Secondhand Purses (18 page)

“Bear with me, impatient. You want the town to accept your business and come here to eat all sorts of goodies, right? So have the townspeople help name the bakery.”

Huh. That was an interesting idea.

“How would I get them to help, though?”

“Have you read the Onset Live?”

“I’ve heard of it, but haven’t had a chance to read it, yet. Is it really that big a deal?”

The Onset Live was a weekly free paper that was set out in convenience stores and grocery stores in the area.

“Totally big deal. Everyone in town reads it. More so than the Reporter.”

“What is the Reporter?”

“That is a paid subscription paper in the area. It used to be the only gig in town, but then they got bought by a big conglomerate in Boston and they stopped covering as much local news. The Live came around and all they cover is Onset and some stuff in Wareham. So that’s what people read.”

“How do I get in it?”

“I may or may not know one of the reporters. Give me a moment.”

She picked up her phone and started tapping away.

“Karyn knew Nonna, too, so I can’t imagine her turning this down.”

More tapping on the phone, then she looked up with a victorious smile.

“She’s in. What are the names you are looking at doing?”

I gave her the list, watching as she raised an eyebrow at the Sticky Buns one.

“What?”

“Seriously? Nonna’s Sticky Buns? Isn’t that a little, I don’t know… nasty?”

I laughed.

“Yeah, I guess so, but I can’t help myself. Oh, and instead of Nonna’s Baking Memories, how about Nonna’s Baked Memories?”

She nodded and relayed the information to her friend. She got my phone number and gave it to Karyn before hanging up.

Grinning at me, she picked up a paintbrush and started up on the shelves.

I looked around, pleased with the progress we were making, but feeling like there was something missing. This was supposed to be about Nonna and me, but, there wasn’t much Nonna here. She needed to be here.

I looked at the wall that was going to be polka dotted. What if I put a bunch of pictures of Nonna throughout the years in antique frames on the wall? Hmmm. The more I thought about it, the more I liked it. Actually, I loved it.

I had all of Nonna’s photo albums, but no recent photos. Maybe…

“Hey, Ashley, what if I also asked people to share their photos of Nonna for the walls?”

She looked where I was pointing at the wall. She tilted her head and considered it. After a few moments she nodded with a big smile on her face.

“I love it, so will everyone else. Most everyone I know was really depressed when she passed. This will be an awesome way to let everyone be a part of her. To really pay their respects to her.”

This finally was feeling right. This was going to be Nonna’s and my bakery. I felt a fresh wave of tears threatening again.

Ashley damn near tackled me as she grabbed me in a hug. What the hell was it with these people and their hugging near strangers?

She noticed that I stiffened a little bit and pulled back, looking me in the eye.

“Sorry, not sorry. I’m a hugger.” She stated this without any apology, and I kind of liked that. I mean, if this was who she was, that was cool.

“Um, thanks. You know, for everything. I really appreciate it. I would never have thought to ask for a vote to help me pick a name. I finally feel like this is coming together.”

“Anytime.”

We grinned at each other in silence before she took the hot pink paintbrush and flung paint at me.

“What the hell was
that
for?”

“Well, you
did
walk out on me two days ago from Cheryl’s all weird and dark. No words, no explanation. So, you sort of deserved that.”

“Fair enough.” I was so getting her back when she wasn’t looking.

“What are you doing tonight after all of this?”

“Going home, researching recipes, falling asleep. Why?”

“Come over to my house. I have a scuba tank sized bottle of red wine. You can grab some pints of overpriced ice cream. We’ll have the house to ourselves because Craig is off doing some boys’ night out thing. I know I could really use a girls’ night in. How about you?”

My knee jerk reaction was to turn her down. But then I pictured another night all alone just waiting for the time to pass before I could go to bed, wake up and then come back here and get more work done. It wouldn’t kill me to try to make a real girlfriend here.

“Okay.” She looked surprised that I said yes, probably about as surprised as I was to say it.

“Awesome. Be at my house at seven.” She wrote her address down on a piece of paper she found lying around, waved and walked out before I had a chance to change my mind.

Wow, that chick was a surprise. I felt a little bit guilty that I had misjudged her so badly. I smiled to myself as I got to work cleaning up the painting supplies.

