Chapter 1 #2
She took a long swallow, then two, then pulled out her ponytail holder.
Her silence gave Kell a chance to really watch her.
Chocolate-brown hair, damp with perspiration, framed her face for a moment before she tied it back again in a high knot.
The makeup she’d applied earlier in the day was long gone, now just a dark smudge under her big eyes.
Those eyes made her look younger and more innocent than he knew she was.
Kell’s mom would call Rachel sweet.
Of the group of six fellows, though, he knew she was only the second-most ambitious, beat out of the ultimate title by his own girlfriend, Alissa. Compared to the two of them, Kell was an amateur.
But a quick study.
“So, I was at the rally today,” Rachel started.
“The big one on the mall? Voting rights?” Kell asked.
“Yes. Always great for getting sign-ups.”
“And hopefully, voters who actually care,” Jonas added.
“Right. And I’m wearing this.” She made a face, looking down at herself.
The costume zipped up the front like a little kid’s pajamas, with elastic at the ankles and wrists, fabric paws fitted over feet and hands.
The hand paws were designed so you could still write, your human hands free under the furry covering.
The head was attached to the suit at the back of the neck, now dangling like an executioner had chopped it off from the front but left the skin attached at the back.
“I’m wearing this,” she continued, “and I had my stuff in a gym bag.”
“Oh, no,” Lila groaned.
“Yep. Someone stole it.”
“Your wallet in there, too? Phone?” Kell asked, instantly concerned for her.
“No, thank goodness.” She patted her hip. “They were in the suit pocket, and my keys. But I lost a really nice Lululemon outfit!”
“You can still zip out of that thing and cool off, Rachel,” Lila said with concern. “You have a t-shirt and shorts on, right? You look so hot.”
“That’s just it. After an hour or so in the sun, I got super hot. So, I went into one of those porta-potties at the rally and took off my clothes. I’m, uh…” Gesturing with her hands, she pursed her lips and sighed.
“You’re naked under there?” Kell choked out, just as Alissa returned.
“Almost,” Rachel whispered.
“That’s taking the whole ‘identify with the endangered animal’ empathy training a little too far, Rachel. No points for overachieving,” Alissa said. She stood looking at Kell with a hard-to-read expression, but one that made him stand instantly and offer her his chair.
Which she took.
“Hah.” Rachel looked at John, Jonas, and Kell. “By the way, guys, whichever intern wears Drakkar? Find him and have a talk with him. No one should put that crap on before climbing in the suit. Whew.”
“Drakkar? Really? We’ll tell him his dad wants his cologne back,” Jonas cracked.
Kell was watching the couple at the next table gather their things and stand, clearly leaving. He snagged one of their chairs and dragged it over. Musical chairs solved.
Alissa had busied herself with Rachel’s contact forms, thumbing through them. “These are interesting.”
“Yeah,” Rachel said, reaching for a blank form and using it to fan herself. “The negative response to Big Oil, and especially fracking? It’s definitely getting stronger.”
“Good,” Kell declared. “Last thing we need is support for anything like that.”
“Why do you care?” Alissa asked. “There’s no fracking in Maine. No oil or gas reserves to mine.”
“Just because it doesn’t affect me personally doesn’t mean I don’t care about it.”
Alissa made a noncommittal sound, but she put her hand on his knee under the table and smiled.
No eye contact, though. Reading her was impossible these days. One minute, she wanted to go home with him to meet his family–especially his Uncle Ted, who worked in state government–and the next, she was avoiding sex.
A big talk was coming. He felt it in his gut. Something was off.
“Besides,” he added, “there’s always some initiative to run a pipeline out of Canada through part of Maine. So it does affect me personally.”
“Wouldn’t want to ruin your hometown,” Jonas said in a snide voice. “What would the world do without Love You, Maine, the sickly-sweetest town on Earth?”
“Shut up,” Kell snapped.
“Come on, Kell. It’s funny. I can’t believe you come from there,” Alissa joined in.
“I don’t just come from there. I’m descended from the town’s founder.”
“So your great-great-whatever grandfather founded the town where every day is Valentine’s Day?” Rachel asked, seeming actually interested as she fanned herself, eyes filled with more mirth than he expected. Maybe the sangria was kicking in.
“We’ve been over this before,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Do the motels have those heart-shaped beds where you put a quarter in the machine and the bed vibrates?” John asked, reaching for the last chicken wing in the basket.
“Shut up.”
“Wow,” Lila said, sucking on an ice cube from her drink. “They really do?”
“And everything in the town is heart-shaped? And the police cars are pink?” Jonas asked, though he already knew the answer.
The five of them were piling on, and Kell wasn’t in the mood for it.
Especially because his brother was a cop in town, and actually drove one of those cars.
“Why don’t you all come up one day and see for yourself?”
They all burst into derisive laughter that hurt Kell’s heart a little.
All except Rachel. She didn’t laugh. Instead, she tilted her head and studied him.
Aha. An ally.
Until she opened her mouth and said, “I think that a tourist trap in the middle of backwoods Maine, where everything’s red, white, and pink, all heart-shaped gooey schlock, is so environmentally wasteful.”
Oh, great. Here it came again. They’d been arguing about this all year.
“She has a point,” Alissa said, but this time, something deep inside Kell couldn’t take it. Maybe the beer hit him wrong, or the stress of waiting for job offers was getting to him. Perhaps Alissa’s mixed signals got under his skin. Or maybe he just was tired?
No. It was definitely Alissa’s mixed signals.
Instead of arguing, he stood and tossed a twenty on the table, feeling the tight smile on his face.
“I gotta run. More job applications, you know.”
“Come on, Kell. Don’t be like that,” Alissa insisted, grabbing his arm.
He gently extracted himself. “I have to FaceTime with my niece in an hour anyhow.”
“You’re leaving happy hour so you can babble at a baby?” One of Alissa’s eyebrows had risen with so much judgment, it clinched his decision.
“Bye, all.” He kissed the top of Alissa’s head. “Text me.”
And he walked off toward the crosswalk, not quite angry, not quite hurt, not quite… anything.
Except confused.