Page 56 of Side Hustle
Amelia lifted an arm from the sidewalk outside Coffee when she saw me, both hands full with steaming hot caffeine. God bless the woman, she was exactly who I needed to accompany me to talk to my mom. She hadn’t hesitated when I’d asked this morning, saying Titus could handle their guests for a little while. If anyone could keep me from falling for my mother’s schemes, it would be Amelia. I could sniff out scents, but that girl could sniff out bullshit from a hundred paces.
I pulled up to the curb, looking in my rearview mirror for signs of Penelope, the meter maid from hell. The dang woman could spot an illegal parking job from across town. Leaning over, I pushed the door open for Amelia, who plopped down with a grin and a blast of a familiar scent.
“Country apple?” I guessed as she handed over one of the cups.
“You know it. Nothing says apple-picking season to guests like the fresh scent of Bath & Body Works Country Apple body spray. I spray that shit on everything.”
I almost spat out my coffee. Amelia was a hoot. “I’m a warm vanilla sugar girl myself, but I hear you. The nineties had the best of everything. What I wouldn’t give for some shoulder pads to beef up these dinky arms.”
I put my coffee down in the cup holder and pointed to the back seat, remembering what I wanted to show off. “Hey! Check it out.”
Amelia swiveled to see what I was talking about, throwing a fist in the air and scaring all the drivers around us when they saw an arm coming up through the nonexistent top of my Jeep. “Yes, girl! That’s what I’m talking about.”
I giggled and pulled out into traffic. I’d made a stop the other day and picked up a wooden bat to keep in the car. After the sperm-thief fiasco, I wasn’t going anywhere without my trusty bat.
“We’ve always been the Hell Raisers, but maybe we should call our girl gang the Bat Girls instead.” Amelia paused to take a sip of coffee. “We’re all packing heat. The only holdout is Lucy, but that’s because of Roxy. Next time I babysit, I’ll have to teach her how to swing properly.”
I glanced over as I approached the roundabout. “I’m not sure Lucy and Bain want you giving their toddler a weapon.”
“Psshh.” Amelia swiped her hand through the air and smirked.
Lord help us all.
I yanked the wheel and hit the roundabout at a good speed. I liked to do that now and again when no one else was in it with me. There was fun everywhere in life if you just looked for it.
I gasped as I straightened out of the turn and headed for Hill Hotel. “Did you see that?” I screeched.
Amelia and I both swiveled our heads to get a better look. “I swear it wasn’t me!” Amelia held her hands up like there was a SWAT team on her.
Someone had tarred and feathered the front of the male statue in the center of the roundabout with actual tar and feathers. Probably had something to do with the statue’s resemblance to Benjamin Bennett, persona non grata in Hell at the moment. After Rip’s statement and the public arrest of his father, rumors had been swirling double time around town.
“Where does one even get tar and a bag of feathers?” I asked absentmindedly as I pulled into the parking lot of the hotel.
“Oh, that’s easy. Amazon carries everything.” Amelia took another sip of her coffee, then flew her thumbs over her phone screen.
Probably alerting everyone to the new drama in town. Sometimes I wondered why Amelia disliked Poppy so much. They were practically the same person with a few decades and a few pounds difference.
“Okay, here we are.” My stomach started up with the butterflies doing their death march of dread. Talking to my mother was pretty much the last thing I wanted to do on any given day. But fuck it, I was an adult and I needed to act like one.
“She can’t make you do anything you don’t want to do, Haze. You’re a grown-up and you don’t need her in any capacity. If youwanther in your life, that’s another thing entirely.” Amelia started up with the pep talk as we got out of the car. “Let’s make a signal, though. Like, say you start flossing, that means I need to step in and use physical force. Or if you do the dab, then that means we run away.”
I held the door open to the hotel and looked at her like she was crazy. Which she was, let’s face facts. “No. No flossing. No dabbing. No signals, bat girl. We’re just going to talk and then leave without making promises of any kind. You’re here for silent support. Emphasis on the silent.”
Amelia pursed her lips and rocked back on her heels. “Wow. This is already far less fun than I thought it would be when I agreed to come along. But I will support you no matter what. My lips are zipped.” She made the official zipping-her-lips action and threw the imaginary key down by her feet, jamming it with the heel of her boot.
I rolled my eyes at her dramatics and followed her inside. Amelia looked around as we headed to the front desk, a full-body shiver hitting her as I asked for my mother’s room number.
“For fuck’s sake, this place has turned into a shit hole!” Amelia announced, her voice at a decibel better suited for outdoors.
“Zip it!” I whisper-shouted back. Jesus. Not even a minute into this thing and she was causing a scene. Granted, she was right. This place had taken a sharp nosedive in the quality department when she left to open her own B and B.
“Sheesh,” she grumbled at my reprimand.
We finally made it to my mother’s room and I knocked on the door quickly, if only to get this over with and get Amelia out of here before the staff called Chief Waldo on us for disturbing the peace.
The door cracked open and one bloodshot eye appeared before my mother swung the door wide open, turned right around, and waved us in while walking away. She looked pretty haggard from behind, her thrift store clothes hanging off her thin frame.
“Mother. Thanks for seeing me today.” I leaned against the dresser, eyeing the takeout containers that littered the coffee table and the couch.
