Alice in Glass Slippers

by L. C. Davenport

  “You asked me what I wanted to know. That’s it.”

  “Well, I’m not telling you.”

  “A-ha!” he shouted, pointing a finger at her. “So there is something!”

  “Stop pointing at me!” Alice cried. “Isn’t there anything else you want to ask?”

  Adam must have heard the panic in her voice, because his hand lowered and his next words were softer. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked that. It was very unfair of me.” He paused before continuing. “But I still want to know.”

  She could feel her frustration ease a little. “There isn’t that much to tell you. Just work stuff that you don’t need to worry about.” She gazed down at the ball in front of her. The lights inside weren’t telling her anything helpful. “Do you still want me to tell your fortune?”

  Adam leaned back on his stool, an inscrutable expression on his face. “Only if you can tell me that a certain blonde shoe saleswoman will give me a chance.”

  Alice blinked a few times. Had he really just said what she thought he had? “How badly do you want that?”

  Adam’s tone was as serious as she’d ever heard it. “Enough to chase with very little encouragement.”

  That made Alice’s head jerk back. “Maybe I’d be more ‘encouraging’ if I knew you weren’t going to make me fall for you and then go on your merry little way to do the same thing to another woman in another mall.”

  His eyes flashing, Adam set his mouth in a thin line. “That could be very messy,” he bit out. “And dangerous. And for your information, I have never chased after women for flings. They chase after me.”

  They stared at each other across the table, the soft lights from the crystal ball swirling over their faces. Alice wasn’t sure if the thought of other girls throwing themselves at Adam was worse than the fact that he was so blaséabout it. She was the first one to look away.

  “When we first met,” she said conversationally, pushing her irritation aside for the sake of civility, “all we could do was argue with each other. I was kind of hoping we’d moved past that by now.” It hadn’t escaped her that Adam’s careful Princeton grammar had slipped a little in his indignation. She’d never heard him start so many sentences with a conjunction, and she took a deep breath. “Just so you know, I’m not going to chase you. That’s not the way my brain’s wired, even though I’m sure you’re used to it. My problem is that I don’t know what your expectations are, other than to drive me insane.”

  It took a few seconds longer than Alice might have liked for Adam to respond. “I know why you have reservations about me,” he finally sighed, slumping on his stool and rubbing a hand over his face. “I wish I could tell you that everything will work out happily ever after for us. But I honestly don’t know what’ll happen in August. I wish I did.”

  That little speech sealed Alice’s fate for her, whether she admitted it to herself or not. Her heart, which had already been prone to expanding when it came to the dashing Mr. Wentworth, swelled another two sizes. She almost fell off her chair from the shock. “Okay,” she said almost inaudibly. “Let’s see what happens if I follow along with…How did you put it again? Your plan.”

  Adam’s eyes flew to hers and his jaw opened and closed wordlessly until he cleared his throat and pulled at his collar. “Just for clarification,” he said slowly, not taking his gaze from hers, “does this mean you’ll agree to go out with me when I ask, without any second thoughts?”

  Alice frowned. Was that what she’d been doing? “Yeah,” she agreed. “That’s what I mean.”

  “And you’ll hold my hand?”

  “Wasn’t I just doing that?”

  “All the time.”

  “If you want.”

  “Oh, Miss Riverton, you have no idea what I want to do to you.” Adam’s grin put the outside sunshine to shame, and without warning, he moved so close to her that she could feel his breath on her ear. “I’m not going to kiss you,” he exhaled, “even though I really, really want to.”

  “You’re not?” Alice couldn’t keep the surprise and disappointment out of her voice.

  “No. I want you to kiss me first. And you’re not ready right now.”

  Before she could move her face forward to prove him wrong, a piercing voice shrieked its way into the tent.

  “Brittany! Come here! I’ve found a fortune teller!”

  Adam cursed under his breath, stood up abruptly, and spun around, looking for the rear exit. He’d grabbed Alice’s hand to tug her too her feet when a bright, unwelcome light burst in, momentarily blinding them both.

