CHAPTER 10
“You don’t have to take me somewhere,” India said.
“I’m not, technically. Did you drive?”
“What?” she asked when they got to the sidewalk outside the bar.
“Did you drive? I took a Lyft here. I was going to make up some excuse if tonight went bad; have Lainey fake sick and have to drive her home or something.”
“Wow. You had a whole plan to avoid me, huh?”
“Did you drive?” Maisie repeated her question. “Or do you not drive? Do you have a driver? You seem like you might be the kind of person who has one on speed dial.”
“Yes, Maisie, I drove. And no, I don’t have a driver on speed dial. My family does have a driver, though. Do you want me to see if he can pick us up, or would that be too fancy for you?”
“Where did you park?”
“In the back parking lot.” India pointed to the corner they would have to walk around to get to the lot. “I got here early.”
“How early?”
“Well, I’m wearing the same thing I wore to work today, so you guess.”
“You just came here after work?”
“I had a late meeting, but yeah. I was worried I’d be late if I went home, got ready, and came back, and I didn’t want to be late on you.”
“Oh,” Maisie replied.
They walked around the corner, and India wasn’t sure if Maisie was mad at her, annoyed by her, interested in her, or all of the above.
“We’re going to the picnic table place, like I told you.”
“Maisie, I don’t–”
“Will you please just let me take you there? I don’t need a fancy dinner, India. I know you do. You like stuff like that, but I can’t give you stuff like that all the time. I’m not wearing three-hundred-dollar shoes.”
“These are eight-hundred-dollar shoes,” she said while she reached for her keys in her purse.
“You spent eight hundred dollars on shoes?” Maisie asked loudly.
“They’re perfect,” India replied. “And I have some that are more expensive and some that are less.”
“You have shoes that are even more expensive?” Maisie asked. “But why? They’re just shoes.”
“Have you admired my ass in these shoes?”
“What? No. I mean… Well, yeah. You left the store, and I could–”
India laughed and said, “That’s why.”
When she unlocked her car, Maisie turned to hear the two back-to-back beeps.
“You have a Jaguar?”
“Yes, I do. And before you get upset about that, too, it’s four years old.
I don’t get a new one every year or something.
I only have one car; not a garage full of them, one for each day of the week or anything.
And I don’t use that driver. Well, I have a few times, but it was mainly for work or charity functions where I don’t want to drive myself, and I don’t want to use a shared-ride app. ”
“I’m not upset with you, India.”
“You’re not?”
Maisie walked around to the other side of the car and opened the door.
“I just… I worried you might be one of those people.”
“What people?”
“People with money. Super-rich people who act like jerks to those of us who aren’t.”
“Oh.”
India climbed inside the car, turned it on, and waited for Maisie to get in.
“I saw you wiping off that table, and I thought you didn’t want to be there, but you were slumming it because of me or something.”
“I’ll admit: I’m not one for places like that most of the time, and that is one of the reasons Finley and I didn’t work. She’s very much into places like that, and I wasn’t good about compromise in our relationship.”
“Which is over, but you’re still nervous around her and Molly?”
India pulled them out of the lot and said, “Nervous isn’t the right word, I think. It’s more that I’m getting used to seeing them together, but there’s an adjustment period. Finley was the person I once saw myself marrying.”
“Really? You and her? Married?”
“Why is that so strange?”
“Because she’s not at all your type.”
“My type? You know my type already?” she asked. “Wait. I don’t even have a type.”
“Finley seems like a top. Am I right?”
India laughed and said, “Yes, you’re right.”
“Did you two fight about that sometimes?”
“Yes.” She laughed some more. “How did you–”
“You like to share those responsibilities, don’t you?”
“I don’t really consider them responsibilities, but yes.”
“And not to make things worse for you, but she and Molly seem really happy together.”
“They do,” India replied. “Where am I going?”
“Oh, turn right and go straight for five blocks.”
