Red and Black

by Nancy O'Toole Meservier

  “About the presentation?”

  “No, the class. They don’t think art classes in general are a good use of my time. When they found out I wanted to major in it they, uh…threatened to stop paying my tuition, at least the part not covered by loans.” He paused and frowned. “They want me to be like…an accountant or something.”

  I shrugged before replying, “Bailey U’s awfully expensive. Is it really worth paying that much money for an art degree?”

  “Yeah, yeah, I know, it’s just…” Noel reached up and ran a hand through his hair, causing it to poof outward. “I may not have another opportunity to really focus on something I love. And Bailey U has an amazing art program with great professors…I can’t just let that all go to waste. I mean, the point is getting a degree, right? Why does it have to matter what it’s in?”

  I frowned, Noel’s words a clear reminder of why Bailey U kids often drove me nuts. Sure, it was easy to say “follow your dreams” when someone else was paying for it. But eventually, Noel would graduate and have to worry about paying back loans with a pretty useless degree. Becoming an accountant wasn’t a great option for someone like Noel, but sometimes life didn’t give you great options. Sometimes you had to deal with good enough.

  I shook my head. I couldn’t think about that now. I was here for a reason, after all.

  I had to think of the job.

  “Yeah…I have no idea where to start with this place,” Noel said, seemingly reading my mind. “I mean, my background is in waiting tables, not—” he waved a hand around the room— “whatever this is.”

  “I think I might have an idea,” I replied. “But it has some holes. I need to look around a little more.”

  We cased the ballroom, checking out the stage area and every exit we had access to. Jason, either being honest about the amount of work he had to do or just happy to be away from Marty, kept his distance. Once I got a feel for the room, I waved the two guys over and let them know I was ready. As we waited for the car to drive up, I took out my phone and began to tap in the number.

  “Who are you calling?” Marty asked.

  “Calypso,” I replied, hitting send.

  Both heads swung toward me at once.

  “You have her number?” Marty asked, while Noel blinked in surprise.

  “Yeah…kind of hard to do my job without it. Hello?” I turned my attention to the phone as Calypso picked up.

  As we got in the car, I ran my idea by her. She remained silent for the next few minutes. I assumed she was listening, but when she didn’t respond right away, I began to wonder if we had gotten disconnected. Or worse, she had gone all distant like she had in conference room B.

  “That’s not a bad idea,” she finally said. “It would certainly limit some of the issues you mentioned during our meeting.”

  “You were listening to that?” I asked, catching the note of surprise in my own voice.

  “Of course. Why would I seek your help if I didn’t want it?”

  “Well…Amity didn’t seem all that interested.”

  “Amity, for all of her invaluable contributions, is not infallible. I will need to speak with her in regard to your plan. This will likely take some time. I don’t foresee any significant action over the next few days.”

  I said I understood and bid her good-bye before hanging up the phone and sticking it in my pocket. I noticed that the car was strangely silent. Marty and Noel were looking at me with large eyes. Even the driver (what was his name, Wes?) had only half of his attention on the road.

  “Did she…ask about us?” Marty finally asked, breaking the silence.

  I let out a bark of laughter. I swear, while their worship of Calypso usually felt creepy and unnerving, there were times when it was just ridiculous. They were like teenagers, wanting to know if the girl they had a crush on was thinking about them.

  I frowned. Were Marty and Noel still teenagers?

  “Sorry,” I said. “She uh, appreciates your contributions. But she’s going to have to think about my ideas, which means I have a little extra time. And that means…”

  I reached for my phone again.

  “More boxing lessons?” Noel asked.

  “Sure,” I nodded, pulling up the message function.

  “Good,” Noel added. “Because some of the other guys were asking about joining up.”

  Which didn’t surprise me at all. Looked like I needed to get used to the smell of motor oil because I was going to spend a lot more time in that garage.

  I brought up Dawn’s number and began to type in a text. Until then, I needed to set up a date.

