As Edith glanced over the agenda, Mercedes said, “Before we begin, I should let you all know I’ve assumed temporary custody of my niece and nephew.”
The extensive agenda seemed to grow longer and more cumbersome. Edith removed her glasses and let them thump onto her breastbone. “You’re giving notice?”
“No! No. Heh.” Mercedes smiled, but it was laden with apology. “I, um, would very much like to stay, but I realize staying in my apartment isn’t practical.”
“But we need a manager who lives on site. We’ve always agreed.” Edith looked to the rest of the board.
“Oh, absolutely,” Mr. Dolinsky said. “She’s gotta stay on site.”
Harrison and Mrs. Yamamoto nodded. They didn’t look nearly so shocked by this news as Edith felt. Had they not heard Mercedes had taken custody of those children?
“Right. So, um...” Mercedes fingered the pages in front of her: a copy of the bylaws, Edith noted, and the wait list of people wanting to buy into Coconino. “Do you remember Edward Hilroy? He’s waiting for an apartment. All his financing is in order. He could move in right away. It’s not as much as we would get for one of the duplex units, but at the moment, the only ones available are unsellable, right?”
Confused, slightly panicked that she wasn’t following because she deathly feared the kind of dementia she’d seen overwhelm her contemporaries, Edith said, “I’m not sure what Edward Hilroy has to do with your custod— Did someone pass away?” The thought stopped her heart and she flattened a hand over her glasses chain. Who? Had those hooligans had anything to do with it?
“No, no! I’m sorry. I’m not explaining this very well.” Mercedes gave Harrison a pleading look. For once, he seemed intent on letting her flounder without his interference. “I’d like to move into the Fairmont unit with the kids,” Mercedes said. “That would free up my unit.”
Astounded, Edith cast a glance at her fellow board members. None met her gaze.
Ah. Apparently she was the only one to whom this was news. “I see.”
“I, um, thought you might like to move into my unit, Mrs. Garvey.”
“Did you.” She supposed they all thought she could be given a pat on the head and silenced. “Unfortunately, I’m not interested in listening to children screeching and splashing at all hours. I’m sorry, but I don’t see this as a feasible solution for anyone.”
“Edith—”
“No, Harrison,” she said with a hard-won firmness, but when she was forced to stand up for herself, she did it. “The cooperative will see a better return in the long run if we wait until we sell the Fairmont unit and its twin. Our bylaws state we need only provide the manager with a single-bedroom unit. Putting Mercedes in a two-bedroom unit is not something we can approve. And it’s not as if the children will be with her permanently. Will they?” she asked Mercedes, daring the girl to say they would.
“No, Ma’am.” Mercedes cleared her throat. “But it makes sense for me to move into the other unit for now, to get the children away from the front of the complex where they won’t be so intrusive. I spoke to L.C. He’s willing to do the work right away.”
Of course. She saw how the wind was blowing. They were all seriously misguided if they thought she would put up with this.
“Regarding That Man,” she said to Mercedes. “I heard disturbing gossip today. Are you and he engaged in a liaison?”
“Excuse me?” Mercedes sat straighter with what looked like genuine indignation.
“You were observed canoodling, Mercy-girl,” Harrison said, lifting his gaze from the spreadsheet she’d just handed him.
“What? When? Where? I haven’t canoodled anyone!”
Edith almost believed the outraged innocence, but the sad fact was, “Some people have nothing better to do than sit in the cantina and watch who comes and goes.”
“True.” Peter Dolinsky felt his head for his glasses and lowered them to his nose.
Mercedes set her forehead into her hand. “Someone overheard him ask me out? Then they must have heard me turn him down.” She lifted her head. “Look, I can’t help it if a few people think— It’s more than a few, isn’t it?” she said as Harrison snorted.
“No one means harm, Mercedes,” Mrs. Yamamoto said. “You’re a very pretty girl. He’s a man of your age.”
Mercedes blushed an intense red. “We’re not involved,” she insisted.
“I should hope not,” Edith said, approving the rejection. That Man shouldn’t be here. “We might not cater strictly to Christians, but we do adhere to Christian values.”
