by Adan Ramie
“It’s different,” Chuck squeaked out.
Stella reached out and put one hand over Chuck’s. “If you want, I’ll switch with you.” She indicated her plate. “Mine isn’t very spicy.”
Chuck shook her head and looked down at her plate. She refused to let it get the best of her. She picked up her fork and carefully placed another, smaller bite into her mouth as if it were something that might reach out and bite her back. This time the spice combination came as less of a shock, and she started to appreciate the subtleties of flavor.
“So, you were alone with much older cousins,” Stella prompted. “Which, as story starters go, sounds like it would end badly.”
Chuck chewed thoughtfully, swallowed, then drained her glass. She glanced around to catch the eye of their server, but she had disappeared into the back already. “They put us down for bed, but I was a mischievous little brat, so I went back into the living room where they were watching movies. I’m not sure if I watched the whole thing or not, but the movie they had on made an impression on me.”
“Whether she watched it all or not, she got the best line down. My mother actually recorded her saying it wearing a costume that looked just like him.” Brenda grinned. “It was one of the only times I saw our father really break down and laugh.”
“What line?” Stella asked Chuck.
“‘Hi, I’m Chucky. Wanna play?’” Chuck mimicked. Both women burst out laughing, and Chuck picked up her fork with a warmth in her cheeks. She hated the story, but Brenda had insisted on telling it any chance she got for the past ten years.
“So Chuck comes from Child’s Play,” Stella said. She picked up her fork, scooped up a bite, then paused with it halfway to her mouth. “It’s cute. I like it.” She took a bite, smiled, and let out a moan.
A ripple of sensation rolled down Chuck’s body. Her mouth went dry, and she glanced around for the server again. Between the spicy food and even spicier company, she needed water now more than ever.
“What’s your real name, then?” Stella asked her.
Chuck sighed. “Melody.”
Stella’s eyes widened. Brenda snickered again. Chuck stared into her plate, her appetite lost, with the warmth draining from her body. The only thing she hated worse than how she got her nickname was having to confess her given name. She had never felt it suited her, and now more than ever, she wished she had changed it when she turned 18.
“Hm,” Stella said, toying with her fork. “I think I like Chuck better. It seems a lot more... you.”
Chuck glanced up and met her eyes, and some of the warmth started to pour back into her. By the time the server came back to fill up her glass, she was hot around the collar. Stella broke contact, but nudged her under the table with her knee and smiled as she forked up another bite.
“So, Stella, what do you do for a living?” Brenda asked. She shoveled up a bite of Bombay potatoes on a chunk of naan and looked to Stella for an answer.
Stella turned to her. “I’m actually a freelance virtual assistant for a revolving list of about one hundred clients all over the world. I also have clients that require a team of freelancers, but those are all local.” She shrugged as if this was not an impressive feat.
Chuck gawked at her. “A hundred clients? I’m lucky if I can handle talking to five or six people a day, not including this one,” she said, and jerked a thumb at Brenda.
“Love you, too, sis,” Brenda said with a roll of her eyes.
“You know what I mean.” Chuck gave her a pointed look, and Brenda turned back to her plate, chastised.
Stella grinned at the two of them and held her fork under her chin with both hands. “It must be nice to have a sister. I always wished I had a younger sister when I was a kid. Someone to hang out with, confide in, and commiserate with over all the adolescent garbage kids go through.”
Brenda snorted, put her fork on her plate, and pushed it toward the edge of the table to be picked up. She wiped her mouth with a napkin, then leveled a gaze on Stella. “A woman is as likely to be given a sister she has anything in common with as she is to be struck by lightning. And I’m not sure which is more unlucky.”
Stella glanced from Brenda to Chuck, who nodded gravely, and back. “I can’t imagine you two are that different. After all, you started a business together. You see each other every day. You live in the same city.”
It was Chuck’s turn to laugh. “The two of us are like day and night. If I didn’t have the DNA test results to prove it, I would think one of us was adopted.” She paused, then pushed her plate toward her sister’s, and balled her napkin up in her fist. “I guess I would be the adopted one, right?” she asked Brenda.
