Page 137 of Little Miss Petty
“Sorry I’m late,” Salcedo said as she breezed through the door. “I was finishing up a paper and totally lost track of the time.”
“Your timing is perfect,” Havisham said as she poured another glass of champagne.
“Is that ...?” Salcedo asked, pointing at the bottle.
“Oh yes,” Havisham said.
Salcedo looked at me, her eyes dancing. “What are we toasting?”
“Love,” I said, raising my glass toward Havisham and Trace, then looking up at my favorite forensic accountant.
“And justice,” he said.
“Poeticjustice,” Havisham said as we all raised our glasses a third time.
“And being just a little petty,” Salcedo added.
Our toast concluded, we locked up Finnegan’s to head for a Waffle House after-party. We were past due in bringing some burly boyfriends to visit Betty and Jasper.
Once outside, I stopped. “Is that another blue moon?”
“A supermoon, even,” Malone said. “Almost ten years before you’ll see another blue moon, so drink it in.”
“Huh.”
“That’s a really loaded ‘huh,’ Stark.”
“Say, how good are you at flipping pancakes?”
He grinned. “An expert. Want me to make you some tomorrow?”
“Definitely. What’s your favorite shape?”
He put a hand on my forehead. “Are you okay?”
“As well as I’ve ever been. Shape, Malone.”
Bless him, he stopped to give my question thought.
“Well, for my next tattoo, I was thinking about an asterisk, so I’m gonna have to go with a star.”
I inhaled sharply. A star. “Why an asterisk?”
“Lots of reasons, but mainly because it can mean ‘wild card,’ and that reminds me of you.”
“Not a banana pepper?” I asked cheekily, even though my insides felt gooey.
“Nah.”
I grabbed his hand, and we walked in the direction of my car. “Listen, Malone. I know California doesn’t have any Waffle Houses, but I was wondering ...”
“Yes?”
“How would you feel about my coming to stay with you?”
By this time, we’d reached my Corolla, and Malone leaned against the car and pulled me to him. “And here I was going to scout out places for a possible Atlanta office of Chateau Cybersecurity while I was here.”
“Really?” My heart swelled in such a way I knew I didn’t want to leave my friends behind.
“It was going to be a surprise, but you beat me to the punch.”
“So it’s time to renegotiate the benefits package?”
“I’d be willing to update our contract to a more binding document,” he said carefully.
My heart hammered. It was a different sort of proposal, but then again, I was a different sort of woman. “I could be persuaded.”
“I’ll enjoy persuading you,” he said before kissing me under that big, bright, blue supermoon.
The universe had spoken.
