Elizabeth stepped toward the girl, smiling tentatively and speaking in quiet tones. “Well, actually, there’s this great book I just read, that we’re going to discuss at the book meeting that’s starting in about five minutes.” She turned and grabbed a book off the shelf, handing it to the tall girl. “Have you read this one yet?”
The girl smiled. “Yes, actually, I read that one when it came out in hardcover. I couldn’t wait for the paperback.”
Elizabeth was pleasantly surprised to hear that. She was guilty herself of paying way too much for a hardcover because she didn’t want to wait. “Did you like it?”
“Loved it. Except for the end. It kind of pissed me off, the way it seemed like it was hurried a bit.”
Elizabeth’s face lit up. “I know! I totally agree!” She shook her head. “Sometimes I wonder what authors are thinking when they do stuff like that.”
The girl smiled back at her, saying nothing.
“Well, if you want, we’re having this book club meeting, and we’d love to have you come by. If you’re not too busy.” Elizabeth was excited to have not just one new member, but possibly two coming to the meeting. Who cares if they’re a hooker and a nut walking around with a golf club. Book lovers are book lovers.
She’d started the group just a few weeks prior, but so far had only gotten two other women to join, and only one of them was as nuts about books as she was – and this lady was nearly a hundred years old from the looks of her and not always able to hear everything that was being discussed. At this point, Elizabeth would be delighted to even have a hooker join them, so long as she loved books too.
The girl shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe next time. I have somewhere I need to be.”
Elizabeth’s face fell. “Oh. Okay. Maybe next time, then. We meet every other week here at seven. Feel free to come anytime. There are no dues or anything. You can call the bookstore, and they’ll tell you what book we’re reading.”
“Thanks. I might do that.”
Elizabeth returned her smile. “Okay. I have to go. I’m meeting someone before we start. My name’s Elizabeth, by the way.” She held her hand out.
“Kiki.” The girl took her hand in a firm grip and shook it.
Elizabeth had expected a limp fish, not the business-like grasp she received. She smiled at the incongruity. Kiki wasn’t exactly what Elizabeth had assumed she’d be like, based on what she was wearing, but it was refreshing to be wrong in a good way like that. She hurriedly put the book that she’d suggested to Kiki back on the shelf and walked off, intent on finding the girl with the golf club. It was time to do her back-alley dealing and get rid of this lump of cash that was in her bag. Then she’d be able to move on to more interesting things – like talking about true love and wine and chocolate.
She sighed as she made her way to the front desk, wishing life could really be about that stuff instead of clients and spreadsheets and tax forms and endless calculations of debits and credits on balance sheets that meant nothing to her personally. This pitiful book club was the only thing keeping her from going totally insane.
Chapter 4
AIMEE LEFT THE FRONT DESK, toting the golf club and ignoring the curious stares of the customers and employees standing around, as she headed for the area in the corner of the store she had been told was set aside for the book club meeting. It was billed by the employee she’d talked to as a small space, closed off by glass walls, with couches inside and easy access to the bathroom.
She got halfway across the store before she was approached by a matronly-looking lady wearing a conservative brown business suit, her hair up in a severe bun at the back of her head. Aimee had noticed the old-school ‘do in profile, when the woman looked right and then left quickly, as if she were nervous about something.
“Hello,” said the woman. “Are you ... here to sell some golf clubs, by any chance?”
Aimee smiled, holding out her free hand awkwardly as she battled the purse that was threatening to fall off her shoulder at any second. “Hi! Yes, that’s me. I’m Aimee.”
Elizabeth took her hand, shaking it softly, smiling back perfunctorily. “I’m Elizabeth. Do you want to do this in the parking lot? You can move the clubs to my trunk that way. Before the meeting.” She paused, searching Aimee’s face. “Are you coming to the meeting?”
“Yes, I am. Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Aimee knew she was more excited than she probably should be – it was just a book club for gosh sakes – but it was the first fun thing she’d done in a long time, and it wasn’t costing her anything except a little gas money, so that was just the guilt-free bonus she needed. She was happy without even figuring in the unloading of Jack’s babies for ten thousand dollars.