“Nah,” Brenda said. “It would definitely be me. I’m the one who has never had anything in common with anyone in the family.”
Chuck shrugged and glanced around for the server. “I guess we need to get the check and go.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket to check the time. “I can’t believe we’ve been here so long. It seems like we just got here.” She glanced at Stella out of the corner of her eyes. “Good company, I guess.”
Stella looked across the table to her file folder, but kept her mouth shut. Chuck saw her look, and it dawned on her that they had spent barely any time talking about the event they were supposed to be planning.
“I think we defeated the purpose of this dinner,” Chuck said.
Brenda laughed. “As if either of us could keep on topic for more than a few minutes at a time. I honestly don’t know how we keep Saving Gracie’s together month-to-month.”
Chuck grimaced. “I think we owe a lot to Kenna. She might be... a pain to work with, but at least she keeps us on track.”
“That’s the truth,” Brenda said. She looked at Stella. “Have you had the pleasure of meeting our co-owner yet?”
Stella smirked and shook her head. “I have not, and, honestly, I’m not sure I want to.”
Brenda gave her a knowing look, and Chuck kicked her under the table. Brenda shot a glare across the table at her, then pulled her purse from under the table to grab her wallet. “I don’t know if you have a choice. Anything to do with Saving Gracie’s and finances goes through her. She’s our mighty gatekeeper.”
“I can’t wait,” Stella said, her voice flat.
Chuck smiled softly as she watched Stella still Brenda’s hand on her wallet, then bring her own out of her boot.
“Let me,” Stella said. “I promised I had dinner. Consider it good karma I’d like to apply to little Stanley.”
“Stan the man,” Chuck mumbled under her breath.
Stella laughed out loud and turned to Chuck, but placed her credit card on top of the check for the server to collect. “Stan the man. I like that. I think it needs to go on his collar.”
“And the advertisements for the fundraiser,” Chuck agreed.
Brenda nodded at them both. “I have to say, I think that’s a great idea. Makes him seem cute – even to me.”
“I am shocked,” Chuck said with a smile.
“I do have a heart, you know,” Brenda said, pretending offense.
Stella watched both of them quietly as they talked over her.
“If you will both excuse me, I need to go to the ladies’ room,” Brenda said. She stood up, gave Chuck a pointed look, then walked away.
Stella waited a moment before she spoke. “What was that look about?”
Chuck shook her head. “I really can’t tell. Either she wants me to try to ask you on a date, or she specifically doesn’t want me to. It’s hard to know with Brenda.” She sighed. “She’s an enigma.”
“Well, if it helps, I don’t care what your sister thinks, and I don’t need anyone’s permission to accept a date.” She grinned and tapped Chuck’s hand playfully. “Do you?”
Chuck blushed and glanced down at the table, then looked back up at Stella. The server walked up to the table, took the check and credit card, then walked away. Chuck had almost lost her nerve. “How’s Friday ni
ght?” she finally asked.
Before she knew it, Stella had her phone out. “Friday night isn’t good for me. I have a couple of meetings scheduled late for clients overseas.” She paused and flicked her phone’s screen several times. “What about the next day?”
Chuck thought about it. She wasn’t one for calendars; she kept most of the information in her mind, for good or ill. She shrugged. “I think I’m free. If not, I can cancel anything I have planned.”
“Then it’s a date,” Stella said. She laid her hand on top of Chuck’s and gave it a squeeze.
Chuck’s pulse thrummed in her head, and a bolt of white hot lightning shot up her arm and down her chest into her lap. Stella licked her lips and stretched them slowly into a mischievous grin.
Brenda yawned loudly as she got back to the table, and Stella took her hand away, but kept her smile. “It is officially past my bedtime,” Brenda announced, and held out a hand to Stella. “It was nice getting to know you, and I look forward to seeing what you can do with the adoption drive.” She gave Chuck a glance. “And the fundraiser.”
