Page 23 of Plentywood
“Maybe you’re right,” I agreed. “I gotta go.”
“I’ll see you at lunch,” she stated. “I’m making one of your faves today. Pulled pork sandwiches with coleslaw, so you better be here,” she threatened. “We’ll talk more then, K?”
“I’ll try,” I muttered.
“Hunter Copeland!” she declared. “Do not test me. I will see you at one.Sharp!”
With that, Jill hung up, and I stared through the open door at Joanie. “What?” I asked, shrugging my shoulders and turning my palms toward her.
Joanie slowly shook her head. “You two should just get married,” she stated. “You sound like an old married couple.”
“I’m gay, in case you forgot.”
“Yeah, you say that, but I’m wondering,” she argued. I stood and made my way to the door, slamming it shut. “I’ll just talklouder,” she yelled from the other side. “And get me some lunch when you’re over at the diner, Mr. Moody.”
Fucking thin doors.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: Benedict
For some unknown reason, I’d allowed Agnes to drag me along when she heard the local diner was serving pulled pork for lunch. “Trust me on this, kid. The pork falls apart in your mouth. You damn near don’t need to chew.”
I wondered how manyMichelinstars the diner had won for their amazing pulled pork. “Fritters included?” I joked.
“I suppose if you asked, Jill could muster you up some fritters.” Not the answer I’d expected. “I’ve never been inside one of these Mercedes Benzes,” she said, shifting gears on the subject matter and running her hand along the leather-covered dashboard. “I’m gonna assume this shit is real leather up in here?”
“I would assume so,” I replied.
“What’d you pay for this?” she asked, turning to glare at me while I drove the two blocks to the diner.
“A hundred? Maybe one-forty. I’m not sure. My father bought it for me for completing my medical residency.”
“Shit!” she exclaimed. “Just when I was kinda liking you, you go and tell me your old man purchased this ride? That’s some bullshit there, doc. You got your own money now, don’t ya?”
I looked at her before turning my eyes back to the street, still amazed at her manner of speaking to people. “Do you really think I make bank working in this town at a not-for-profit clinic?”
“You don’t?” she asked. “I mean, don’t you own the place? You’re a Hawthorne, ain’t ya?”
“My father owns everything currently. When he passes away, I’ll inherit the family estate,” I explained, wondering why I’d bothered.
“Then what you gonna do?” I was stunned by how blunt Agnes was. I’d only been here three days, but she still proved that she had worse manners than I’d imagined. “You get rich when he croaks, dontcha?”
“I don’t know why I’m explaining this to you, but why not? At least I know you’ll get the news out around here.”
Agnes turned to face me, loosening the seatbelt portion that crossed her chest. “And what does that mean?”
“This town just seems like everyone knows everything about each other. Poking their noses in places they should stay out of,” I said.
“We call it caring about one another, doc. Maybe it comes off as prying, but we depend on one another in this town. You’d be wise to adapt to that way of thinking if you wanna last five minutes, buddy boy.”
“I only have to ‘last,’ as you say, twelve months,” I corrected, glancing at the date on the face of my Rolex. “Make that eleven months, twenty-seven days, and twelve hours.”
“Is that so?” she pried, twirling knobs and pressing buttons on the dash. “You actually think God plucked you outta New York City and dumped you in this hick town with no plan?” she asked. I nodded while she curled the corner of her mouth. “She don’t work that way,” she announced, like she was on God’s planning committee.
“She? And you believe God is a woman?” I asked. “Wait. Don’t answer. Better question. Youactuallybelieve in God?”
“Yes, I do!” she exclaimed. “And I have proof.”
Maybe I’d been wrong about Agnes. Perhaps she wasn’t a miserable old cuss after all? I mean, she was an old cuss, but maybe she had the fear of God in her. She swore like a sailor and bitched nonstop about everything under the sun, so I was sticking with ‘old cuss’ for sure.