“Does that mean we have to cancel the betting pool?” Harrison asked in one of his ill-placed, droll asides.
“Tell me you’re kidding,” Mercedes said.
“How much to play?” Mrs. Yamamoto asked, lowering her knitting.
“If Edith doesn’t want Mercy’s unit, we’ll give it to Lindy Bellacerra,” Harrison said. “She’d like a front row seat on watching this courtyard courtship.”
Lindy Bellacerra. Over her dead body. “Do you see what nonsense you’ve started?” Edith asked Mercedes.
“I haven’t started anything!” she insisted, wide-eyed as Peter Dolinsky splayed his hand and mouthed ‘five’ to Mrs. Yamamoto.
Mrs. Yamamoto nodded and began searching her knitting bag.
Truly, Edith was the only adult on this board of juveniles.
“Stop!” Mercedes’s sharp tone startled everyone. She never spoke like that.
Voice shaking, plainly upset, Mercedes said, “Don’t do this to Dayton and Ayjia. This isn’t some big joke. It’s two children’s lives. I can’t—” She blinked back tears.
Whether they were anger or humiliation or helplessness, Edith couldn’t tell, but she felt an empathetic sting fly into her own eyes.
“The kids are confused enough. I’m not about to start bringing men home. If people are speculating on my love life and the kids might overhear it, then...” She swallowed. “Maybe I should quit.”
Beside Edith, Mrs. Yamamoto caught a dainty breath.
Mr. Dolinsky swore. “I don’t want to call that agency again,” he told Harrison.
Harrison cleared his throat. “I was only teasing, Mercy-girl.”
“I guess I don’t have much sense of humor when it comes to the kids,” she said, running fingertips under her eyes.
“So you shouldn’t,” Edith said, overcome with a sense of something like pride that Mercedes had had the strength to put her foot down. “And putting Lindy Bellacerra in your unit would only encourage these sorts of shenanigans. No, I will move into your apartment and put a stop to this betting nonsense once and for all.”
Which meant agreeing to something she had violently opposed a few moments ago. Oh, dear. She sighed and shuffled her papers, ignoring the stares she felt turn on her.
“However, we must set limits on when those children can use the pool,” she quickly stated. “I will not listen to their screeching day and night. And I will personally sign off on all proposed purchases for the duplex renovations because I do not trust That Man. Now let’s vote on these items. Harrison and I are due in the Writer’s Circle.”
“Okay,” Mercedes agreed, voice husky with sincerity, “Thank you, Mrs. Garvey.”
Chapter 10
Sunday night, Mercedes had finally wrapped up the last of her backlog mess and could start on the new mess: all the painting and scrubbing necessary to make what L.C. called ‘The Cathouse’ livable.
She’d snickered in the paint store today, tempted to buy Bordello Red and East-end Ebony for the trim, but had resisted and had come back with two buckets of Beige Number Boring, just in case she got fired after all and the board had to sell the unit.
Zack and L.C. had gutted the place. The floors were stripped to concrete, the doors unframed, and the laundry room walls showed their insulation. However, she had electricity, so Mercedes drove her small television over with a blanket and a bowl of popcorn. She settled the kids with an animated movie, propped open the doors and windows to catch the evening breeze, and began prepping the walls.
“Why are you being such an asshole about this?” Zack’s voiced carried beautifully to the spare room so she could only assume the kids heard it as clearly.
Mercedes shot past them through the living room, hearing L.C. say, “I’m not being an asshole. I just don’t feel like a road trip.”
Barefoot, she stepped onto the warm bricks of her patio and saw L.C.’s back. He sat on the brick half-wall that surrounded his patio, sipping a soda. Zack stood in the open door to their side of the duplex, a sullen expression on his face. He closed down when Mercedes moved to set her palms on the wall near L.C.’s hip.
“Hi. I’m your new neighbor. Lovely conversation. Mind watching your freaking language?”
“Hey.” L.C. smiled and gave her one of his sidelong, smoky looks. “Didn’t realize you were in there.”
“I thought I’d get some paint on the walls before the flooring goes in. We have an appointment to pick up the appliances tomorrow, by the way. Ten o’clock.”