Stella stood up and shook her hand. “The pleasure is all mine. I hope I can live up to the hype.”
“So do I,” Brenda answered, then gave her sister an undecipherable look. “I will see you tomorrow.”
“Yeah,” Chuck answered.
Stella stood as Brenda left the table. “I think I should get going, too. I have a lot of work to do if I’m going to pull this off and impress your sister.”
“Good luck with that,” Chuck said, and stood alongside her.
The server came back, handed her card back to Stella, and waited for Stella to sign the receipt. Stella leaned over the table to sign and gave Chuck a prime view down the front of her blouse. Chuck’s blood felt electric in her veins. When Stella stood again, she looked straight into Chuck’s eyes as if she knew she had been looking – and she approved.
“Until we meet again.” Stella leaned forward and placed a kiss on Chuck’s cheek only a hair’s breadth from her mouth. “Call me tomorrow morning, and I will run through the list of things I need you to handle for the fundraiser and adoption drive.”
Chuck’s voice felt strangled. “Anything you need.”
As Stella walked away, Chuck found herself staring like a lovesick puppy. Stella was everything she had ever admired and lusted for in a woman. She was so close, and yet... something was holding her back. Her hands got clammy just thinking about going on a date with the spitfire. Everything about her seemed perfect, but maybe that was it.
She was too perfect. Maybe Kenna was right.
Chuck frowned as she pushed in her chair, weaved her way through the tables at the little restaurant, and walked out into the muggy summer night. The street outside was quiet, and she shoved her hands into her pockets as she walked to her car.
No one was that great. Everyone had at least one major flaw; it was human nature.
So what was Stella’s? And could Chuck handle it once she found out?
CHAPTER 7
The next morning, Chuck dragged herself out of bed. She had spent the night tossing and turning, alternating between sexy dreams about Stella straddling her face and nightmares about Stella smothering her with a pillow, her bedsheets, or the cat-o-nine-tails she had seen once in a museum. Admitting that she was turned on either way made her promise to take a closer look at her sexual motivations at a later date.
She tugged on a stained gray t-shirt and a ragged pair of jeans, slipped into socks that she made sure were not filled with holes, and slid the boots she had brought from the shelter yesterday back onto her feet. With a fast, almost vicious brush of her teeth and a hand jerked through her hair, she grabbed her phone, keys, and wallet, and headed out the door without so much as saying goodbye to her brood of sad-eyed animal friends.
Halfway to the shelter, she heard the first message alert. Then the next. And the four after that. She finally stopped her bicycle, pulled off into the grass, and took her phone from her back pocket to see who was all over her jock. It was Brenda.
“I don’t know what she did, but you’ve got to send the girl some roses.”
“And chocolate. Does she like chocolate? She seems like a fruit-loving girl.”
“This number keeps growing by the minute. By 9, it will be over 2,000.”
“Do you know if Vines’ does edible arrangements? What about chocolate covered cookies shaped like little dogs?”
“Where are you?”
“Have you talked to Stella today? Let her know she needs to get here ASAP. We don’t know what to do about this account, and Kenna is fit to be tied. I think she’s angry that Stella could replace her.”
Chuck frowned at the phone and scratched her head. What could Brenda be talking about? She typed out a reply that she would be to the shelter in five, tucked the phone back into her pocket, and started pedaling harder than she had been before. Whatever was going on, Brenda was more anxious than Chuck had seen her in years, and she would need her sister’s help calming down.
A few minutes later, she stopped in at the bakery. She checked her phone as she walked in, but she didn’t have any other messages from Brenda. The only message was from her bank telling her she was under $100 in her account. It did not come as a surprise, so she deleted it and put her phone away as she approached the counter.
The old woman smiled at her. “Good morning, Chuck. What can I get for you today? Surely you haven’t managed to upset your sister so soon after the good news.”
Chuck shook her head. “What good news?”
