Jenny slowly lowered the laptop screen until it snapped shut definitively. She leaned her elbow on the side of the loveseat and cradled her cheek in her hand, looking around her plain, old-fashioned living room dejectedly. She had never looked at her apartment through any eyes but her own, but seeing it through Pepper’s eyes made her feel like a guilty Eve in the Garden of Eden with too much knowledge: exposed and embarrassed.
Second-hand furniture, mostly choices her mother made years ago, looked lumpy and worn. Some simple family photos adorned her mantle: Jenny and the boys in the park over the years, Jenny and Ingrid on high school and college graduations days and her parents’ wedding picture. They spoke to an unsophisticated life. She swallowed looking at the homemade calico curtains she had sewn on her mother’s old Singer and cringed at the needlepoint pillow, crafted lovingly by a young student, that read A#1 TECHER.
She didn’t know how long she sat on the loveseat in silence, but by the time she stood up, her confused feelings for Sam were ebbing away with a finality that made her wistful for yesterday. Reading about Pepper was like dousing herself with cold water. Not only was Sam taken, he was taken by someone as amazing as Pepper Pettway.
You can’t compete, Jenny. She flinched then felt her backbone kick in. Silly girl. A bad night’s sleep for nothing. I told you, he’s not for you, and now you know it too.
She jumped up with determination and padded into the kitchen to start her coffee maker, distractedly scooping too many grounds into the basket. Her mind hummed with some unresolved question and although she wished she could just stop this merciless focus on Sam Kelley, the question rose up to the surface like bubbles on a pond.
Why was he flirting with you yesterday?
He had touched her finger at dinner, stroked her ear and—for heaven’s sake!—almost kissed her on the loveseat and at the door.
She ran back to the living room, grabbed her laptop and snapped it open on the kitchen counter. Chicago’s own Pepper Pettway with her boyfriend, Sam Kelley, attends…
She checked the date: October! Just a few weeks ago! Her eyes opened wide in indignation and her mouth shaped itself into an “O.” He meant to philander with her while he was away from Pepper! A smooth, lowlife womanizer!
Jenny’s blood boiled and she shook her head back and forth in outrage, bracing her palms on the kitchen counter as the old percolator wheezed and gurgled beside her, coffee spurting into the dome angrily.
With no one else to talk to, she looked down at Casey, whose brown puppy eyes widened at Jenny’s upset tone, “He has someone like Pepper Pettway in his life, but he’s trying to make time with me on the side! A weekend fling! Really! Of all the base, disgraceful—”
The phone interrupted her tirade. The machine can answer!
“Jen. Lars here. Heard about you doing pizza with a dude last night at the Blue Moon. Just wondering about that, little sister…”
The Gardiner rumor mill was up and running early today! It was only 7:45!
The phone rang again. She knew what was coming. She pulled out a coffee cup and listened.
“Jenny. It’s Erik. Lars called. Who’s the guy?”
She counted to ten before the phone rang a final time.
“It’s Nils. You didn’t pick up for Erik or Lars. I’m coming over to see if you’re at your place, Jenny girl, and if you’re not, then I’m calling Pappa, and you know—”
Jenny snatched the phone off its base and pressed answer. “Nils! It’s Jen.”
“Ahhhhh.”
“You three are ridiculous. I’m not a baby. You know I can take care of myself. For heaven’s sake, you made sure of it.”
“Well, he’s a stranger. No one knows him.”
“He’s not a stranger. It’s a long story, Nils.”
“I’m warm in bed. I could use a story.”
Older brothers! “You know Ingrid’s fiancé, Kristian? He’s Kristian Svenson’s cousin. Just visiting.”
“Visiting you?”
“No. Yes. Sort of, but it’s not what you think.”
Nils’s voice took on an edge. “What do I think, Jenny?”
“Gode Gud, Nils, quit it. It’s a long, boring story. I’ll tell you all about it at Sunday supper. Do not tell Pappa and worry him.”
“Do not tell P— Sorry, Jen.” She heard him chuckle humorlessly on the other side of the phone. “Now you’re digging yourself deeper. Now I want to hear the ‘long, boring story.’ You’ve got to do better than that if you don’t want me to tell him…”
She sighed in annoyance. “Ingrid needed some legal work done up in Livingston at the courthouse. Personal, Nils. I had to take care of her part, and Sam had to take care of Kristian’s. The judge left early for the park and we had to reschedule for Monday. So, he’s stuck in Gardiner for the weekend and I had to be hospitable.”