  Adam stumbled forward and disappeared through a curtain just behind Alice, leaving her to gape at the space in horror. At least he’d managed to let go of her before he pulled her off her stool and onto the ground. “Adam!” she hissed. “Where are you? Are you okay?”

  She shot a quick glance toward Mimi, who was still standing semi-patiently outside, waiting for her daughter to follow her. She gave Adam enough time to stick his hand out from his hiding place and stuff his handkerchief in Alice’s direction. “Cover your face with this,” he whispered, “and tell them what they want to hear so they’ll go away and we can get back to our discussion.”

  By this time, Alice was starting to have doubts about the truthfulness of the no kissing policy, but she took the handkerchief from him and tried to stick it under the wig so the Walkers wouldn’t recognize her. To her amazement, there was a clip on each side of the wig to hold it in place, and she breathed out a silent prayer of relief to the god of misplaced fortune-tellers.

  “It’s awfully dark in here,” Brittany whined when Mimi pushed her into the room. “Do we have to do this? I saw Adam coming down this way a while ago, and he’s bound to be around here somewhere.”

  Alice took a good look at them and rolled her eyes. How did they expect to get around a carnival in five-inch heels and skirts so short they made underwear look more modest?

  “Be quiet, Brittany,” her mother hissed. “We could find out how to snag Adam for you once and for all.” She nodded in Alice’s direction, a fake smile plastered on her face. “We want to know how to catch a man. It’s very important.”

  Alice thought about mentioning the ‘closed’ sign they’d just ignored. But a choking noise came from behind the curtain, and Alice tried to resist the urge to kick him. He wasn’t helping. “What was that?” Mimi demanded, peering into the dim light.

  “Nothing,” Alice said in a deep, affected voice. “It’s just my parrot. He speaks when he knows he isn’t supposed to.”

  Brittany looked at her with an impressed look. “Can I see him?”

  Adam choked again, and Alice reached out behind her and thrust her arm into the curtain, getting a soft grunt in response. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. He can be very dangerous.”

  Mimi, who was obviously bored with the conversation, plopped herself on the stool Adam had just vacated and crossed her arms over her ample chest. “How can Brittany get Adam Wentworth to marry her?”

  Alice sucked in a breath and waited for Adam to do something stupid, but not a sound came out from the back of the tent. “How much does she want to snare this Adam Wentworth?” she asked. She had no idea what she was going to say, although the words ‘move to Antarctica’ were very tempting.

  “I want him. Any way I can.” Brittany’s usually high-pitched voice was determined and somehow lower than usual.

  “So you love him, then?”

  Brittany laughed like that was the dumbest thing she’d ever heard. “As if. I want him because he’s handsome and rich and knows important people. And he can help me set up my own salon.”

  This was news to Alice; she’d assumed Brittany didn’t have any career aspirations other than leeching off her mother. And Adam. “I’m not sure the spirits will help me in your case,” she said, hoping Brittany would buy this excuse. With her luck, Brittany would be a closet mystic and would see right through her. “I get the best readings when the heart is involved,”
she added lamely.

  “I don’t care how you get the information. Look harder,” Brittany ordered, annoyed with Alice’s non-answer.

  So Alice looked while her mind frantically tried to grasp onto something believable. She glanced up at Brittany’s overly made-up face and her too-small clothes and felt a pang of sympathy that she neither expected nor wanted. She immediately felt guilty for feeling so mean. For all she knew Brittany was just as much a product of her environment as Whitney had been before she’d been brave enough to leave.

  She exhaled slowly and pretended to concentrate on the ‘spirits’ in front of her, noting in surprise that she could sort of see through it to the people sitting on the other side. There was a strange, tannish blob that quivered rhythmically. She couldn’t place it but she didn’t want to look up to check.

  “Well? What do you see?”

