Page 31 of Lyrical

“Hello, hello.”

We both turned towards the direction of the basement stairs. Footsteps were sounding up them and Perry frowned, figuring out whom the voice belonged to.

A head popped around the corner. “I hope I’m not late.”

“No, actually you’re early, Michelle. You still have an hour yet. Wait, how’d you get in?”

“The garage door.”

Damn. I went into the hall and pressed the button, hearing it close below me. I didn’t like leaving it open so long in the wintertime; it was cold enough in the basement without having an unheated garage that led directly to it.

“Is Henry coming today?” I asked as she sat down, eyeing everything on the table.

“Another dog?” Perry said.

“Her husband, Perry.” I mouthed, “Behave,”then turned back to Michelle. Thankfully they were on opposite sides of the kitchen, and I was smack-dab in the middle. “Help yourself,” I said when I noticed her drooling over the brownies.

“Thanks.” She peeled off the plastic lid and scooped one from the container. “Not sure about Henry yet. He’s tired, and he’s already taken his nap. I told him to just pick his damn balls off his knees and stuff ’em in a pair of pants and come over already. How hard can that be?”

She took a big bite of brownie, and I saw Perry shiver out of the corner of my eye. “That reminds me, I need to give you back your spray.” I went into my office and pulled it from the bottom of my desk drawer, the one piled high with paperwork. I didn’t want to risk keeping it where anyone could see it. “Here you go.” I handed it to her. “Please put it in your purse right away.”

“I understand.” Michelle winked, shoving it in her bag. “It’ll be our little secret.” She took out a pen and piece of paper. “I’ll write down the best place to get it so you can have your own supply.”

“No, that’s okay—”

“It’s no problem at all. I bet Hotcakes likes them.” She winked again, and I glanced at Perry. She was leaning forward, chin resting in her hands and looking way too much like she was starting to enjoy this. “I bet he got all sticky when you showed him. How many times did you use it?”

What?“No, Michelle. That’s what I’m trying to say—I tried it once, but it didn’t work out so well. My skin had a reaction to it.”

“Oh, that’s horrible. You probably just used too much. Why don’t you try it again and see?”

“Whaddya say, Jills?” Perry’s smile was wide, and her legs were kicking.

I gave her a look. “No, I’m done.”

Michelle stood. “Well, since I have some time, I’m gonna go check on Henry. See if he made it off the couch yet. ”

She left out the back door, immediately lighting up a cigarette. I went back to my cutting board.

“At her age, why does she even bother with all this stuff?” Perry said. I was about to say that she’s only fifty, not eighty like she seemed to think, when Stephen appeared.

He grabbed two bottles out of the fridge. “Hey, you didn’t tell me you made beer dip.” He tried taking that too, but Perry stopped him.

“This is ours. Wait for the next batch.”

“You have three cases down there,” I said, pointing at the beer in his hand. “Why are you taking mine?”

“We finished off the cold ones. The others needed to be stuck in the snow for a while. They should be good when people get here.”

He headed back down, and Perry said, “You know, they’re probably not doing much else besides drinking and shooting pool.”

I started on the second batch of dip. “Can you run down there real quick and see how bad it is? Maybe we can get away with not doing much cleaning.”

She hopped off the counter and slapped her hands together. “Sure thing. And if I’m right—again—and they’re not doing shit, I’ll bitch at them for you too.”

I smiled. “Okay, you do that.” I felt a thrill knowing my boyfriend and brother were just down there hanging out. They got along well now, much better than I could’ve ever hoped for. I never thought Stephen would accept him, much less befriend him, but he had. I wasn’t sure because of the ten-year age difference, but that’s also what Perry and I shared, just in reverse. Strange to think of it in those terms.

“Ugh!” She ran to the sink, spitting something out. “What the hell was that?”

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