Thirty Happens (19 page)

Ashley. Holy crap I hadn’t seen her in… well… I guess about ten years. We used to be friends, we grew up one street away from each other.

“Actually, I’m back for good. You’re looking at the new, well,
only
full-time reporter for the Onset Live.”

I actually felt a little bit of pride in saying that, which surprised me. A handful of people turned and looked at me appraisingly, sizing me up. I saw them nod and smile before turning back to face the front of the coffee shop.

“That’s fantastic. I’m so happy for you. Hey, how’s your mom doing, I heard about her accident.”

“She’s doing amazingly well, I expect she’ll be released from the rehab center in no time.”

Ashely grabbed me in a hug.

“What about you, last I’d heard you had moved away.”

She laughed, the sound bouncing off the walls.

“Yeah, I did, but like any good Massachusetts girl, I came back. You can take the girl out of the ocean, but can’t take the ocean out of the girl. Or some crap like that. Give me your phone.”

I handed it over without thinking to ask why and watched in amusement as she tapped out something on the screen.

“Okay, I have to bolt, because this was my ten minute break that I just made fifteen. But you have my number now stored in your phone, so you had better text me so that we can arrange a girls night.”

Another quick hug and she was already out the door.

Wow.

I had the feeling like I’d been visited by a tornado.

I looked up her name on my phone.

Ashley MacKillop. Title: BFF

She hadn’t changed a bit.

I finally made it to the front of the line.

“I’ll have a medium frozen mocha chipachino, please?”

That was probably enough calories and fat grams for a day. And don’t get me started on the number of carbs. Despite the lack of nutritional value, it was so totally worth it.

I paid the five dollars and sixty cents and moved to the side to wait for my drink.

Suddenly, I had the feeling of being watched. Like, seriously, the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up at full attention.

My drink came out and I grabbed it, then slowly scanned the small café to figure out who was watching me.

There, in a corner, was a guy with a ball cap pulled down far enough that I couldn’t really see his face, but I saw silver peeking out from the sides.

The universe was one hundred percent on my side today.

I put a little bit of sauciness into my hips and made my way to him, dropping down in the seat across from him without invitation. That he was blatantly staring at me was all the invitation that I thought was necessary.

“Are you stalking me?”

He looked up at me in surprise.

“Stalking you?”

“Well, yeah, I mean, I left the rehab center, had a meeting next door and then came here. You left the rehab place, did whatever it is you do, and it just turns out that you’re here… waiting for me. Seems a little suspicious, doesn’t it?”

I tilted my head and smiled at him, to make sure he knew I was kidding and not some weirdo that couldn’t separate reality from the world that played out in my head.

He just laughed. A deep laugh. Sigh.

“Well, you said you wanted to take me out for coffee, and here we are.”

I just smiled at him.

“Hey, Chris, how ya doin’, man.”

A look of brief annoyance passed by my coffee date’s face before he fixed a friendly, welcoming smile on.

“Hi, there. How are you today?”

“Doin’ great, man, livin’ the dream.” The intruder laughed at a joke that he didn’t let us in on.

“Listen, I can’t stay and chat now, you know what it’s like running your own business. But any chance we could meet up for drinks one night and maybe I could bend your ear about a new project I’m working on?”

“Sure, sounds like a plan. You know how to reach me.”

Chris sounded tired, but was still managing to come across as warm.

“Thanks, man, thanks a lot. I’ll be in touch.”

The guy was like a little puppy dog who had just been thrown a bone, practically skipping out of the coffee shop.

I just watched him leave, then turned a raised eyebrow to Chris.

“Well… that was strange. It was almost as if you were some sort of royalty and you granted your loyal servants some of your time.”

He chuckled a little bit at my assessment. But didn’t refute it. Strange.

“What do you do, Chris?”

I leaned forward, trying to ignore that weird spidey sense I got when I felt like something was off and needed investigating, and just tried to tell myself I was only asking because I was interested in him as my future husband.

“I own businesses. And I own buildings that I rent out to other businesses.”

Hmm.