“Good. I’m parked at the end of the row, farthest from the door. In the blue Buick.”
“I have a green Toyota. I’ll drive my car over closer to yours. The bag is heavy.”
Aimee walked out, followed by Elizabeth. They each went to their cars, and Aimee brought hers over to park next to Elizabeth’s, squeezing her way into a spot that was right next to one of those loud, man-cars with a gaudy orange paint job and a double black stripe down the center.
Once there, she opened her trunk and pulled the bag out to stand it up at the back of the car.
Elizabeth went into her Buick and pulled out a leather portfolio that was sitting on her front passenger seat.
Aimee noticed that it appeared to have a checklist inside, neatly clipped to the inner hard surface of the folder.
“Okay,” said Elizabeth, “let’s do a quick inventory.”
Aimee raised her eyebrows in question, but said, “Oookaaaay. No problem.”
Elizabeth must have sensed her reticence because she explained, “I am buying these for a client. I have to be sure everything is here. I don’t want to have to reimburse him out of my own pocket if anything is missing.”
Aimee felt bad for some reason she wasn’t even certain of, so she said, “Oh, don’t worry about it; I totally understand. Go ahead. Tell me what’s on the list.”
Elizabeth nodded and immediately got down to business, calling out club types and different item names as they had been listed in the advertisement, while Aimee searched through the bag and pulled one thing out at a time, allowing Elizabeth to inspect it and check it off her list.
When they were finally done five minutes later, and Aimee had showed her the receipts, Elizabeth put the closed folder under her arm and grabbed the bag by one of its handles, getting ready to lift it up and put it into her waiting trunk.
“Here ... let me help you with that. It’s super heavy,” said Aimee, as she stooped to grab the bag at another spot.
Elizabeth chose that exact moment to bend over too, causing both of their heads to come together with a loud clunk, sending both of them falling backwards onto their butts.
The golf clubs and the heavy bag holding them went down with a crash, landing on the bag’s side halfway out into the driving area of the row they were parked in.
“Owowowowow!” yelled Aimee, sitting up instantly and grabbing her head. “Oh, boy, that hurt like a mother!”
Elizabeth’s only response was to sit up with a quick hiss of breath, her face showing the supreme control she was exercising over the pain.
Aimee’s attention was pulled away from her rapidly forming headache by the loud footsteps she heard coming over at a hurried pace, the click, click, clicking of boot heels on the surface telling her who it was before Aimee actually saw her.
“Wow, are you guys okay?” said a female voice. “That was an epic head crack. It was like watching the Three Stooges, live on stage. Only with two stooges, not three.”
Aimee turned her head to look at the girl who had approached and stopped practically above her – Kiki. From her vantage point, Aimee could see right up her skirt. “Nice panties, Kiki,” she said, not thinking before opening her mouth.
Kiki grinned. “Thanks. Victoria’s Secret.”
“Oh, I love that place,” said Aimee, talking in a dreamy voice.
“You guys know each other?” asked Elizabeth.
Aimee noticed Elizabeth casually reaching up to check her purse, feeling the strap across her chest. Aimee wondered if she should feel offended that it seemed like Elizabeth was worried about getting her purse stolen. She looked up at Kiki to see if she noticed or if she was offended.
“We met today, as we were coming in,” explained Kiki. “It’s not every day you see a person going into a bookstore with a golf club in hand. I thought she was going to beat someone in there to death.”
Aimee smiled. “Yeah. It’s my conversation starter. Never fails.”
Elizabeth smiled, loosening her grasp on her bag.
Kiki held her hand out for Aimee to grab. “Come on. Get up. That ground is super dirty.”
Aimee took her hand and used it to leverage herself into a standing position. Then she held her hand out to Elizabeth at the exact same time as Kiki did. They all smiled, as Elizabeth took both their hands and stood up. She spent the next few seconds brushing off her rear end and legs, then feeling the sides of her hair to make sure none of it had escaped the confines of her bun.