  11

  First Date

  Alex

  “Are you going to an interview?”

  I turned to see Mariah at my bedroom door. She stood with her left elbow cradled in her right hand, her attention on the open closet behind me. It contained what my family usually called “church clothes,” despite the fact that Mariah was the only one who attended anymore. Claire’s relationship with religion had been…complicated since Mom died, and while a big part of me still believed in the stuff they had taught in Sunday School, I didn’t see much of a place in it for someone like me.

  It was probably due to this distance that my collection of church clothes was pretty limited. I owned a single pair of dress pants, a couple of button-up shirts, and a handful of ties that were constantly falling off their wire hangers. The fact that I was already wearing one of the dress shirts made the collection look even more spartan. I held a copper-striped tie to the front of my chest.

  “Kind of late for an interview,” I replied.

  In all fairness, the jobs I was picking up lately weren’t the type to hold regular interview times. But it wasn’t like they were very shirt-and-tie-focused either.

  “I have a date,” I clarified.

  Mariah’s eyebrows shot straight up to her hairline.

  “Oh!” she said. “Well that’s…that’s great, Alex!”

  “Is it that unbelievable that I would go out on a date?”

  “Oh no! It’s just…well…”

  “I know. I know. It’s been a while.” I couldn’t help but smile. “But you’re one to talk.”

  “Yeah. But with school, and student teaching and everything…”

  Not to mention worrying about paying the bills and keeping an eye on Claire. I found myself frowning. Mariah was only a year older than Dawn, but they carried themselves so differently. For one thing, Dawn didn’t look as tired. I had wondered if the bags under my sister’s eyes would go away now that she could focus on school, but it was clear she was still having problems sleeping.

  “So…what’s she like?” Mariah asked, stepping into the room. She sat down on my unmade bed, pushing the twisted sheets aside.

  “Oh, she’s gorgeous, and clearly has no idea about it. And yeah, she’s really shy, but once you get her to open up, she’s just so easy to talk to.” I paused. “I just…there’s something about her. Can’t put my finger on it. I need to get to know her better.”

  “Hence, the date.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Well, where did you meet?”

  I told her about our two run-ins near Colossus Fitness, and our following meeting at the Cupcake Cafe. By the end of the story, Mariah was smiling and shaking her head.

  “Seems like fate, you constantly running into each other.”

  “Well, given how many times I walk that stretch of road between Colossus and the parking garage down the street, we’ve probably walked by each other dozens of times already.” I lifted the tie to my shirt. “Is this too fancy for Antigoni’s?”

  “I don’t know,” Mariah said with a blink. “I’ve never been there. Heard it’s kind of pricey.”

  “Great. Hope that’s just a rumor.”

  I tossed the tie back in the closet, and undid the top button of my shirt. I breathed a sigh of relief.

  “She ah…lost her father,” I added. “When she was around Claire’s age.”

/>   “Oh?”

  I could hear the mattress creak underneath her as she straightened up.

  “And it’s kind of encouraging, you know. Because she’s doing really well.” I paused and turned. “It makes me think that maybe in a few years—”

  “Oh my God, my brother’s going out on a date.”

  I looked up to see Claire standing in the doorway. She crossed her arms in front of her chest.

  “See,” I said, pointing toward her. “Claire gets it. Her first thought wasn’t job interview.”

  “Duh, you have a job.” Claire rolled her eyes. “Although seeing one of my siblings not acting like some old person and actually having a life is pretty shocking to me.”

  “Wait, I have a life—”

  “Are you going somewhere, Claire?” Mariah asked.

  I blinked, realizing that Claire was not wearing the pajama pants and sweatshirt that had become her uniform since being suspended the previous week. Instead, her blond hair was pulled back into a complex series of braids. She was dressed in a knit black top and jeans held together with safety pins. She was even wearing makeup.

  “It’s a school night—” I began.

