out if the existence of hard salami implied the existence of soft salami when she felt the hair on the back of her neck start to prickle.
Okay, well, that was a bit dramatic. She actually just saw Britt and Whit hanging out over by the flower display, but the effect was the same. Part of Winnie flashed back to middle school.
Be cool, Burnett, she told herself. Just do your shopping.
Except…
Except, seriously? How were they still here in her town? How long was this dumb vacation of theirs? They didn’t even like it here!
Winnie had gotten some salami and a package of that fancy, thin sliced ham, and was perusing the berries to see what looked the freshest when she heard her name in that simpering, mean voice that had haunted her since her tween years.
“Well, well, well, look who it is! Little Winnie again!”
Goodness. Did they get their lines from Villain Monologues 101? Winnie rolled her eyes expansively before she turned around.
“Hello, ladies,” she said, pasting on the smile she normally reserved for the elderly people in her tours that just wouldn’t stop asking questions, even though they’d been scheduled to be done twenty minutes prior.
“You’re still in town, I see. Did you end up loving it so much here that you decided to stay? ”
Even as she spoke, she was surprised by her audacity. She wasn’t being particularly unkind, but she’d never dared to stand up to either of her former bullies before.
They looked surprised too. But Whit got an especially mean look in her eye, and Winnie knew she was really in for it, now.
“Oh my goodness, Britt,” Whit said in that super sweet, simpering voice that made everything in Winnie tense up.
“Look at this. What could Winnie possibly be shopping for? Because it sure looks like she’s having a party, but that just couldn’t be, could it?
The Winnie we know never was one for parties, was she? ”
It was mean. It was undeniably mean.
And yet, for some reason, Winnie didn’t feel small when she heard it. This time, when they were horrible, horrible jerks, it was easy to see that this was entirely about them.
It wasn’t about Winnie at all. How could it be? They hadn’t really seen one another, aside from a few random encounters this summer, in over twenty years.
If these two women had stayed mean, which they obviously had…
That was about them. Entirely.
She smiled at the two women.
“You know,” she said. “It actually isn’t for a party.” Whit started to look smug and satisfied, so Winnie kept going. “It’s for a book club meeting!”
Whit’s smile dropped.
Winnie’s smile grew.
“I recently joined the book club full of the nicest women,” she said. It was easy to gush, because it was all true.
“How did that happen?” Britt asked snidely.
Winnie gave a careless shrug. “Oh, you know how it is in small towns. People know one another. They cordially invited me, which was lovely, and then the event was even better. It’s just so much fun to spend time with women who aren’t so trapped in the past that they still act like they’re in middle school.
It really makes you realize how sad it is when people don’t grow past the immature versions of themselves that they were before they were even teenagers. Don’t you agree?”
Britt’s mouth actually dropped open. Winnie wasn’t sure she’d ever felt so powerful in her life.
“It really makes me so grateful for this little town and its community… but I guess you don’t get that in the big bad city. Anyway!” She sidestepped them and they just let her! “Have a great time walking down memory lane. Bye now!”
And then she sauntered to the cashier, made her purchases, and waltzed out the door.
It wasn’t until she got to her car that she paused to even think about what she’d done. She put her purchases on the passenger seat, then stared out the front windshield for a moment.
And then she started to laugh.
There were a lot of emotions in that laugh.
Some of it was relief that she’d finally stood up to those awful, awful women.
Part of it was astonishment. Just think of it!
She, Winnie Burnett, had been so gutsy! She had totally turned the table on people whose mean comments had been hanging over her head for years.
But beneath that, there was a little bit of fear too. What if she’d spoken too soon? What if her new friendships weren’t built to last? What if she drove her new friends away?
No, she decided. She wasn’t going to let anyone take this moment from her, not even her own self and her own doubts.
Instead, she was going to go make a charcuterie board. And then she was going to go to book club. And she was going to have a good time.
She was the new and improved Winnie. Now, it was time to show the world.