“So,” said Elizabeth when she was finished.
“So,” said Aimee, looking at the other girls, feeling a little awkward.
“Do you guys need help here, or what?” asked Kiki.
“Yes,” they both answered in unison, causing more grins to erupt from the group.
Kiki took charge. “You guys get the ends. I’ll help you balance it, Aimee.”
Aimee followed her orders, carefully measuring the force she had to use to lift it against the strength she felt coming from Elizabeth, and in no time they had the monstrous thing loaded into her trunk. Aimee watched with satisfaction as the weight of the clubs caused the Buick’s back end to go down a little. Bye bye, Jack’s babies.
Elizabeth reached into her purse and pulled out a manila envelope wrapped around stacks of bills.
“Whoa. This is like a serious deal going down here, isn’t it?” asked Kiki, a slight smile on her face.
“Yes. Very hush, hush. But it’s not drugs or anything illegal,” assured Aimee. She went to shove it in her purse, but Kiki put her hand on her arm to stop her.
“Aren’t you going to count it?” she asked.
“No. I trust her.”
Kiki looked at her, confused. “I thought you guys just met.”
“We did,” said Aimee, not understanding what Kiki was getting at.
Kiki rolled her eyes. “Count the money.”
Aimee felt her face getting red. “That’s okay, really. I don’t need to.”
Elizabeth nodded her head. “No, Aimee, you should. Go ahead. I counted it three times, but you should make sure.”
Aimee felt herself starting to sweat. “No, I’m okay. We have a meeting anyway.”
Kiki crossed her arms. “Why don’t you want to count it? Now I’m curious, so you have to tell me. I can be very annoying when I don’t get my way.”
Aimee looked at Kiki, visions of an Amazon warrior flashing across her mind’s eye. Kiki could be pretty intimidating when she wanted to be, apparently. “I just ... I don’t want to be rude, I guess.”
Kiki snapped her fingers and then held out her hand, palm up. “Hand it over, Rover.”
Aimee looked at Elizabeth, noticing that she merely raised her eyebrows at Kiki’s command, saying nothing to disagree with it. Aimee only thought about Kiki taking her money and running away with it for half a second before she handed the bundle over to her. She glanced down at Kiki’s boots and decided that she had a pretty fair chance of catching Kiki, even if she did decide to take off, since Aimee herself was wearing her very well-worn ballet flats. Kiki’s legs might be a mile long, but she couldn’t possibly go very fast with those heels on.
Kiki reached into the bag, pulling out the four stacks of bills. She flipped through them almost as fast as the bank’s counting machine at Aimee’s favorite branch. She liked the people at that bank because they didn’t know her husband, and she didn’t feel like she was suffering under anyone’s scrutiny when she walked in to deposit what turned out many times to be rubber checks that he’d write on purpose, just to make her life miserable.
“Wow, you’re good at that,” said Elizabeth, her mouth turned down in a frown of respect.
“I count a lot of bills every night,” she offered, without further explanation.
“Do you work at a bank?” asked Aimee.
Kiki raised one eyebrow at her. “No.” She shoved the money back in the envelope. “If you’re looking for ten Gs twenty, it’s all there.” She handed the envelope back to Aimee.
“A casino?” asked Aimee.
“No,” said Kiki, still looking at Elizabeth.
Elizabeth frowned. “No, that’s not right. You made a mistake.”
Kiki shrugged. “No, I didn’t. See for yourself.” She stood there, arms folded, waiting to see what Elizabeth would do, the toe of her boot tapping lightly on the asphalt.
Elizabeth held out her hand. “Do you mind, Aimee? I’m pretty sure I counted correctly.”
“Sure, go ahead,” said Aimee, mystified. She wasn’t exactly certain what was going on. Kiki had said ‘ten geez twenty’. What does that mean? And why is Elizabeth upset about it?
Elizabeth counted the money again, much slower than Kiki had, and then looked up when she was done, taking a twenty dollar bill out of one of the stacks. “You’re absolutely right.” Her expression and voice said she couldn’t believe it. “How could I possibly have made that mistake?”
