Page 27 of Shallow
“You asked me why I call you Snowflake. It’s not because of this,” he says, pointing to my bare arm pressed up against the mop handle. “How you see the real world makes you whiter than your skin evercould.”
I don’t respond. I can’t. There’s no possible way to come back to that. Instead, I concentrate on mopping as if it takes every brain cell I have. Eventually, I notice Frankie is gone, either having joined the others or having left to man the front desk, so I spend the rest of the morning figuring out on my own what needs to be done. I’ve never cleaned in my life. However, the last thing I want to do is call attention to myself, so by lunchtime, I’m dirty, exhausted, and unsure if any of it is donecorrectly.
Or if anyone cares, since Cary sure as helldoesn’t.
Eight
Cary
Ishiftin the uncomfortable wrought iron chair, cursing as my elbow slips off the tiny round table again. The entire café is pretentious and upscale with its low lighting, cloth napkins, and menu with missing prices. Any menu that doesn’t list prices is a place I can’tafford.
Not that Taryn gives ashit.
Ever since Shiloh has come back to town, her high-maintenance meter has shot through the roof. It’s like she’s bought out every high-end store from one end of the beach to the other. She’s gone from being Taryn McDaniel right back to a Shiloh Westwannabe.
It’s disturbing ashell.
“What is it, Cary?” she says, taking a sip ofwater.
I guess I’m staring harder than Ithought.
When I don’t respond, she makes a big production out of smoothing her napkin on her lap. “You and Shiloh seemed pretty friendlyyesterday.”
“What did you want me to do—punch her in theface?”
“It would be astart.”
I hold my tongue as an overdressed waiter delivers her overpriced grilled chicken salad topped with some weird-ass cheese I can’t pronounce. I don’t want to think about how much this stupid meal is going to set meback.
She seems to have dropped the conversation in favor of cutting her meal into toddler sized pieces, but I’m far from done. I pop a fry in my mouth and watch her face. “You almost have a gleam in your eye, Taryn. You’d think you were the one with a vendetta againsther.”
She pauses mid-cut and gives me a disinterested shrug. “Maybe Iam.”
“For what? Don’t tell me you’re still harboring prom queen resentment after all these years. That’d be a littlesad.”
It’s an unnecessary dig, but absolutely deserved. I wasthere.
“Whose side are you on?” she asks, her tonesharp.
“Mine.”
Shit, that sounds way toofamiliar.
“Don’t forget who picked you up and got you to where you are today.” Her eyes darken for a moment before the shadow passes and a smile spreads across her face. “Are we not a team in this, Cary? I mean, how many nights did we spend in bed talking about fucking her over? Well, our chance just fell into ourlap.”
As much as I don’t want to admit it, she’s right. Although she saw it go down, I never meant to tell her what really happened the night Shiloh left for good. It was a secret I’d kept for almost seven years—until too much Jack Daniels and an amazing blow job made me reveal the one thing I swore I’d keep to myselfuntil.
In fact, I kept most of my revenge plans to myself over the years. Unfortunately, after confessing to Taryn, the darkness in me tripled. Night after night, we’d get drunk, have sex, and make plans about how we’d make Shiloh pay. Taryn fed my hatred like it was herown.
I just never expected everything to come to fruition like ithas.
“What do you have in mind?” I blink once, keeping my face blank. I’ll hear her out. A side project might not be bad. Double the payback would be sufficient for the interest Shiloh has accrued over time. It’s not like I’m not going through with my original plan anyway, no matter what Taryn has tosay.
“Well, she got a slap on the wrist, right?” she says, placing her fork on the side of her plate. “Her sentence should’ve been much worse for what she did to that poorgirl.”
“Obviously.”
“My dad’s a lawyer, Cary. You don’t grow up in an attorney’s home without learning a thing or two. I did some research on Shiloh’s little arrangement. Everyone knows her daddy bought herfreedom.”
