Page 52 of Cut Off
Maddie:at Guac & Roll which is OUR PLACE
Maddie:CALL ME
Oh, no.
Oh, no, no, no.
I duck out of the game room with a finger up at Tom, who waves without looking because his car is currently airborne, and I make it to the back patio before I hit her name. She picks up before the first ring.
“It’s over,” she says.
“What?”
“Brittany Chester saw him at Pottery Barn picking out a candle.”
“And?”
“A break-up candle, Zoe. He was looking at the soft scents. The soft scents are the break-up candles. Everyone knows this.”
“No one knows this, Maddie.”
“I know this.”
I sit down on the back step and put my forehead in my hand. Maddie is younger than me by three years and currently engaged to a man named Hunter who is, in my opinion, fine but not good enough for her, and the thought of her getting dumped by him at the taco place where I worked and stole food from one summer is making me want to drive to wherever he is and key something.
But also.
If Maddie’s getting dumped tonight, she’ll not be in any state to be a nanny to a grieving nine-year-old. Me leaving is still over two weeks away, which is a good thing because Maddie is going to be in my mother’s basement watching The Notebook with a bottle of pink wine for a minimum of two weeks.
We’re cutting it close, but she should be in good shape by the time I leave. Right?
I close my eyes.
“Mads. Listen. You don’t actually know.”
“I know.”
“You don’t.”
“Brittany said—”
“Brittany’s been wrong about every single thing she has ever said. She thought we had a cousin who was a pilot. We do not have a cousin who is a pilot.”
“…fair.”
“So, go to dinner. Order the lobster.”
“It’s tacos.”
“Yeah, lobster tacos, duh. Double order and get three orders of churros. And if he says something bonehead, you let him as you eat your fish, then call me when it’s over, deal?”
“Deal.”
“And Mads?”
“Yeah?”
“It’s probably just a candle. But just in case, put on the silky green dress.”
