Page 21 of The Holy Grail
“However, if you really decide youdon’twant to go out with her,” Beverly said, now sounding resigned, disappointed, and stern all at the same time—a tone he’d been on the receiving end more than once in his life, “I expect you to be kind to her when she calls and you tell her that. Understood?”
Apparently he was always going to be ten years old to his mom. “Yes.”
“You can’t be mean.”
“Mom.”
“What?”
“I got it, all right? I won’t be mean. I’ll be kind.”
“I just want to make sure. I really did like her. She had a … spark.”
Jules definitely had a spark, Malcom thought, picturing her in his mind even though he didn’t want to.
“I asked her if she was pretty,” Beverly said. “Her answer was that she’d been told she was, so I assume she’s more than pretty and was just being modest?”
“Yes,” he sighed. “She’s more than pretty.”
“What does she look like?”
He sighed again. “She has red hair and blue eyes. Freckles. And … a little bump on her nose.”
“Hmm.”
“What?”
“Nothing.”
Malcom decided the conversation with his mom needed to be brought to an end, because it had gone on for too long already. “Thanks for calling, but Ihave to go.”
There was a long pause, then Beverly said gently, “Okay. But when she calls you, would you do me a favor?”
“Depends on the favor.”
“Would you talk to her, and find outwhyshe didn’t call you, before kicking her to the street?”
“You mean to the curb,” he corrected her. “And I’ll think about it, all right?”
“All right. Good night, Malcom.”
“Good night.”
Needing another beer, he quickly went and got one, then resumed sitting on the couch, absently watching as Michael Corleone meets Apollonia in Sicily, getting struck by the ‘thunderbolt’ of love. Because it reminded Malcom too much of when he’d first seen Jules, he turned off the movie for the first time in his life and finished his beer in silence.
When he heard the telltalewhooshof an incoming text, he glanced down, not surprised to see who it was from.
MOM: I mean it. When Jules calls you, please talk to her.
Without replying, he silenced the phone and set it face down on the coffee table, his entire body on edge. After an unexpected phone call from his mom, he was suddenly thinking about Jules again, and their brief encounter. He couldn’t help but remember the intense, visceral pull he’d felt for the redhead and how he’d waited like a lovesick asshole for her to call.
Fifteen fucking months.
If she did call him, he wasnotgoing to talk to her.
Nope. Jules Shaw could kiss his ass.
Chapter 5