“Business
es
? As in plural? More than one?”

He smirked.

“I see that someone paid attention in elementary school English.”

Interesting. He was obviously successful, or he wouldn’t have multiple, yet downplayed it all and didn’t seem to want to give up the whole story.

“Oh, so apparently you are also a comedian.”

He didn’t reply. I just sat there, sipping my drink, worried that the chemistry between us might be limited to elevator lust.

I had to fill the awkward silence.

“So, Chris who owns businesses, buildings and is an aspiring comedian, when are we going on our date? I asked you, so it’s my treat.”

His eyes sort of bugged out at me a little.

“Karyn, I’m incredibly flattered, but you could have your pick of just about any guy. I’m obviously a
lot
older than you.”

“Whatever. So what night are you available, and where shall I pick you up?”

“You’re not listening to me. People will talk. They will treat you strange because you’re hooking up with an old dude.”

“Hooking up? Wow, pretty presumptuous, aren’t we? I mean, we haven’t even gotten to first base… yet.”

I winked at him.

He rolled his eyes at me.

“Chris, age is nothing. It just means you have been on this planet longer than I have. I have no idea how old you are, but I’m twenty seven. I want to get to know you. I’m pretty sure that I’d like to date you, you know, more than once. After that, we see what happens. But I learned a long time ago, what people think of my personal relationships doesn’t stop me from going after what I want. Besides, those eye crinkles you have are sexy as hell.”

He smirked.

“Eye crinkles?”

I tapped my finger to the side of his face.

He shook his head at me, laughing while he thought it over a bit.

“Okay.”

“Your enthusiasm is overwhelming.”

He laughed.

“But, it’s my treat. With my advanced age comes old fashioned manners. My mom would kill me if she knew that I let you pay on our first date. Are you available Friday night?”

Gulp.

“Sure am.”

“Okay, how about I pick you up at six. I know it’s kind of early but we’ll need to get a head start on the night.”

“Funny, I thought it was so that we could get the early bird special.”

“Smart ass.”

I just grinned at him. I wasn’t thinking about whether I was giving my prettiest smile, or my sultry smile, I just grinned. I wasn’t sitting up straight. I wasn’t sucking my stomach in and sticking my boobs out. I was just being me.

I was in trouble.

I realized he was pushing something towards me. Oh, his business card. That is so... not romantic.

“I know, I know, it’s really all I have and more durable than if I wrote my cell number on a napkin.”

I flipped it over, and there it was. The digits. I got his phone number.

“I, on the other hand, do not yet have a business card, so you will be getting the flimsy napkin treatment from me.”

I scribbled my name and number on a napkin and handed it over.

“So, Friday at six?”

“Yup, Friday at six. See you then. Oh, I’ll text you my address.”

He grinned at me, waved a little wave, and walked out of the café.

chapter twenty-five.

W
hat a cute little cottage.

I had been hungry after my coffee non-date and remembered Nonna’s offer of baked goods. Normally I would have thought she was just being nice, but for some reason I felt really drawn to her and wanted to get to know her more. There was just something about her. It was a weird mix of wanting to have her as a grandmother, and wanting to be her when I got old.

It was kind of weird and all sorts of awesome that all I had to do to find her home was mention the name ‘Nonna’ and I was pointed in the right direction.

I knocked on the door and was surprised when the door opened a creek.

Oh my God, I hoped she hadn’t been broken in to.

“Nonna? NONNA?”

I shouted, both in the event she was lying unconscious on the floor and because I had no idea of the state of her hearing, I mean, she looked like some form of extremely old.

“C’mon in, I’m in the garden in back.”

I looked to the left where the voice came from and noticed her peeking up over the hedges.

“Okay.”

I walked into a foyer, and kind of quickly looked around. I went to the left through the living room, which took me to a small kitchen in the back, and a door that led outside. Every room was a different color. Every. Single. Room. I felt like I’d fallen into a bag of Skittles somehow.

I pushed the slider open and walked outside.

Looking down, my eyes bugged out a bit. Each board on her deck was painted a different color.