“What mistake?” asked Aimee.
Elizabeth handed her the envelope, minus the twenty-dollar bill. “I had miscounted somehow. I was giving you an extra twenty dollars.”
Then it hit her. Aimee smacked herself on the forehead. “Ooohhhh ... ten Gs twenty, not ten geez twenty! Now I get it.”
The other two looked at her like she was nuts.
She shook her head. “Never mind. I’m a space cadet. We’re all good.” She shoved the envelope into her bag. “Want to go inside now? Book club?” She looked hopefully at the two women in front of her. This was the most interaction she’d had with another woman in months – other than the cashier at the grocery store – and it felt great. She didn’t want it to end yet.
Elizabeth turned and slammed the trunk down on her car and pressed a button on her keychain, locking everything and turning on a car alarm. “I’m ready.”
Aimee turned to Kiki. “Are you coming?”
Kiki hesitated, looking from Aimee to Elizabeth and then over at the front door of the store. “Mmmm, I don’t know. I really have to go see a friend.” She bit her lip self-consciously, making her seem suddenly more innocent to Aimee – maybe even a little shy.
“Can your friend wait an hour?” asked Elizabeth, clearing her throat and smoothing down the front of her suit pants.
Kiki thought about it for a second and then shrugged her shoulders. “Why not? I guess it would be okay for just an hour.”
Aimee smiled, noticing that Elizabeth also looked happy. “Okay, then, let’s go!” She shut her own trunk and pushed her button to lock and alarm her doors, gripping her purse to her ribs hard as she made her way back to the store with the others. Inside that bag was the only money she was probably going to see for the next few months, so she couldn’t afford to get mugged in the parking lot. She felt safe here, though, with Kiki and Elizabeth. They were a couple of unlikely friends, but it worked for her just fine.
Chapter 5
THE THREE WOMEN MADE THEIR way through the parking lot and back to the bookstore. Kiki said nothing, mulling over her situation with curiosity. She was more than a little surprised at herself that she had agreed to go to a book club meeting with two women she had just met. But something about them was growing on her.
First there was Aimee, walking around like a loon with that golf club, happily clueless, and ob
viously in need of female companionship. Kiki was willing to bet that Aimee had just been shafted by her husband. Probably a guy she’d been with for while, from the looks of her wardrobe and weight. In Kiki’s experience, women who were dating tended to dress more in the current style and went to the gym more often than Aimee was obviously going.
Then there was Elizabeth. She was more of a mystery. Kiki noticed her smoothing her hair and suit a lot, making sure there were no wrinkles and no stray wisps escaping that crazy librarian bun she had practically stapled to her head, there were so many pins in it. Her hair looked healthy, though, and possibly pretty long. Kiki wondered what it would look like down and loose. Her own hair was her pride and joy, thick, long and able to take a curl so easily. She loved messing around with it, but it was always more fun to do someone else’s hair – especially when it was a makeover-type situation. Both of these girls needed serious re-dos as far as Kiki was concerned.
They reached the glassed-off room used for the book club meeting to find one woman already there. Kiki schooled the expression on her face to remain calm, but she was pretty sure she was looking at one of the oldest human beings on the planet. She had to be at least a hundred. Maybe more. She looked like a raisin, and she had a bag with a string of yarn coming out of it that was feeding the bootie she was knitting in her hands. The yarn was the ugliest green color she’d ever seen.
“Well, hello, girls,” said the old lady. “I was starting to wonder if I was going to be talking to myself about the book this week.” She chuckled as her fingers kept moving, the sounds of knitting needles making clicking and sliding sounds of metal on metal.
“Hello, Betty,” said Elizabeth. “I’m so sorry we’re late. We got hung up in the parking lot.”
Betty waved her off with her knitting, jabbing it in the air one time before starting to move the needles again. “Don’t worry about it. I have plenty to keep me busy. You don’t get as old as I am by worrying about every little thing and being impatient.”