Saving Sunni (34 page)

I smiled sweetly at the preacher. “Yes, I am absolutely positive,” I assured him, patting the hand that was covering mine. There was no point in being rude or argumentative with him. He was probably, after all, going to be the one who had to deal with the aftermath of this conversation.

He regarded me silently for a few seconds. “Randy tells us you grew up in a Christian home,” he said. “Have you considered the consequences of the life you are leading?”

I really wanted to laugh now. There were hundreds of satiric comments fighting each other in my brain. Geri’s little speech about religion being like comfort food also flitted briefly through my mind. I met his eyes and said as seriously as I could, “Yes, sir. I have considered everything I’ve been taught, and I know what I believe and how I want to live. I have a family that loves me, friends and co-workers that care about me, and a life that I enjoy. Thank you for your concern, but I really need you and your group to leave me alone now.”

The minister turned to Randy and Melissa like he was going to marry them on the spot. I didn’t think Melissa would have objected in the least. Instead he said, “Randy, you have made a valiant effort to bring your wife into the fold of Christ to partake with you of forgiveness in this life and glory in the next. However, you have heard that she does not choose to walk with you on the path of righteousness. We, as your family in the Lord, witness that you are released of your bond to this woman and are liberated to go about your Father’s business. Melissa tells me that you have expressed interest in attending her Bible college in order to pursue a life as a missionary. I will personally facilitate that worthy ambition and serve as a guide and mentor for you throughout your career.”

Randy looked at me, then at Melissa, whose face was alight with hope. She wasn’t an unattractive girl, or she might have been attractive if she’d styled her hair and gotten rid of that persistent fierce scowl.

Randy shrugged. “Yeah, okay.”

Melissa squealed and threw her arms around him. He halfheartedly returned the hug while the rest of the group applauded and crowded around the improbable couple.

I turned to Sir, who looked completely astonished. “What has just happened here?” he asked me, jerking his head slightly at the group, who were congratulating Melissa and Randy.

I shrugged. “My guess is that he’s just been released of the obligation of trying to save my soul. Hopefully that means he’s free to get divorced and marry a good Christian woman who will keep him on the path of righteousness for the rest of his life.”

Sir looked at me as if I was speaking Urdu, but he didn’t say anything else. He simply shook his head and we walked together back to the store to see if Geri was okay.

She and sage were sitting at her desk drinking tea and chatting. I felt a little pang at the thought that sage had not been that talkative with me in a long time, but I was at least as responsible for that as she was, so I accepted the cup they offered me and sat down.

Geri took tea to Sir, who hovered awkwardly by the door. As soon as the mug was out of her hand, she threw her arms around him. “My hero! Thank you so much for catching me! sage here tells me that I would have hit my head right on the pavement if you hadn’t gotten there just in the nick of time!”

The look he gave the top of her head suggested that he didn’t think the damage would be any worse than her present condition. sage and I exchanged amused glances as Geri ambled back and folded her legs under her in her large chair.

“I have something to talk to the three of you about,” she said suddenly. “Rune, would you please take a seat for a moment?”

Her fluttery demeanor from a moment before had passed, and she looked completely serious, almost calculating. It was like watching a kitten plotting a bank robbery. Her gaze wandered back and forth between Sir and me, and she took a deep breath.

“I would like to give the store to sunni,” she said. The room went completely quiet. At first her words didn’t register.

Sir’s eyebrows furrowed. “Excuse me?” he said helplessly, obviously thinking that Geri was using some kind of crazy-person code that he wasn’t familiar with.

She looked up and smiled. “Well, not
give
, exactly,” she corrected herself. Sir’s gaze narrowed, and I thought he was getting angry.

“What do you mean?” I asked her, not because I expected a coherent answer, but in order to clear up whatever craziness Sir thought was happening.

She smiled cherubically at me. “I want you to have the store, dear,” she said. “Debi is not mature enough to handle it, and Melissa obviously doesn’t deserve it. I thought she might grow out of her silly religious phase, but I’m beginning to think she’s hopeless. You, on the other hand, have shown me that you love the store and are willing and able to run it the way it should be run. These drawings you’ve made…” She startled me by pulling them off the top of a stack of papers on her desk. “They’re simply brilliant. Debi tells me you took over all of the paperwork with no problems at all, and I can see that everything has been run perfectly while I was gone.” She beamed at me. “I can’t think of anyone I would rather see take over the store. And I’ve given it a lot of thought. I’m ready to slow down, take it easy and just enjoy life now that Melissa is on her own and off to save the world.”

She sighed, and her eyes unfocused for a few seconds. Her face brightened, and she was once again the old Geri, giggling and batting her eyes at Sir in what I was beginning to suspect was a deliberate attempt to make him uncomfortable. “What do you think, Sir? Is that a plan you can live with? Do you agree with me that sunni is experienced and mature enough to handle her own business?”

Sir stared at her, struggling. I didn’t really think he wanted to disagree with her assessment of my abilities or tell her that he didn’t want me to have the store. On the other hand, it would be a great deal of responsibility and would mean that I wouldn’t be home as much. And it would also mean that I wouldn’t be leaving Denver. If he did, our relationship might be over, or it might have to become a long-distance one until his immigration status was finalized and he wasn’t as limited in his career possibilities. If he stayed here, he probably wouldn’t be able to find another suitable job. That would mean allowing me to at least help support him, which would not appeal to him either. I waited breathlessly to see how he would react.

“sunni,” he finally said, turning to look at me. “I believe you are fully capable of taking over the store. Are you interested in doing so?”