“Isn’t it festive?”

She looked at me, light and amusement dancing in her eyes.

“Festive is a great word for it.”

She cackled with laughter, and I got the impression she was one of those rare people who just loved every aspect of life.

“Here, let me get us some iced tea, it’s too hot for anything else. Come on with me to the kitchen.”

I followed her in, suddenly feeling about ten years old.

What was it about this lady?

She puttered about the kitchen, getting a tray, glasses filled almost to the top with iced tea and pulled out some cookies from a plastic container. She then quickly whipped together some milk, powdered sugar, and zested a lemon into an icing, that she dipped each cookie in before setting it on a plate.

Maybe I’d mistaken her age? I would have easily put her around one hundred. I mean, she looked
really
old. But the speed and ease which she moved through the kitchen made me rethink that. Perhaps she has lived her life to the fullest and was really only, like, seventy. Maybe she was a member of some sort of granny motorcycle club, and was out in her leathers and the sun every day, and that was how her skin had aged so much.

She caught me watching her with surprise on my face, and laughed at me.

“Young lady, you might want to shut your mouth, you’ll catch flies if you stand around like that.”

She hefted up the tray and started back towards the door.

I snapped out of my shocked paralysis and reached to help her with the tray.

“If I needed your help, I would have asked for it. I might be old, but I’m not decrepit. Just get the door. Please.”

The ‘please’ was clearly added as an afterthought.

I scurried over and pulled the door back open, and followed her out to the deck. We sat outside at the little bistro set which was perfect for the tiny deck she had. From the outside, her house matched all the others on this street. Small former cottages. If she lived here year round, she probably had to have it insulated. Most of the small homes up this way were summer cottages and not meant to house people through the cold winters that Massachusetts was notorious for.

The iced tea was refreshing but the cookies. Oh, sweet baby Ray. Those cookies were like tiny little foodgasms of happiness that exploded in my mouth.

She smiled at my moans of happiness.

“Those are my granddaughter, Alex’s recipe. I taught her how to bake in the old Italian style when she was a young teen in Providence. She and her family moved to the Atlanta area, and she is now a full-time baker.”

You could see the pride bursting from her talking about Alex.

“She now creates recipes of her own, mixing traditional Italian pastries with some more modern flavor combinations. I have a whole recipe box just filled with Alex’s creations.”

“That’s pretty cool. I mean, these are the best cookies I think I’ve ever eaten, and if you weren’t a frail senior citizen, I would totally jump you for the rest of them.”

She slapped at my arm in fake annoyance, she obviously knew that I was joking around with her. I rubbed my arm where she made contact. Damn, but she was strong for her age, whatever that was.

“I saw your mom yesterday, she’s looking really good. I heard rumblings that she will be released soon.”

I smiled, my heart happy at the thought of mom being well enough to be in her own home.

“I know, isn’t that awesome? I’ve been cleaning up the house for her when I’m not working or visiting her. I’ll have to make sure there’s plenty of decent food, though. I’ve been living off of coffee and convenience store food.”

She clutched her heart and feigned horror.

“That should be illegal. Look at you, you’ve ended up with dark circles under your eyes and sunken cheeks since I saw you last. How are you ever going to find a husband if you look so close to starvation? A man will assume you can’t cook him a decent meal.”

“Um, well, I can boil water and I know how to run the microwave.”

“Do you have any young men that have caught your fancy?”

Well, not a
young
man.

“There’s this guy… He is a little older than me, and that seems to bother him more than me. But I… Jeez… I don’t know.”

She nodded.

“He flusters you, does he?”

I thought about it and nodded a bit.

“Then pursue it. Someone who flusters you and challenges you is exactly the type of person you should be with. You will never find yourself forty years down the road looking at someone and wondering how the hell that much time had passed with someone so boring.”

I let out a sharp bark of laughter.

“But meanwhile, you keep coming back to me. You’re not going to keep a man for longer than a week if you can’t make anything worth eating outside of pushing some buttons on that radioactive kitchen machine.”

I couldn’t help but smile at her description of the microwave.

