Page 29 of A Fine Line

Obviously, there won’t be another time. I’ll be home for Christmas. Literally. And I would never be coming back.

“Oh my goodness thank you so much, Craig, we owe you all the turtles.”

Craig flushed a little and waved a hand. “Oh you don’t have to- actually, sneak them in the back door so no one else finds them when you do okay?”

Crew and I both nodded feverishly as Craig pulled out a filing cabinet and rifled through the papers showcasing each vendor and competitor. He tossed both mine and Crew’s applications into a shredder and reached for a blank form, letting us fill the information out.

A knock belted at the door behind us and Craig stood abruptly, wiping crumbs from his lap. “Excuse me, my mother is meeting me for lunch allow me just a moment.”

With just the two of us in the room, I turned to him. “Alright, partner, what name should we go under?”

Crew looked at the paper, considering. “We can just do, like, taco truck.”

“Ew, boring. Why not mine?”

“Cause Blissful Bites doesn’t exactly fit my aesthetic.”

“I didn’t think you even knew what aesthetic meant.”

“Fine,” Crew grumbled and snatched the blue pen from my hands before hunching over the desk and angrily writing out a name.

I leaned over to get a better view. “A…Fine..Line. Huh, cute. I kind of like it.”

“You’re the one who said it, a fine line between love and hate.”

I smiled to myself. “So in reality it was my idea.”

“Could you maybe just for once not be so-”

“Crew?”

Crew and I both turned on our heels slowly, casting our eyes to an older woman waddling to him with wide open bingo wingarms. “Baby Crew Wells, this can’t be you! Look how big you’ve gotten, my oh my, it seems just yesterday your mom had you in diapers running around the office.”

Her hands cupped both of his rounder cheeks and squished them into oblivion, the pink behind them growing even further.

“Mrs. Matthews…wow, what good timing.” Crew spoke up in a more nasal tone and the woman inspected every inch of his face, even pinching his strong nose.

Mrs. Matthews, Craigs Mom I gathered, turned immediately to me, her pinching claws relieving my partners face. “My son said he had a wonderful couple in here going for the competition, I just had to come meet you and look at that. Here you both are.” She took a step to me, this time lifting those varicose vein riddled hands and used a knobby knuckle to test my cheek bones. “Oh wow, what a beautiful girl you’ve got here.” I grinned. “A million dollar smile right there, is Crew treating you as he should?”

I look over to Crew, who’s entirely flushed and scowling at me like I hand-picked this moment to happen. I didn’t, of course, I hadn’t graduated to that portion of witch school. But I liked to the think you put good out into the world and you’ll get the good back. And believe me, this. is. good.

My smirk grew wide and ensured with my southern twang. “He’s the best I’ve ever had.”

Mrs. Matthews clapped those cold hands together excitedly. “Good, good. Love your accent, so…homey. Well, just came to say hello to my son, Craig, and I’ll be out of the way. Crew, lovely to see you again, I’ll have to call your mom and catch up with her.”

Without waiting for a response, Mrs. Mathews sashayed out of the room with her purple cardigan draped over her shoulders. Crew and I followed behind and if this were a cartoon steam would be pouring out of his ears. Tension and annoyancepractically seeped through the air in giant cumulonimbus clouds around him. I smiled a little at it. It was always fun to be the winner.

The second we were back to our cars Crew hissed out, “What is the matter with you?”

“What? That was kind of fun.”

“Yeah, for you.”

My arms folded over my chest. “If you didn’t have such a stick up your butt then it would be for you too.”

“You don’t understand,” he pulled at his hair and let go, it fell in ten different directions. “Mrs. Matthews used to be my mom’s old boss, and if she says anything to her about us-”

Us. I gasped a small laugh and narrowed my eyes. “Come on, you don’t honestly think-”

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