  “I’ve been suspended, it’s not like I’m actually going to school tomorrow.”

  “Claire—”

  “Hold your horses, judgmental Joe.” She rolled her eyes again. “Janice bailed on me, so I’ll be staying in like a boring, old person anyway.”

  “Janice?” Mariah said, straightening up. “Isn’t she—”

  “Still mad at me,” Claire replied with a limp shrug. “Guess I should have expected it.”

  “Claire.” Mariah got to her feet. “Maybe we should—”

  “No, it’s fine. Netflix sounds like a much better deal anyway. You want to join me?”

  “Sure,” Mariah replied with a small smile. “In a bit.”

  And with that, Claire headed down the hall. I couldn’t help but frown.

  “Aren’t she and Janice close?” I asked after a moment’s silence.

  “Oh…I suppose you don’t know the details.”

  “What details?”

  “The fight? It was with Janice’s boyfriend, Drake.”

  I shook my head.

  “I still can’t get over the idea of Claire getting into a fight. A physical one, not a verbal one. Did she say why?”

  “Not yet,” Mariah said with a tiny shrug. “Then again, it only took four episodes of House Hunters to get her to tell me that much. I’m sure after another four, I’ll get more information. Good luck on your date.”

  I chuckled and said good-bye, knowing that Mariah’s idea of a TV marathon probably involved her studying from the kitchen and occasionally getting up to make a comment on the show. She was going to miss one of her classes tomorrow to meet with the superintendent and Claire’s caseworker about the possibility of expulsion. It pained me that she was going alone, but Calypso wanted to go over my plans for the benefit, and I had a shift at Colossus on top of that. Thankfully, Mariah hadn’t questioned my inability to get out of work. I was still pretty new at Colossus, after all.

  I sighed and looked back into my closet. No time to worry about that now. It wouldn’t be long before I had to head out and meet Dawn. It would be nice to do something just for fun. Not connected to any of the drama at home, or Calypso. Just to have someone to talk to, where every conversation wasn’t weighted with past baggage. Nothing long-term could come of it, of course. Eventually, Dawn would pick up that there was more going on with me, just like my sister had. But it would be nice, for one night, not to be Faultline or the man of the house. It would be nice just to be Alex.

  Dawn

  Gee, I hope Alex made a reservation…

  The front area of Antigoni’s was packed. A line had formed behind the host’s station, and a small seating area to the side was already full with people holding those little black thingamajigs that vibrate and flash lights when it’s your turn to be seated. It was more than I would expect on a Thursday night, but the Coastline area was excessively trendy.

  “Excuse me,” a man said, pushing past me from the front door.

  I murmured an apology and skidded off to the side, pulling my shoulders forward and clutching my purse to my chest. It was one of those ridiculously small clutches barely big enough to carry a wallet and a phone. The navy-blue bag was strung on a silver chain and thrown over one shoulder. It wasn’t quite my normal style. I had spent an embarrassingly large portion of the afternoon going through my entire closet in preparation for tonight’s date (Was this too formal? Too casual? Too nerdy? Warm enough? Ugh. Why was I so skinny? And how long had that zit been there?) before finally giving up and calling Sunshine. My friend had been over within the hour and had spent two minutes looking at my mountain of clothing before pulling out a dress, a belt, and a sweater. Then she had shoved a paper bag in my arms.

  “You can borrow these,” Sunshine had said, “but I need them back for a photo shoot on Saturday.”

  She had also made it explicitly clear (after I had told her that I was going to Antigoni’s) that she expected her thank you to come in the form of parmesan-crusted chicken. Sunshine had recently been on a date there, and the dish was “the only thing that kept that night from being a complete disaster.”

  Now I stood, five minutes before seven, dressed in a dark-blue dress with tiny polka dots, a camel-colored cardigan, the aforementioned ridiculously small purse, and adorable matching vintage t-strap shoes. Sometimes, it was a good thing that Sunshine and I wore the same shoe size.

