Page 33 of Love me, Maddie Mendoza

Something was amiss.The thing I supposedly loved the most was taken from me and I was…surviving.

I held on to the other things I knew about myself; the type of food and drink I liked. My friends. Small and big, I held all the pieces of me to my chest.

And how the hell was someone like me supposed to date now?

I went anyway.

I walked to the library at four o’clock to meet Cathy. We were able to arrange a time without Maddie’s suggestions, ignoring when she jumped off her seat with the opportunity of meddling. When I rushed to set a time with Cathy, Maddie smirked at me, and I knew I was being played.

Cathy waited for me at the end of a long table tucked in the left side of the library, right against the window. The table was long, but she was sitting alone, brushing her hair behind her ear as she watched people pass by.

Cathy had a porcelain doll quality. I wasn’t sure what to do with it. Her red hair was warm rather than ginger, her nose upright, and perfect cheekbones adorned with freckles. Dark brown eyes to offset golden light skin. She was regal. It was the only way to describe it.

“Hi!” She brightened up with a smile when I came over.

I pulled out a chair in front of her. “I’m sorry for making you wait.”

“You didn’t. I’m always early to things.” She shook her head.

That intrigued me. “Are you saying that to be nice to me?”

“No!” She laughed. “Ok, I wasn’t going to lead with something like this but…” she looked around like people were going to overhear us. “I make a point to be ten minutes early to every appointment.”

“Why?” I whispered.

Cathy bit her bottom lip. “To know.”

“To know?” I straightened up again.

“To know.” She did too.

“Know what?”

“Everything. The movement of the people, to settle myself into a new place…”

I crossed my arms and looked at her with humor. She picked up on that.

“Is that too dorky?”

“It is something.”

Cathy lifted a shoulder. “You can just think of me as a spy. I need to know all exits or something cool like that.”

I chuckled, and she followed my lead, yet I could spot the red on her cheeks. She was a little uncomfortable. Cathy groaned, rubbing a finger to her temple. “Why don’t you tell me something about you so I’m not the only one exposed?”

“I’m always late for my appointments. I have almost no need toknow…”

“Oh god…” She groaned, more embarrassed, and I chuckled.

“Forget it. Should we get into anthropology?”

I laughed. She was an easy person to talk. All things considered, at least we had a class in common. As far as a date, I might ask her on one.

Maddie was lying on the mattress watching TV and crocheting when I arrived home from the library. Like a nosy little grandma, she beamed the moment I got in.

“How was it?”

“It was all right. Learned lots about anthropology.”

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