Page 22 of Wreck Me

A murmur of discontent filtered through the room.

Grant looked at Ginny with a brotherly, but skeptical, smile as he set the steaming quiche onto a trivet in the middle of the table. “On this one, even I feel confident saying that you hesitated.”

“Definitely,” Sadie said, giggling. “Spill it.”

Three pairs of eyes stared at her, and one of those pairs was lowered into slits as dark as black holes. Ginny reached for the serving spatula and started eyeing which slice of quiche looked the biggest and juiciest. “Let’s just eat. I’m starving.”

Monique hovered both hands protectively over the steaming dish. “Tell us about your non-date andthenwe’ll eat.”

Ginny looked at Sadie for back up, but though her perky little sister was smiling, she was also nodding in agreement with Monique. Ginny let out a giant sigh as she let go of the spatula and sat back against the booth, defeated.

“It was nothing,” she said. “That dude who thinks he owns this house said we should get to know each other.”

Monique’s eyes were wide. “Nico?”

Ginny nodded. “I think his exact words were ‘doing business means understanding where the other person is coming from.’ We’re not doing business, because there’s no business to be done. But he agreed not to take the dogs away from me in trade for one dinner, so I did it.”

Questions exploded like popcorn from her nosy family members. ‘Where had he taken her? What had they eaten? How late were they out? Was he a gentleman? Had she had fun?’

Ginny couldn’t tell who was asking what until a question of Monique’s cut through the noise like a machete through butter. “You left the property?”

“Guys, guys,” Ginny said. She’d taken advantage of the general commotion to grab a generous slab of quiche, which she dropped onto her plate with a weighty smack. “It wasn’t like that. And no,” she said to Monique, “I didn’t leave the property. He knew I wouldn’t do that, so he brought the food here. He brought a little fireplace too, and we had a cook-out on the front lawn.”

Monique’s eyes relaxed slightly, but not all the way. “So, he didn’t come inside?”

“He didn’t so much as step on the front porch.”

Sadie nudged Ginny with her shoulder as she gave her a wink. “Still sounds kinda romantic. Did he bring a nice wine? Ah…Ah…Achoo!” Ginny felt the light rain of a sneeze prickle her bare arm. “Oh, excuse me!” Sadie said. “That came out of nowhere!”

“Are you feeling okay?” Grant said, reaching across the small table to lay a hand on his wife’s forearm.

“I’m fine,” Sadie said. “Probably some pepper got in my nose.”

“No worries,” Ginny said, digging into her quiche. “Germs are part of a healthy breakfast. And to answer your question, he brought sodas.”

“Just pop?” Grant said, sounding personally offended. “And what else,” he added with a laugh, “hot dogs?”

“Actually, veggie dogs,” Ginny said to their shocked faces. “I’m telling you, this was not a date. I told him a bit about who I am. You know…that I dropped out of college and used to live in the mansions I cleaned.”

Sadie tutted as she cut a thin slice of quiche and set it delicately onto her own plate. “Oh, dear. Leave it to you to start your first date with a guy by telling him how you dropped out of college.”

But Monique’s face was fully relaxed now. “He must have loved that. The guy’s a Harvard business grad, top of his class.” She gave Ginny a sideways smile. “Oh, but I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that. He managed to shoehorn that factoid into our first conversation in under two minutes.”

Ginny shrugged. “He didn’t get a chance. I was so tired from him blasting music at me for the past two nights that, after I explained my life philosophy a bit, I left and went to bed.”

For a few seconds, Monique went so still she looked like a wax carving of herself. Then, her lips parted into a chuckle, which quickly grew and deepened until she was flat out belly laughing. Her head rolled on her graceful neck and her shoulders quaked as she pounded the table with her fist.

Ginny couldn't help staring at her older sister. Was there something in the water? Had she been taken over by happy spirits? Glancing to her right, she saw Sadie staring saucer-eyed at Monique too, her little bow mouth open in limp surprise.

Grant seemed startled, even nervous. His eyes darted between the sisters warily. “What’s…what’s so funny?”

“No idea,” Sadie said.

Monique took a few deep breaths, trying to squelch the laughter. Her brown eyes were damp, and a rosy glow softened her high, sharp cheekbones. The effect transformed her sister’s normally granite exterior completely, and Ginny found herself smiling too. If only she could make her sister laugh like this more often, the way she used to when they were little. She didn’t even care if it was at her own expense.

“Sorry,” Monique said, still gasping for air. “It’s just I’m trying to imagine Mr. I-Own-The-World sitting here on skid row eating food-on-a-stick while listening to Ginny wax poetic about how terrible capitalism is…and never getting a chance to talk about his favorite subject—himself!” She let out one final guffaw. “Oh, I just wish I’d been a fly on the…chain link fence.”

Ginny bristled. It hadn’t gone like that at all. First off, she didn’t live on skid row. Second, he had listened to her with some level of interest. She hadn’t once talked over him. Third, he’d been the one to urgeherto get some sleep.

---