  What Alice really saw, besides the blob, was her own reflection mirrored back at her. But she was pretty sure that wasn’t what Brittany wanted to hear. She took a deep breath and looked Brittany straight in the eye. “Be yourself,” she said decisively. “If this young man of yours–” she paused as a snort came from Adam’s direction “–is meant to be taken in, he’ll appreciate who you really are, and not who you pretend to be.”

  Brittany sat there in stunned silence and pondered this. “That’s a bunch of crap,” she finally said. “I want my money back.”

  Alice stifled a smile. “The reading is free.”

  “Well, I still want my money back. I’m going to report you to–”

  Mimi laid a manicured hand on her daughter’s arm. “That’s enough, Brittany. It’s my turn now.” She narrowed her eyes at Alice, who instinctively shrank back a few inches. “Tell me how to get rid of someone.”

  Alice’s eyes widened so much she was sure they were going to fall onto the floor and roll under the curtain to hide with Adam. “I don’t help with illegal actions,” she said with a small squeak.

  Mimi’s lips curled up in a strange sort of grimace. “Not that kind of get rid of. I need to persuade an unwanted employee to quit, and she’s proving to be more stubborn than I thought.”

  If Alice’s life could flash before her eyes, it would have flashed and fled. She glanced over her shoulder to the back curtain and swallowed. So much for not telling him what was going on at work. “Like I told your daughter, I don’t deal well with matters that don’t involve the heart.”

  Mimi smiled slowly. “Oh, I think you can figure something out. Look into your crystal ball and tell me what you see.” She laid a folded piece of paper on the table and pushed it toward Alice, who hoped it wasn’t money but was too afraid to look.

  “You’re not going to get rid of this employee,” she stated as calmly as she could. “The fates have decreed otherwise.”

  Mimi’s face contorted with annoyance. “That can’t be right,” she seethed. “I’ve made her life a living hell for the past year and a half, hoping she’d get sick of it and quit.” Alice’s mouth fell open under Adam’s handkerchief. So that was why she’d been forced to work all those hours. “I even threatened to sell the shop to the worst businesswoman in the mall if she didn’t complete all the items on my list without complaint, and she’s still here.”

  Alice could hear Adam mutter under his breath and hoped that Mimi was too busy with her tantrum to pay any attention. “She’s not leaving,” Alice said, her eyes spitting fire. “I have no doubt about that. Now, if there isn’t anything else I can do for you, I have an appointment soon.”

  Mimi leaned in so her chin was almost on top of the crystal ball. “Look one more time and tell me what you see.”

  Gulping, Alice tore her eyes from Mimi’s threatening ones and noticed once again the tan blob in front of her. With a sudden burst of inspiration she realized she was staring at Mimi’s barely-covered chest and said the first thing that came into her mind.

  “I see two large water balloons being popped and dripping all over the floor. Do you know what that could mean?”

  Mimi gasped, jerked back, and clutched her chest protectively with her hands. Shooting to her feet, she grabbed Brittany by the back of her shirt and the next second they were gone.

  Alice buried her face in her hands and waited for Adam to come out of hiding. She had a feeling that her afternoon wasn’t going to get better any time soon.

  Adam fell into the storage closet on cloud nine and out of it six feet under the ground. He listened as Alice tried to convince Brittany to just be herself, although he felt like she was being a little unfair to the girl since there was no way he’d ever look at her any differently than he already did. But she didn’t need to know about that.

  As soon as Mimi started talking, however, thoughts of Brittany’s unrequited greed scurried under the purple canvas, not to return. Was he really hearing correctly? Had Mimi been making Alice’s life miserable, and then blackmailing her? It took all his self-control to stay where he was. All he could think of as the words kept coming out of the vile woman’s mouth was, Why didn’t Alice tell me?

  Somewhere in his mind, hidden under his junior high locker combination, he knew why she didn’t say anything to him. He just chose to ignore that very small rational voice, and instead focused on how angry he felt. The problem was that he wasn’t sure if he was madder at Mimi for what she’d described, at himself for not seeing it, or at Alice for not telling him. He didn’t even laugh at the way Alice got rid of the Walkers and their fake, over-filled chests.