I had plans. Like, real plans that didn’t require a blind date with some lying loser from the internet. Better even than that, I think I might have just managed to make a friend.

chapter twenty two

I was locking up the bakery and about to head out when my phone started ringing. I dug in my purse to find it, while juggling a huge bag of trash that needed to be thrown out and a box of painting supplies that needed to be cleaned.

“Hello?”

“Hey Alex, why you sounding all breathy and sexy? I really,
really
hope I didn’t interrupt anything.”

Eye roll and gag.

“Hi, Nick. Just leaving the bakery with my hands full and having to deal with annoying Italians.”

“Ouch, I’m wounded.” He was attempting to sound all offended.

“Yeah, whatever, I’m sure you’ll recover. What’s up?”

“Remember we were talking about kickboxing? Well, I found a place for our date.”

“It’s not a date.” I needed him to know that. Hell, I needed
me
to know that.

“Of course it is.”

“What type of messed up shit are you in to when having a woman hand you your ass is a date? This is not a date. Punishment? Maybe. Romance? Hell, no.”

“You’re awfully confident, Ms. Edwards. How about this, after class, we go to our respective homes, clean up, and go on a
real
date. One where I’m paying. And you get all dressed up, because this won’t be McDonald’s.”

Sigh.

“Oh Nick, I don’t know. I just don’t think this is a good idea.”

“Why not? Give me a good reason that you don’t like me anymore? You had much different feelings when you were sixteen.”

“Yeah, because I was sixteen! I also thought my mom was Satan back then. It turns out I was
mostly
wrong.” I pulled my hand through my hair in frustration.

“I’d like to go to kickboxing with you, Nick, because it
is
something I used to enjoy. But that’s all I have to give right now.” Because if he broke my heart again, I would have to see him every day, I wouldn’t be able to escape him and move to another state. I couldn’t trust myself not to fall for him one hundred and ten percent. And if I was honest with myself, I was already halfway there.

Nick got really quiet. I wished we were talking in person so that I could figure out what was going through his head. It wasn’t that I wanted to keep hurting him, but I had to protect my heart. I just didn’t have another heartbreak available with his name on it.

“Okay, Alex. We’ll play this your way, for now. Meet me tomorrow night at the gym. If that is the only way I can have you getting sweaty with me, I will just have to be somewhat satisfied with that.”

Oh. My. God. The image of two of us sweating together in a different activity took residence in my brain and all other rational thought was waving me goodbye as it started to leave my brain. I shook my head a bit to regain order, and sent naked Alex and naked Nick packing. I wasn’t sure, but I think I saw naked imaginary Alex flip me the bird.
I hear ya, girlfriend.

“Whatever. What’s the name of this place? And what time should I be there?”

“FierceFit. It’s on twenty eight heading back towards Wareham, not too far from the super market. I’ll see you there at seven.”

He hung up before I had a chance to respond. Looked like my quiet life was starting to get more interesting socially. I had girls night tonight and kickboxing tomorrow. I looked back at my bakery before closing the door behind me. I maybe had a new friend, a kickboxing boyfriend and a bakery that was all painted and just waiting on equipment delivery. Oh, and pretty soon it would have a name. Things were definitely looking up.

***

I pulled up to Ashley’s house a couple hours later, with a gallon of chocolate double chunk ice cream. I know she said pints, but I didn’t do things half assed, and I thought pints of ice cream were pretty pathetic when you could have a gallon.

I went to knock on the door but she opened it up before I go the chance.

“I’m so glad you came! I thought you might bail on me, I don’t know why. Come on in. Alex, this is Karyn, when she heard you were going to be here she asked if she could come over to, get the interview done for the paper and then get her buzz on.”

Ashley gestured towards a woman sitting cross legged on the couch.

Karyn started to get up, unraveling her legs. Holy crap she was tall. Her blond hair swung around her face and I noticed that she had the underneath done in hot pink. I had a purse that color.

“Hi Karyn, nice to meet you. I hope you like chocolate, because that is the flavor on the ice cream menu today.”

“I think it is entirely possible that I might love you.” She looked at me with wide eyes, all seriousness until she broke into a huge smile.

“Of
course
I like chocolate. What self-respecting woman on planet Earth
doesn’t like chocolate?” She pulled a horrified look that had me laughing.

“Well, what if they are allergic?” I smirked at her.

“Those poor bitches are the only ones who get a pass. But I think we should start a GoFundMe for them to raise money for research. No one should go their whole life without the pleasures of chocolate.”

