Page 115 of Opposites (Never) Attract
Things were coming to a conclusion. Either I was going to be right, or I was going to be wrong, but at least I would know the answer to that in the next twenty-four hours.
Which meant I’d probably be back in New York twenty-four hours after that. There’d been no more phone calls from Jared, but I didn’t know if that was good news or bad news.
Ida and Irma Strunk, the constantly battling bed and breakfast sisters, stepped into my path. For sisters, they honestly couldn’t be more different. Ida looked like a seventy-year old woman and had since she was forty. Her wardrobe was shades of black and blue with accents of cat hair and disapproval.
Irma wore funky bright pink glasses and linen overalls.She smelled like the excellent scones she made and there was no cat hair to be found.
“Hey, I hear you’re giving financial advice,” Ida said.
“Uh.”
“Don’t deny it,” Irma said. “We heard it from the Darryl’s.”
“I heard it from the Darryl’s” Ida corrected her sister. “And I told you.”
Irma rolled her eyes. “Will you stop? We’re trying to get some real money advice.”
“Stop telling me what to do. I’m the older sister,” Ida said. “You can relate, can’t you, Sunshine?”
“I can-”
“Sunshine’s not the older sister anymore,” Irma said, elbowing her sister. “Technically, she’s a younger sister to most of the McGraws. Haven’t you been following all the news?”
“I follow all the news. Like how she’s shacking up with Tag Durham,” Ida said, with rich disapproval.
Irma, on the other hand, looked delighted by my sex life. “Let me tell you, if I was forty years younger, heck, twenty years younger, I’d try to get me a piece of that.”
“Ms. Strunk!”
“It’s the truth,” Irma said, clearly unashamed. “So, are you going to help us, or what?”
“Maybe she would have if you hadn’t threatened to steal her boyfriend,” Ida admonished her sister.
“He’s not my boyfriend,” I interjected. “Tag and I are friends.”
“Friends with benefits,” Irma said, again elbowing her sister.
“Look, ladies,” I said, needing to extract myself from thisconversation. “I’ll help you. You can get my number from the Darryls. Just text me with any questions you have and I’ll do my best to steer you in the right direction. Does that work?”
Irma nodded and Ida rubbed her hands together. “We’re going to get rich,” Ida said. “Wait until you see all the improvements I’m going to make when I get all that money. I’m going to put your B&B out of business.”
“In your dreams. I’m going to get an espresso machine and have an espresso bar,” Irma said, as the two ladies walked away.
I shook my head and made my way back to the café.
When I opened the door, I saw that my sisters were already there at our table in the back. I stepped to the counter and the teenager standing behind it.
“Just a coffee, Marion,” I said, to Amity’s teenage employee.
“Sure thing, Ms. Calloway,” she said, as she pulled a pot off a warmer. “Any news on whether your crypto plan is working or not?”
“Soon, I hope,” I said.
“We’re all rooting for you,” she offered.
“Thank you,” I said, as I took the cup she offered. I put my laptop bag on the table and all of them shut up and turned to me with wide eyes.
Great. They’d been talking about me.
