Page 1 of Love Triangle
Chapter One – Cliff
The scent on the air taunts me, a reminder of my failure to be on time. Normally, I take my lunch at exactly eleven a.m. I like to be punctual. Today, however, I needed to go home and shower after processing a particularly dirty new display piece for the museum. Now it’s after noon, and the mornings-only café where I eat every day is closed.Damn. Still able to smell the bacon sandwiches I order every day, I watch the light traffic on Main Street. Our town, Isawsa Falls, named after the great war hero Isawsa Lee, is small. We only have the one truly busy road, with the museum on one end, the high school on the other, and the quiet highway going straight down the middle.
The Isawsa Lee Foundation Museum, where I am in charge of everything geology related, is the real local draw. The money made from the tourists visiting the ILFM keeps this town alive. I don’t have time to waste standing here doing nothing, but when my routine is thrown off, I get a bit…lost. I’m not great with change.
I shuffle nervously in place as I look around at the people going about their day. The weather today is unseasonably warm, so there are plenty of people out and about. Mothers walk their small children in strollers. Old men sit on benches arguing about local politics. A beautiful woman with icy blonde hair hangs a sign in a shop window.
Wait.I’ve never seen that woman before. And that building was the old boot shop that closed months ago. I noticed the “For Sale” signs had been removed but I didn’t think anything new had been set up yet.It seems someone was busy behind those brick walls.
The woman steps back, placing her hands on her wide hips, and looks up at the sign to check her work. She readjusts it just slightly and looks over it once more. With a satisfied nod, she steps away and walks inside the brick building.
Crystal’s Pies
Now Open
The sign sparkles in glittering rainbow letters. Pie.Hmm. Not the healthiest lunch but it’s open and I’m hungry.
What if it’s bad?
My anxiety over any kind of change doesn’t want me to go in and dine there.
You can wait until you get home and eat your regular, safe food.
I frown at the thought of another night of canned soup and toast, but I know that it’s safe and reliable, at least.
But did you see how beautiful she was?
My libido chimes in. I thought the damn thing was dead, considering how uninterested in sex I’ve been lately.
Why don’t you go get a taste of her pie?Well, this is an interesting turn of events. As much as I prefer to play things safe, I don’t think I can resist listening to my…heart…the one time it speaks up in forever.
That decides it. I cross the street and head toward the new shop.
Chapter Two – Trig
Ah, dang.Late for lunch again. Every other day this happens. The students turn their papers in at eleven, I look them over, and next thing I know my lunch time has come and gone.
Well, at least I’m only a little late this time. My lunch break is supposed to be from eleven fifty a.m to twelve forty p.m., but it’s just after noon right now. No time to grab anything last minute at the café, but I can grab a candy bar at the gas station. Something to fuel me until the end of the work day.
I wipe my glasses off on the hem of my button-down shirt (which is admittedly more wrinkled than I thought, oops) and put them back on. I start to leave but turn back when I realize I forgot my wallet and phone. Once I get them, I finally head out.
It’s really nice weather and everyone outside is smiling and happy as heck. Everyone except Cliff from the museum. He’s standing a ways ahead of me on the street looking like he’s freaking out inside or something. He’s all sweaty and his fists are clenched at his sides and, I don’t know, he just looks stressed out. He’s never exactly the smiling happy type, but he looks like crap right now.
I debate for a second whether or not to go talk to him to see if he needs help. As a teacher I spend all day helping people, it’s what I was meant to do, and if he needs it and I don’t offer it I would just feel terrible. But on the other hand, he’s a prick and I don’t want him to be mean to me.Hmm.
Thankfully, my decision is made for me when he suddenly perks up. He watches something across the street with interest, standing up straight and tall, his short, onyx-black hair getting ruffled in the breeze. After a moment he walks quickly across the street in that stiff way of his that always makes him look like he’s in a hurry.
I scurry up to where he was standing and look over to where he was watching before.Oh! There’s a new pie shop? Nice!We haven’t had any kind of bakery here since I was a kid and Old Lady Jensen retired. That is a way healthier option than gas station candy. Pie has some fruit at least, I’m sure.
I make my way across the street and open the door, which has been painted a bubblegum pink color.Cute.There is a counter ahead of me where you can see a bunch of pies and other treats on display that can be ordered to-go and an area to wait to be seated to my right. I see Cliff standing near the sign for those who would like to have a table and decide I would like a table, too.
I’m looking at all the adorable vintage pie shop decorations on the walls as I walk toward the seating area. Smiling, All-American pin-up girls holding slices of apple pie salute proudly from over the counter. More mischievous-looking girls hang on the wall near the payphone, next to the silky slices of rum raisin on display. The fact that she even has a payphone here is vintage kitsch these days. I’m loving peering at all the wonderful things as I walk further in, so I don’t notice the little bump in the rug when I reach it. Of course, being the klutz that I am, I trip over it.
And, because things always have to go doubly wrong, I crash right into Cliff.
“Oof!” My head slams sideways into his chest, a button on his burgundy wool cardigan scraping my cheek as I knock him backward.
“Fucking hell,” Cliff barks out as we hit the ground.