I had to laugh, this chick spoke my language. That hardly ever happened.

Ashley came out with a tray holding three bowls filled with ice cream and three glasses. We all sat in the living room drinking red wine and eating chocolate ice cream. This was my idea of a perfect girls’ night.

“So when do we start talking about boys and braiding each other’s hair?” Despite the fact that I was truly enjoying myself and was completely relaxed around these girls, my snarky had to come out.

Ashely tapped her finger on her lip and looked like she was considering the question.

“I am pretty sure that is on the schedule just before the pillow fight and toe nail painting session.”

I grinned at her. Thank
God
she seemed to understand me, somehow. Which was pretty damned impressive considering I didn’t understand myself half the time.

“So, Alex, tell me about your bakery. What do you need my help for?” Karyn was relaxed on the couch, with her feet pulled up under her butt.

“I’m having a really hard time picking out the name. It all started with that. I’ve got four really good names, and one that just makes me giggle. Ashley suggested we get it in the paper and have people vote. I was thinking they could come by the store and I’d have, like, a ballot box or something set up for them.”

“Do you
really
just want to do in person? It
is
2015, people tend to use computers, Facebook, social media, etc. We could manage it through the paper, have a hashtag set up for each potential bakery name. It’s really hard to get people to come to the location with their busy work lives.”

What she said made total and perfect sense. I had thought it would get people in the habit of coming to the bakery.

“Okay, let’s do both. Oh, and I wanted to run something else by you. The inside is pretty much done, the paint is up and the shelves are up. It’s really looking good.”

“But…?” Karyn leaned forward.

“But there’s no Nonna in it. This was supposed to be
our
bakery, but right now it’s just mine. I have a bunch of pictures from the forties, fifties, up to the nineties with Nonna, but nothing current. I was hoping we could ask people to share pictures of her, I would put them in antique frames and put them up on the polka dot wall. If I get too many, I’ll swap them out and rotate them every month.”

“Oh my God, I love that idea! Everyone will want to have something to do with this, because it will be their way of helping Nonna realize her dream.”

Ashley sat forward.

“Alex, Karyn and I normally meet every Saturday around 9am at the coffee shop for coffee, a muffin and a lot of gossip. Why don’t you meet us, too and we can go over to the shop afterwards?”

“Yeah, I’m going to need a couple pictures of the shop, its progress, you.” Karyn started tapping away on her phone furiously.

“Okay, I’m game. Maybe instead of some muffins I can bring you some cornetto I found in Nonna’s freezer. I could whip up some melted dark chocolate with coconut oil, spread some strawberry jam inside the cornetto and then add the chocolate on top of that. It would become a chocolate covered strawberry cornetto.”

I looked and saw two mouths gaping open looking at me.

“What?”

“Did you seriously just come up with that off the top of your head?”

“Um, sort of, I mean, I have a bunch of recipes written down. I’ve spent hours looking at the traditional recipe, then coming up with more modern variations. I will always offer both versions at the shop. But, I kind of am always thinking of pastries, chocolate, fruit compote.”

“I want to live in your head.” Ashley spoke with this sound of reverence in her voice.

“Y’all are so weird.”

“Dude, we take our gluten and chocolate very, very seriously.” I looked at my new friends, both who were nodding very solemnly.

“Okay, okay. I’ll meet you at the coffee shop, and then we’ll head over to the bakery.”

“So what’s going on with you and Mr. Tall Dark and Italian?” Ashley grinned at me like the Cheshire cat.

“Tall, dark and… who?” I was all sorts of confused.

“Nick.” The girls looked at each other, put their hands over their hearts and fluttered their eyelashes as they said his name in a sing song girly voice.

I retaliated by grabbing a pillow off the sofa and launching it at their heads.

“We haven’t braided our hair yet.” That was Karyn.

“What?” These girls, although fun as hell, were confusing the crap out of me.

“I think we made it pretty clear that we talk about boys and braid hair
before
the pillow fight. You just killed the entire schedule. And you have no idea how OCD Ash can be.”

Ashley stifled a giggle behind her fist.

“Exactly, you must be punished for breaking the long established girls’ night rules.”

What the…

Suddenly, pillows launched from both sides of me in a full tactical attack.

So this was what it was like to have girlfriends.

I liked it.