  Unfortunately for him, once Mimi left, the only person left in the tent that he could yell at was Alice.

  “Would you like to tell me what’s going on at work?” Adam was pleased at how calm and even his words were. He’d even managed to keep them inside until he’d extricated himself from the curtain. Maybe he wasn’t as angry as he thought.

  Alice pulled the wig from her head and put it back where she’d found it, keeping her face hidden. “You heard Mimi.”

  Okay, he wasas mad as he’d thought. “What were you thinking, Alice?” he cried his hands clenching into tight fists at his sides. “Why didn’t you tell me what was going on? I could have–”

  “What?” she cried, spinning around to face him. “You could have what, Adam? Fired her? Kicked her out of the mall? Found her favorite pair of shoes and fed them to your pet iguana?”

  “I don’t have a pet iguana,” he snapped. This whole situation had moved beyond frustrating and into the realm of the ridiculous.

  Alice threw her hands into the air and marched toward the door. “I know that! You live in my house! Answer the question!”

  “I could have stopped her.”

  Alice paused halfway out the door. “And just how would you have accomplished that?”

  He followed her out into the sunshine and yelled to her retreating back, “I could have reported her!”

  She stopped and slowly turned around. “No, you couldn’t! You would just have made things worse!”

  “What Mimi’s doing is illegal, Alice, and you know it. Why are you putting up with it?”

  That was the real question. Alice’s face paled, and she closed her eyes. “I don’t know,” she admitted so quietly that he wasn’t sure he’d heard her right. “I guess I just worried that if I didn’t do what she said, she’d find some loophole and kick me out of the shop. And then she found that foul woman to sell it to, and I panicked. I’ve already lost my mother, and my father, to an extent. I can’t lose what little I have left of my life.”

  They stood in the deserted alley, both of them breathing heavily. Adam sighed, and his shoulders drooped. He hadn’t realized they’d been so tense. “You still have Lewis, and Whitney,” he told her and walked slowly towards her. “Did you tell them?”

  “No.”

  He wasn’t sure if that relieved him or not. On the one hand, she could have used the support, but on the other, he didn’t want her to tell them and not him. “Why not?”

  “Because it’s my problem, not thei
rs. Lewis has his own business to run, and Whitney’s just started talking about school.”

  “I wish you’d told someone.” Especially me, he added to himself.

  Alice took a deep breath and reached out her hand to touch his arm. He froze and watched her face crumple, and the next thing he knew, she was crying. There were huge, gulping sobs that sounded like she’d been bottling up the tears for a long, long time. He pulled her into his arms and let her cry herself out.

  “I wanted to tell you,” she gulped into his now-drenched shirt. “I did. But I didn’t know how, and I wasn’t sure…”

  He rested his chin on top of her head and squeezed her a little tighter. “Of what?”

  He felt her sigh against him. “I wasn’t sure how you’d react. I must say, I didn’t expect you to yell at me like that. But I probably needed to hear it.”

  A wave of tension started to seep from his pores. “Is there anything else I should know about, since you’re in a forthcoming mood right now? What’s this thing about a list?”

  “It’s what I’ve been doing at work so late every day,” she mumbled. “Mimi gave me a list three feet long of impossible things to do around the shop and told me if I didn’t do them she’d sell.”

  Adam could feel his teeth grinding against each other. If he didn’t stop soon he’d ruin thousands of dollars worth of dental work. “Anything else? I won’t let you go until I know everything.”

  She laughed shakily and shook her head. “Only that a bunch of old guys has been calling the store recently, asking for people with ridiculous names. But you already knew that.”

  Adam’s hand froze as it stroked down her hair. He’d have to remember to do that again when he wasn’t so distracted. The feel of her silky hair against his fingers was intoxicating. “I knew about that one guy. How many have there been?”

  Alice shrugged. “I don’t know, three or four. I lost track. But I have all their notes at home. I actually tried to find the last one; I found out where he was living and went to meet him, but I was a week too late.”

  Adam had a feeling he didn’t want to know. “Why?”