Page 63 of All That Glitters
That’s when she heard it — Tony’s voice, faint but unmistakable, coming from somewhere behind the building.Following the sound, she rounded the corner and saw a small pool area surrounded by a chain-link fence. The pool was lit by underwater lights that cast wavering blue patterns on the surrounding concrete.
And there was Tony, relaxing on a lounge chair.
Debbie’s heart did a little flip. He looked relaxed and happy, and she was just about to call out to him when another voice drifted across the deck.
A female voice.
Debbie froze, her stomach dropping somewhere around her ankles. Squinting through the fence, she could just make out a figure on a lounge chair beside Tony’s — a blonde woman in a tiny dress that probably cost more than Debbie’s rent.
“Oh no,” she whispered, ducking behind a scraggly bush. “Oh no no no.”
The woman was saying something that made Tony laugh — not just a polite chuckle, but his real laugh, the one that crinkled his eyes and made her fall a little more in love with him every time she heard it.
Debbie’s chest tightened. She needed to get closer. She needed to know what was happening.
Staying low, she crept along the fence line, ducking through overgrown landscaping that clearly hadn’t seen a gardener in years. Her shirt caught on a thorny bush, and she had to bite her lip to keep from yelping as she carefully extracted herself.
On the far side of the pool area, she found a darker section where a broken streetlight cast deep shadows. The chain-link fence was lower here, partially hidden by a row of plastic garden gnomes that someone had apparently thought would add ‘ambiance’ to the motel’s décor.
Taking a deep breath, Debbie grabbed the fence and started climbing. Her sneakers slipped against the metal, making softscraping sounds that seemed deafeningly loud in the quiet night air.
Finally, she hauled herself over and dropped into the shadows behind a large planter, her heart pounding so hard she was sure they could hear it across the pool.
Now she could hear them clearly.
“… I never thought I’d find someone who gets it,” Tony was saying, his voice carrying that excited, slightly nervous quality it got when he was trying to impress someone.
“Well, expect it more often,” the blonde replied in a voice like liquid honey. “You’re really talented, Tony. Among other things.”
Debbie’s heart cracked a little. The way this woman said his name, like she’d been saying it for years...
“It’s just all happening so fast,” Tony said, and Debbie caught the uncertainty in his voice. “I mean, a couple weeks ago I was just a guy writing a movie, and now...”
“Now you’re a guy who could have everything he’s ever wanted,” the woman finished for him. “If you’re brave enough to take it.”
Debbie risked peeking around the planter. The blonde was facing Tony, her lounge chair within a few feet of his.
“You just have to decide what you really want,” she said softly.
Tony was staring at her, and in the blue light of the pool, Debbie couldn’t read his expression. But he wasn’t pulling away. He wasn’t telling this woman that he was waiting for someone. He wasn’t mentioning that his best friend was supposed to arrive any minute.
The confidence tapes in her car suddenly seemed like the cruelest joke in the world.
Debbie had seen enough. More than enough. She needed to get out of here before she did something truly humiliating, like crying or throwing up or both.
She started to back away, keeping low behind the planters, when her foot caught on something hard and ceramic. One of the garden gnomes tottered dangerously.
“No, no, no,” she whispered, lunging forward to catch it.
Too late.
The gnome toppled backward with a loud CRACK that seemed to echo across the entire motel complex. Its severed head rolled merrily into the pool with a splash, while its body remained on the concrete like a tiny, decapitated crime scene.
“What was that?” Carrie’s voice cut through the night.
Debbie didn’t stick around to find out. She scrambled toward the fence like her life depended on it, her sneakers slipping on the metal as she hauled herself over. She could hear Tony heading in her direction, his wet feet slapping against the concrete.
“Might have been a cat,” she heard him say, but his voice sounded confused, suspicious.