“They are good together, and I’m happy for them, but that doesn’t make it any easier for me to see it,” India shared.
“I know. I’m sorry,” Maisie said. “I shouldn’t have said what I said back there. I promise, it’s not all about you. Some of it is just timing.”
“Timing?”
“The campaign. That Colter Stone guy gets on my last nerve. He thinks he can just waltz into my store, make fun of it, belittle me, and leave. It pissed me off. Then, you walk in, and you’re dressed…
well, a little like he was. Super expensive shoes, for example.
I let it go, but then you were picking a place for our first date, and that brought it back up. ”
“I reminded you of Colter Stone?”
“Just the rich thing. How are you this rich, by the way? Does Southern Roastery pay that well? Maybe I should get a job there.”
“Family money,” she said, keeping it generic. “I have a trust fund, but I don’t tap into it often. I make good money at Southern, yes. I’m an executive there, reporting into the C-suite, and I worked my way up out of business school.”
“Family money?”
“Yes,” she said, trying to think about what, if anything, Colter had revealed about their family’s history over the years during his various campaigns.
She wasn’t sure if he’d ever said where their money had come from.
“We owned some businesses a while back, sold one, started another, sold that, and now, we just have the money and the investments, but I work, Maisie. I don’t have to, and I’m not asking for some pat on the back or anything, but I have a job that I love, and I try to donate to charity regularly.
I like nice things, yes. These shoes, for one.
This car. My condo is nice, but I don’t think overly so.
It’s true that I didn’t want to go to this place with you, but that’s because I really didn’t want to.
I could see myself getting sick from the food there and ruining our first date.
I could see myself trying to find a clean place to sit and you getting annoyed with me because I couldn’t just be normal and sit down, but this outfit is–”
“Expensive?” Maisie guessed. “Left up here,” she added, pointing.
“Okay,” India replied.
She followed Maisie’s instructions to park and wanted to pick the spot that had two empty spots next to it because she didn’t want her car to be damaged, but that, too, would look like something a rich person would do, so she found a spot between two cars, parked, and they got out.
“Do you really have a problem with the fact that I have money? I can’t exactly change that.
I suppose I could donate everything I have, just give it all away, but it’s a first date, maybe.
I don’t know. Is this a date? I don’t know if I should commit to giving all my worldly possessions away for a first date. ”
“Not a requirement,” Maisie said. “And no, I don’t have a problem with it. Technically, my family was upper crust, too. It was just a really long time ago.”
“Ah, yes. You’re related to a former beloved president,” India said with a smile as she joined Maisie to walk toward a bright blue building on the water.
It looked more like a one-room shack or maybe a concession stand at a Little League game. India had been to a few of those over the years because of her sister, but what this place did not look like was a restaurant where she’d get good food.
“Loosely.”
“So loosely, you have his last name?”
“My family is from Pennsylvania originally,” Maisie said.
“No one signed the Declaration of Independence or anything, but we were in the mix. The oldest bookstore in the country is there, and the story goes that my family saw that, thought about having one of their own, but there wasn’t room or need for more than one in the same place, so they decided to move down here, which was odd because this wasn’t part of the US yet.
That didn’t happen until the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.
Anyway, they managed to buy up some land.
Two plots. One for their family home. One for the shop.
They also farmed a little and did other things until they sold the house and the land, and eventually, that place became your office building. ”
“Their house was–”
“Is now Southern Roastery’s headquarters, yes.” Maisie shrugged as they joined the line of ten or so people in front of the blue shack.
“They kept the bookstore and were very happy when the land became part of the US. It made things easier. Anyway, I’m sure they were doing some shady things back then – white people in the South and all that – but I don’t know how bad it was; just that they had this bookstore, and it’s been around ever since.
” Maisie smiled at India. “It’s important. That’s why I want to protect it.”
“You mean white people in the South owning slaves?”
Maisie nodded, looking sad.
