Page 51 of The Housemaid
“Calloway.” I dig around in my purse until I come up with the crumpled strip of paper. “Here.”
“Just a warning,” he says. “We prosecute all shoplifters.”
I sit in a plastic chair, my cheeks burning, while the security guard painstakingly looks through all my purchases and matches them up with what’s in the cart. My stomach churns as I consider the horrible possibility that maybe the clerk didn’t ring something up properly, and he’ll think I stole it. And then what? They prosecute all shoplifters. That means that they’ll call the police. And that would be a violation of my parole for sure.
It hits me that this would work out pretty well for Nina. She would get rid of me without having to be the mean person who fired me. She would also get some pretty sweet revenge on me for having slept with her husband. Of course, it’s a little harsh to be sent to jail for adultery, but I get the feeling Nina may look at it differently.
But that can’t happen. I didn’t steal anything from the grocery store. He’s not going to find anything in that cart that isn’t on my receipt.
Is he?
I watch him scrutinizing the strip of paper as the tub of pistachio ice cream in my cart likely turns to liquid. My heart is pounding in my chest and I can hardly breathe. I don’t want to go back to jail. I don’t. Ican’t. I’d rather kill myself.
“Well,” he finally says, “everything seems to match up.”
I almost burst into tears. “Right. Of course.”
He grunts. “I’m sorry to bother you like that, Miss Calloway. But we have a lot of problems with shoplifters, so I had to take it seriously. And I got a phone call alerting me that a customer matching your description might be planning to take something.”
A phone call?Who would call the grocery store and describe what I look like, and tell the security guard I was planning to steal something? Who would do such a thing?
I can only think of one person who would do something like that.
“Anyway,” he says, “thanks for your patience. You can go now.”
Those are the four most beautiful words in the English language.You can go now.I get to leave this grocery store with my hands free, pushing my shopping cart. I get to go home.
This time.
But I have a terrible feeling this isn’t the end of it. Nina has more in store for me.
THIRTY-TWO
I can’t sleep.
It’s been three days since I was nearly apprehended at the grocery store. I don’t know what to do next. Nina has been pleasant enough, so maybe she feels like I’ve learned my lesson about who is boss in this house. Maybe she isn’t trying to send me to jail.
But that’s not the reason I’m tossing and turning.
The truth is, I can’t stop thinking about Andrew. That night we spent together. The way I feel when I’m with him. I’ve never felt this way before. And until Nina dropped the bombshell about my past, he felt the same way. I could tell.
But not anymore. Now he thinks I’m nothing but a common criminal.
I kick the blankets off my legs. It’s stiflingly hot in my room, even at night. If only I could open that stupid window. But I doubt Nina is going to do anything to make me feel more comfortable here.
I finally wander downstairs to the kitchen. I have that mini-fridge in my room, but I don’t have much food in it. It’s too small to fit much. Those three mini water bottles Nina left me are nearly all that’s in there, still untouched.
As I’m walking to the kitchen, I notice the light is on for the back porch. I frown and approach the back door. That’s when I realize there’s a reason the light is on. Somebody is out there.
It’s Andrew.
Sitting all alone in one of the chairs out there, drinking from a bottle of beer.
I quietly slide open the back door. Andrew blinks up at me in surprise, but he doesn’t say anything. He just takes another swig from his bottle of beer.
“Hey,” I say.
“Hey,” he says.