“Yes.” I had no hesitation. While Geri was talking, my head had filled with all kinds of plans and ideas. It was like I had gotten a jolt of some kind of energy, although it may have been the adrenaline from my confrontation with Randy. But I knew without a doubt that I wanted The Fringe Element more than anything else in the world.

He continued to look at me thoughtfully, then nodded and turned back to Geri. “What kind of financial arrangement do you have in mind?”

“Well, I’m no legal expert,” she said, and Sir let out a small snort. Geri, fortunately, either didn’t hear it or chose to ignore it. “But what I think I will do is have my lawyer draw up an agreement where you can pay me for the stock that is in the store when you take ownership of it. I am thinking that maybe ten percent of the sales will be sufficient until that amount is paid off. The building belongs to me outright, and I will sign that over to you with the business for, maybe, one hundred dollars or so. Does that sound acceptable?”

She looked at Sir as she asked that. I wouldn’t have thought it possible for Sir to be speechless, but he didn’t seem to have any idea how to respond. When he finally spoke, it was in the soft, gentle voice you might use with a delusional dementia patient.

“But what will you live on if you give the store to sunni?” he asked reasonably.

She waved her hands dismissively. “Oh, I’ve got plenty,” she said. “I have my parents’ house in Florida that I think I will move back to. And I hardly spend anything, so my savings should last for a good long time.”

Sir obviously thought that Geri had no comprehension of the value of money.

“How much do you have saved, if I may ask?” he said, sounding as if he was collecting evidence to have her declared incompetent.

“I can’t tell you
exactly.
” Geri fumbled around on her desk as she spoke. She didn’t seem to consider his questions at all intrusive or rude. Finding what she wanted, she pointed to it triumphantly, like a child who’d correctly guessed the answer to a math problem. “I think I have about ten thousand in my savings account. And my trust fund pays me—let’s see—about three hundred a year.”

“Three hundred dollars a year is not going to pay your living expenses,” Sir said gently.

She giggled. “Three hundred
thousand
, silly,” she corrected him. “I believe I can live fairly comfortably on that. I haven’t wanted to use it before because of my political differences with my family. I never approved of the way that Daddy made his money. Besides, he always said I could never make it on my own. So I
had
to try to prove him wrong, and I did.” She beamed at us. “But Daddy is gone now, and it just doesn’t seem as important anymore. And besides, I’ve decided that it would be better to concentrate on finding ways to use the money to help people instead of just reinvesting it.”

She sighed. “He finally admitted on his deathbed that I had done okay for myself and my daughter, and that I had actually become a responsible adult. He approved of Melissa much more than me, but I think he loved me—in his own way.”

There was silence in the room while she contemplated her life. She giggled wickedly. “Besides, I think I’d prefer to use Daddy’s money to have fun than to have it pass to Melissa to finance whatever invasive, soulless missionary excursions she’s planning.”

Sir seemed to have trouble following her rambling train of thought, but he held out his hand for her to shake. “We accept your proposal,” he said formally.

She ignored his hand, instead rising in one fluid movement and throwing herself against his chest to embrace him vigorously. Sir made a visible effort not to back away from her, instead gingerly patting her on the back until she released him. He even managed to smile as she snatched me and then sage for hugs of our own.

Chapter 33

“Hey, babe, I’m making some tea. Would you like some?” sage’s head popped out of the doorway that led into the kitchen. It took a second for her offer to register, then I accepted with a smile. As her head disappeared and I heard her humming, I reflected how nice it was to be closer to Sir and sage than I had felt in a long time. I slipped back into the reverie I had been in before her interruption. Could it only have been a couple of weeks? So much had happened that it still felt like it should have taken months for so many things in our lives to have changed so drastically.

The front door buzzer went off, jerking me back to the present. I went to see who it was.

“Am I too early? I just couldn’t wait any longer.” A bubbly Debi bustled into the apartment as soon as I had opened the door.

I laughed at her enthusiasm while grabbing her and giving her a hug. “Nah. We were already up so it’s all good.”

Debi had followed the directions I had given her to wear old clothes and bring her makeup with her for later. I still wasn’t completely sure just what a high protocol dinner was, but Sir had told us we were going to one. All I knew was that we got to dress up for it.

Once more I had drifted into my own world. Remembering my determination to continue the progress I had made this week in pulling my own weight in the family, I turned to Debi.

“Why don’t you help me bring the leathers out here to the living room? Since we are going to be cleaning, conditioning, and polishing them, we might as well have some elbow room.” I glanced down at her combat boots. “And I’m guessing you’re going to need plenty of elbow room to deal with those.”

“Is that Debi?” sage called from the kitchen. I yelled back that it was. “Great. I’ll make another cup and be right there. Sir should be back any minute now and we can get started. Debi, do you like tea?”

“Sure thing,” Debi called back, excited.

As if on cue, the front door opened and Sir strode into the room with his arms full of bags. I whispered to Debi, “We should have remembered not to let him go shopping alone. He always gets enough snacks to last the siege of Carthage.”

Debi giggled as Sir handed me a small white plastic sack that was outermost in the pile and said, “Take this, please, sunni. It is the saddle soap and the conditioner.”

I took the bag and turned to put it with the rest of the supplies we were setting out. Sir dropped the other bags on the table in the next room, and I was happy that it didn’t bother me that sage was getting kissed hello first.
I must be getting the hang of this compersion thing
.

“What’s that?” Debi asked with a quizzical look.

I chuckled. “Sorry, I didn’t realize I said that out loud. Compersion is a poly term and in a nutshell, it means the happiness one person can feel about their partners’ happiness. It usually is used even though the person feeling it is not directly involved in the action at the time. That’s what makes it so cool.”