Page 46 of Pierced Pages
Kim gestured at the empty chair beside the unfamiliar face in the room. She was young, probably in her mid-twenties. She looked like she wasn’t sure yet whether being here was a mistake.
“Hi, I’m Danielle.” She extended her hand as she sat beside the woman, grateful to be off her feet. She hadn’t been standing long, but she was feeling run-down. Probably just from a long week with a career fair field trip with her eleventh graders in the middle of it. “You must be Kim’s coworker at the boutique.”
“Aubrey,” the woman said in a small voice. She looked like she might shrink away inside her chair. “Nice to meet you.”
Kim had told them that Aubrey’s girlfriend would often pick her up after her shift, so that’s how she knew to ask the young woman if she’d like to join their book club. Poor Aubrey looked like she felt out of place there in a room of strangers, most of whom were probably ten years older than her. Danielle decided it was her mission to make the woman feel welcome and more comfortable with them.
Gerri sat on the other side of Danielle, a lidded cup of something in one hand. Danielle knew Gerri well enough to know it had to be a caramel latte with oat milk.
Danielle was glad Gerri had agreed to join the book club with them, since she was bi as well. When Danielle had suggestedGerri, Melanie was quick to clarify that she’d brought it up with their friend, but Gerri wasn’t sure about it until recently. Gerri had briefly been in another book club with Melanie and hadn’t cared for that one any more than Melanie had. But she’d said that with all of her favorite people in one room, she couldn’t turn down the invitation.
“Want to get something?” Gerri asked. “I’ll hold your seat from the crowd of people coming in.”
Aubrey chuckled on the other side of her. A chuckle was a good start.
“I’m going to grab something on the way out. For Lila, too, since I’m picking her up from Rylee’s house.”
“What about you, Aubrey? I can hold Melanie off if you want to get a drink first.”
Aubrey shook her head. “Thanks, but I’ll probably wait until after, too. Don’t want to have to leave in the middle of my first book club because I have to pee.”
Another good sign. If they were already talking about pee, Aubrey would be comfortable around them in no time.
Melanie stood beside her chair in their little circle of five, while Kim stood beside her holding a small stack of books.
“Since we’re all here, I want to first say how grateful I am that you all came. I’m so excited about this book club, and I hope to make it a fun, warm place for all of us. So let’s get started with what we came here for.” Melanie took one of the books from Kim’s stack and waved it in the air. “The first book for discussion!”
The trio without books clapped as Kim walked around and handed them each a paperback copy.
Melanie lowered herself into her chair. “I figured, since we’re such a small group for now, I’d get you each a copy so we can all start reading at the same time. And as a token of my thanks for giving this little club a shot.”
“Thank you, Melanie,” Danielle said. “And you too, Kim.”
She examined her copy of the book while they went around the circle talking about the kinds of books they each normally read. Then, Melanie introduced the plot and characters giving nothing away that wasn’t already in the description on the back. It was calledFinding Georgia, and it was a second-chance romance between long-lost lovers reunited as neighbors in an Atlanta apartment complex.
It sounded right up Danielle’s alley, but she could barely pay attention. Her run-down feeling was blossoming into a mild pressure headache and watery eyes.
Oh, no.
She probably picked up something on their field trip. Hopefully, it wasn’t anything more serious than a minor head cold. Either way, she should get out of there before she got anyone else sick. If she hadn’t already.
Once the discussion slowed, Danielle stood, realizing she was a little wobbly from the fatigue and probably also from that budding headache.
“I should head out,” she said. “I’m not feeling great all of a sudden, and I should probably quarantine myself. Consider my exit from our first book club meeting my gift to you all.”
“I’m so sorry,” Melanie said.
When Melanie stood and walked toward her, Danielle put up a hand. “No hugs. But I appreciate you all and am so glad to be here.”
And she truly was glad. She’d been hesitant about the idea at first, but this seemed right. The book, the companionship, the something just for her. All of it.
They said their goodbyes from afar, and Melanie told Aubrey she was glad to have met her.
Then, as a sniffle hit her nose, she hurried to order coffees for her and Lila before she left to pick up her daughter. She had bigplans for being horizontal on the couch for the rest of the day. She’d worry about grading the rest of those papers later.
Chapter 21
Morgan