“I hate it. That’s where I come from, though, and I try to give back when and how I can to make up for my ancestors, but Chapter & Verse isn’t exactly rolling in the dough.
I’m not in danger of going out of business, necessarily, because we own the land and building, but it’s not like I have millions of dollars rolling around. ”
“Not even old money?”
“Nope. I had a great uncle who took care of gambling most of that away for us,” Maisie replied. “Everything from the sale of the land to the additional properties the family had bought over the years is all gone.”
“Wow!”
“Yes. So, I, too, could’ve had eight-hundred-dollar shoes, but the men in my family decided that card games and horse races were more important things to use our money on. Also, I’d never spend that much on shoes.”
“You know I don’t need you to be rich, right? I’d think seeing my ex-girlfriend is an indication of that: Finley is not rich.”
“You know how you said earlier that you’ve had trouble being flexible before?” Maisie asked.
“Yes. I like things a certain way. I can’t help that.”
“But it got in the way of you and your ex.”
“It did,” India said and cleared her throat as they moved up in line.
“Does that bother you? Knowing you might have made it work with her, but–”
“Fin and I aren’t right for each other,” she interrupted.
“That’s the real reason we didn’t work. But, yeah, I wish I had given a little more instead of expecting her to give all the time.
I didn’t realize how bad it was until it was too late, so I lost her, but I don’t want to talk about her anymore, Maisie.
I still don’t know whether this is a date or just the two of us hanging out, but I’m here.
I came here with you, okay? That has to mean something, right? ”
“What’ll it be?”
India looked ahead, noticing for the first time that they had moved all the way up in line, and the man in the window was asking for their order.
“Number two and three, two light beers, and two bottled waters,” Maisie said.
“What?” India asked and looked at the menu board to her right to try to understand what a number two was.
“Fried catfish,” Maisie replied as she handed over her credit card. “And I got the fried chicken, too, in case you’re really worried about eating seafood. I thought we could share or switch or something. You eat meat, right? I don’t think I asked.”
“We don’t have veggie stuff here,” the guy said, swiping Maisie’s card. “Fried okra and pickles. That’s it.”
Maisie laughed and said, “We’re good. Thank you.”
She took her card back and stuffed it into the wallet that she then pushed into her front pocket.
“Wait over there,” the man said and nodded for them to wait at another window that India hadn’t noticed before.
It was on the side of the shack, and people were being handed their food through it by another person who worked inside.
“You come here a lot?” India asked.
“About once every couple of weeks.”
“So, this is your favorite restaurant in the city?”
Maisie laughed and said, “No, my favorite restaurant in the city is Commander’s Palace.
And before you say that you didn’t think I’d ever even been there, I’ve been there over a thousand times if I had to count.
It was my grandmother’s favorite place to go for lunch.
She’d take me there for lunch at least once a week back when we had enough money to be able to splurge like that.
They still give me a discount when I go in for dinner sometimes because of her. ”
“You mention her a lot, but I don’t think I’ve heard you talk about your parents or siblings.”
“Only child,” Maisie replied. “And my mom left when I was young. I don’t know where she ended up. My dad died not long after. Grams raised me then.”
“Oh. I’m sorry, Maisie.”
“Yeah, me too,” Maisie said. “But Grams made sure I had what I needed. She loved me and taught me the family business, but she never insisted or pressured me into taking it over.”
“Do you want kids?” India asked. “I mean, to inherit the place after you.”
“What? It’s a first date, India.” Maisie laughed. “Maybe eat the dinner we just ordered first.”
“Catfish and chicken!” the man yelled through the window.
“That’s us,” Maisie said and walked up to get the baskets of food. “Come on. I need your help with the water and beer.”
“Beer?”
“Yes. You’re going to try it. If you hate it, I’ll drink it. You’re driving, after all.”
India smiled because Maisie had admitted that this was a date, and that was all she could think about when she took a sip of the awful beer five minutes later.