She shook her finger at me.

“I’m going to have to have a word with your mother, well when she’s feeling better, of course. She has failed you.”

I just continued laughing and leaned over to give her a hug.

“Nonna, you are simply wonderful. I’m thrilled to have finally come over to sit with you. But I do have to get running. Bill has about three stories he wants me to write for the Live, and I have to get them done in a couple days.”

“You come by and see me anytime. If I’m not here I’m volunteering. Or at kickboxing. My Alex told me about it so I decided to try it out.”

I just shook my head as I walked away. As surprising as that
should
have been to hear, it wasn’t at all. It just seemed like a Nonna thing to do.

Beep.

I looked down at my phone to see that I had about six text messages. Wow, when did I get to be popular? That was so unlike me.

Hey, Karyn, it’s Chris. Just making sure I put your number in correctly.

Awwww, cute.

Hi Chris, yup, you got it right! Those reading glasses seem to be working, old man.

He he he, sometimes I seriously cracked myself up.

Karyn, you, me, coffee Saturday morning. See you at the café in Onset at 8am.

That would be Ashley.

I have a date Friday night.

Holy crap.

OMG, I have a date on Friday night! Help, I’m not ready for this.

I walked back towards Union Street, where the café and the office were located, picking up speed just because of the hyper case of nerves that just hit me.

Beep.

Hey, Karyn, it’s Ryan. I haven’t heard from you in a wicked long time. Went to your place and you apparently don’t live there anymore. Um, what’s up?

Oops.

I kinda forgot to break up with him.

Really sorry, mom was in a near fatal car accident, ended up in long term care. Moved back to Wareham to help her through the transition. Got fired from The Beacon, got a job here. Also kind of seeing someone. Sorry bout that. I really wish you the best.

I hit send before losing my nerve.

Beep.

Nice of you to let me know. It would have been nice to have been told before I let myself in and surprised a couple having sex in the living room. Thanks for that. Have a great life.

I cringed. Yeah, I was now one of those people who breaks up with someone over text. Which I did after forgetting to break up with him in the first place. I was pretty sure that made me a special kind of asshole.

But I couldn’t help but laugh at what I imagined the look on his face to be when he just barged in on that scene.

Beep.

You’re still at your mom’s place? I’ll be there tonight at 7 so that we can work out wardrobe details.

Yay for old friends coming to the rescue. Well, apparently my ‘bff’, if I were to go by the title she gave herself.

Hmm. It would be nice to have a friend nearby again. It had been a while since Lynnie and Brian had moved, and I really missed having a friend that could just drop in.

Cool, thanks, I’ll pick up some takeout.

Chinese?

Is there any other?

I smiled, but at the same time felt a little guilty, like I was cheating on Lynnie.

I tapped on her speed dial icon on my phone.

“Hey girl, how are you doing? How’s mom?”

“She’s doing great, I think she comes home either this week or next. They all are really impressed with how quickly she’s recovering. Not sure if she’s going to be comfortable driving anytime soon. Lord knows I wouldn’t be. How are
you
doing?”

“I’m good. Busy. Tired. You know the drill.”

As if on cue, I heard the cry of a baby in the background. Lynnie and Brian had to go to some specialists to make this dream happen, and it finally did. Jackson was about two months old now.

“How’s my little godson?”

“I would give a million dollars to get five hours of sleep right about now.”

I laughed.

“Sorry, I just spent my last million yesterday.”

“Listen, I hate to do this, I know we don’t talk as much as we should. I have to go change him and all that fun mommy stuff. Let’s video chat later.”

“Okay, sounds good. Go be a mom now.”

I heard the click and silence that let me know she’d already disconnected.

It felt weird, as if she had moved on from our friendship. We still loved each other to death and all, but it sort of felt different. Like the ‘best’ part of ‘best friends’ had sort of floated away. Perhaps I did have an opening for that position after all.

I looked at the texts between Ashley and me, and re-read them about five times.

Awesome. See you at 7.

Having two best friends wouldn’t alter the universe
too
much, would it?