Mrs. Vines closed her mouth tight and pretended to lock it and throw away the key. “I’ve said too much already, I see. What can I get you?”
Chuck stared at her a moment, then glanced down at the treats in the display case. She looked up a moment later. “Do you by any chance make edible arrangements?”
The old woman let out a whoop and clapped her hands. Chuck had never seen her look so full of life and energy. “We can make them, but I don’t remember the last time we got the chance. What do you think she will like?”
“Who?”
Mrs. Vines gave her a sly glance, then looked down at her own powdered sugar-dusted hands. “You know, the woman you will be ordering the arrangement for,” she said, then ducked out of sight.
Chuck stood on her toes to try to see over the counter, but it was too high and broad, so she settled back on her flat feet to wait. After a moment, the old woman popped back up with a book slightly covered with dust. She brushed it off onto the floor, put the book on the counter, and wiped her hands on her apron.
“Truffles? Cookies? Brownies, cake pops, croissants, or fruit?” She grinned like Christmas had come early and flipped the next page almost violently. “I can’t wait to get started. Edible arrangements are one of the only things Mr. Vines lets me help him with, and to be honest, I think he would rather I make them altogether.”
Chuck glanced at the pages as the wrinkled hands slowed down and started turning them with care. There were gift baskets, bouquets, and so many combinations that it boggled her mind. She wasn’t sure what the arrangement was for, but if Brenda thought Stella deserved it, she wanted to get it right.
“Well, you seem to know more than I do about the situation. My sister wanted to order this for Stella to thank her for... whatever it was she did.” She cocked an eyebrow up as the old woman let out a girlish giggle and bounced on her feet. Chuck paused a beat to wait for a confession; when it didn’t come, she sighed. “What would you recommend?”
“I’ve never met the woman, mind you,” Mrs. Vines said, and Chuck could see she was trying to control her glee. “But not many women I have ever met turn down chocolate. However, seeing as she seems to be quite the busy bee, I wouldn’t want to load her down with heavy desserts.” She turned the page and pointed one short fingernail at a tasteful arrangement of shaped fruit dipped in glossy, dark chocolate. “Simple and elegant, delicious but won’t break the calorie budget if she
’s one to watch her figure.”
Chuck smiled as she pictured Stella in her mind. “She has a beautiful figure.”
The old woman nodded, glanced again at the book, then closed it tight and slid it back into place behind the counter. She leaned on the top and looked into Chuck’s eyes. “I will have it for you by late this afternoon. Does six o’clock sound reasonable?”
“Absolutely,” Chuck said, then pulled out her wallet.
The old woman stayed her hand with a gleeful grin. “You can pay when she loves it. If you find I have missed the mark, it’s on the house. You can call it my joyful practice.” She winked, grabbed her purse from out of nowhere, and walked back to the window that separated the store front from the kitchen. She yelled, “Mr. Vines, I’ll be back. I need to go shopping for an edible arrangement!” She barely contained a squeal.
The old man barked something back, and Chuck heard an oven door slam. The old woman looked at her with a mischievous smile. “He sounds like a gruff old dog, but he loves me.” She came around the counter and patted Chuck on the hand. “Now, go on to work and get your good news. I think you will be pleased.”
Chuck followed her out the door and watched her place the sign that said, ‘Be back in one hour.’
“How do you know about the good news, anyway?” Chuck asked. “Did Brenda tell you?”
The old woman laughed heartily. “I have my ways. Now, go on! Let me get to work.”
CHAPTER 8
When she opened the front door of Saving Gracie’s, Chuck almost didn’t recognize it. The normally-vacant front lobby was packed with people bubbling over with excited conversation. Saving Gracie’s high school dual-credit volunteers, Yarely, Fiona, Landon, Zack, Bobby, and Gwen, mobbed around her all talking at once so that she couldn’t decipher a word. Chuck barely made it to the door separating the front from the back. When she had gone inside, she leaned on it, feeling like she had just had a glimpse of what fame felt like. It was not something she wanted for her life.