Page 94 of Employing Patience

Sure. With Art’s mouth.

I’m working on getting the shelves stocked when a familiar little voice comes from beside me. “Can I work here when-when I’m big?”

I glance down to find Gus’s big eyes gazing up at me. “If you want to.”

“If I do, I can eat candy bars e-every day.”

“Or you could be a candy bar taste-tester.”

“What do they do?”

“Eat them first and make sure they taste good.”

Gus’s big eyes fly wide. “That’s a-a job?”

“Probably.”

Alice cries out to him from the other aisle, and I glance up to spot Art, but it’s not him who appears with her. The woman with Alice looks like Art, only with finer features and more lines around her mouth and eyes.

“Hey, Joey,” Alice says.

I throw her a wave, and the woman eyes me.

“Joey?”

“He’s Tio’s boyfriend,” Alice fills in.

“Friend,” I hurry to correct, then point at her. “Which you know.”

She smiles angelically. “That’s your story. Tio Artur told me he’s lonely sometimes, but he also said he’s not lonely with you.”

Art said that?

Sure, we’re fucking and spending time together, which is great, but that really hits. Him admitting to someone else that what we have makes his life that little bit better.

The pride washing through me takes me by surprise.

“I didn’t know Art was seeing anyone.” The woman holds out her hand. “Mariana. His sister.”

“Oh.” I hurry to shake her hand. “Nice to meet you. And he’s not. I mean, we’re not. You know.”

Her eyes narrow, looking so much like her brother. They don’t need X-ray glasses with a look like that. “How do you two know each other?”

“I work at Killer Brew.”

“Huh.” Her lips tighten in the corners, and I know what she’s probably thinking. Him hanging out with his employees isn’t the most professional thing in the world, but he never used his position over me or treated me any differently.

“And they-they give us piggyback rides to school.” Gus launches himself at my back, and I hurry to half catch him, half steady myself from crashing into the shelves.

“Some days, yeah,” I agree weakly. “It was totally unplanned the first time, but now he brings them in once a week. That’s it though.” I have no idea how Mariana feels about me hanging out with her kids when this is obviously the first she’s heard about me, so I give her the most gentle, nonthreatening look I can manage.

She is Art’s sister though, and I should know by now not to underestimate a de Almeida.

“I don’t want to know what you two do on the other days.” A sly expression crosses her face.

“Puzzles. And Scrabble. All PG wholesome fun.”

There is nothing about her expression that says she believes me.

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