  The date, as nerve-wracking as it sounds, was taking place at a pretty good time for me. As one might expect, blindly Googling “Forgers” hadn’t gotten me very far. From what I made out, two paths now stood before me. Either this “Mistress” was leading Bailey City’s criminal-smiting activities or (the more likely course) counterfeiting. While the latter wasn’t the most exciting way to enter the wide world of Actuals, I had learned back in high school that there were actually pretty hefty consequences to printing fake money.

  Of course, that didn’t change the fact that, deep in my gut, something about this theory felt off. Like there was more too this “Forger” thing that I wasn’t seeing.

  Not that my gut was the most trustworthy thing. After all, it had told me that Alex wasn’t interested in me, and now we were going out on a date.

  On top of that, there was the second person that Sully had mentioned at our bridge-side chat, this “Amity” (and boy, had it taken me a while to figure out how that one was spelled). I wasn’t sure how she played into the picture, but clearly she was working with Sully’s Mistress.

  Not that he had said much about her. He had been practically comatose until the police arrived. I, of course, had scampered away like a good little vigilante, feeling all kinds of frustrated. Now that Sully was off-limits, who was I going to talk to who knew anything about Amity or the Forgers?

  “Am I late?”

  I jumped at the familiar voice and spun around a tad too quickly.

  “Whoa,” Alex said, steadying me with his right hand. “Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, fine,” I said. “You just—”

  “Surprised you?” he finished. “Sorry, I said your name once, but it looked like you didn’t hear me. Not that I can blame you. It’s kinda loud in here.”

  Hmmm…was it? That would explain why he had raised his voice. Of course, all I could focus on was the sensation of his hand resting against my forearm, and how…warm it was.

  He dropped it, and for some reason, I couldn’t help but feel sad.

  “So,” he repeated, “am I late? I had to drive around the block a few times to find a spot.”

  “Oh no,” I said. “I just took the tram. It’s not like they’re ever on schedule.”

  I let out a laugh that sounded forced even to my ears. Ugh. What was wrong me with me?

  “Yeah,” Alex replied with a noticeable shudder. “Not a big fan of the tram.”

 
“Claustrophobic?”

  “No, they just seem so breakable. Anyway, let’s take a seat.”

  “Do you have a reservation?” I asked, as we made our way to the host’s station.

  “No. But I know someone who works here.”

  “Oh really? Who?”

  “Welcome to Antigoni’s, how…oh hi, Alex.”

  I turned my head away from Alex’s (admittedly alluring) dark eyes, then almost tripped over myself in shock. What was Noel White doing here?

  He was dressed in an all-black waiter’s uniform and held a stack of menus in one hand. I could even see the bandages from where I had dislocated his thumb the previous week.

  “Noel!” I blurted out. “I…you haven’t been in class lately.”

  Alex looked back and forth between the two of us.

  “You two know each other?” he asked.

  “Bailey U,” I replied dumbly.

  “We have a class together,” Noel said. “English Novel.”

  “And you’ve missed the past few classes. I, uh…couldn’t help but notice.” Come on, Dawn, make this look natural. You’ve made scripts to prepare for this confrontation! “Is everything okay?”

  “Ah…not quite,” Noel said with a wince. “My grandmother had a bad fall, and I had to go back home to help out for a few days.”

  “That’s awful.”

  And a bold-faced lie. Who would have guessed that Noel White could be so smooth?

  “Is everything okay now?” I asked.

  “My mom is taking care of her, but recovery’s going to be slow. I might need to head back and help her out.”

  “Oh. I bet Professor Andrews will understand.”

  “Yeah, right now I’m a little more worried about my boss.” Noel let out a forced chuckle. “Table for two?”

  “That would be great,” Alex said.

  And with that, Noel reached beneath the host’s station and pulled out two menus. As he led us into the dining room, I felt the people in the packed waiting area stare daggers into our backs.