Before I can open my mouth, Roxanne stands too. “No, it’s fine. Now that I’ve had a lovely cup of coffee with Esmé, I’m ready to go home and get to work in my garden.”
Sam smiles and slides back onto her stool. “Okay then.” She wiggles a twist tie around the counter, catching Frank’s interest.
Roxanne walks toward the door without looking at me. “Bye, Esmé. It was a pleasure talking to you this morning.”
“And you,” Esmé says, smiling. “We must do it again sometime.”
“Bye, Dana,” Roxanne says.
“Bye, Rox,” I reply as she walks out the door.
“She obviously has a crush on you,” Esmé says after the door closes.
“What?” Sam looks up from playing with Frank. “Roxanne has a crush on Dana?”
Esmé nods. “A woman can sense these things.”
“I’m a woman and I can’t sense a thing,” Sam says.
“We’ve both always had a bit of a crush on each other,” I say, twisting out of Esmé’s grip and busying myself at the coffee pot. “It’s nothing.”
“It better be nothing,” Esmé says. “I mean, she’s old enough to be your grandmother.”
“No she isn’t,” Sam says, indignant. “She’s less than twenty years older than I am.”
“Well, your mother then,” Esmé continues.
Holding up my hand, I glare at her. “Leave it alone, Esmé.” I don’t want to hear any slams on Roxanne.
“Well, please,” she says. “In ten years, she’ll be in a nursing home and you’ll still be youngish and fit.”
“I said to leave it alone,” I growl. “Roxanne is my friend and I don’t want to hear it.”
Esmé looks up at me, her eyes welling with tears. “Well, maybe I should go.”
“Maybe you should.”
She whirls on her heels and heads toward the bedroom. Sam looks at me questioningly. “Don’t you think you should...I don’t know. Do something or something?”
“Like what?”
“I said I don’t know. I’m not good with women.”
“Good enough to fuck straight ones.”
“Hey, don’t get pissed at me! I didn’t do anything.”
Esmé storms back out of the bedroom and heads for the front door. “You know, something pretty amazing happened last night.”
“I know, I know.”
“Well, you’re not acting like it now,” she spits. “Are you trying to be cool in front of your friend?”
Holding up her hands, Sam shakes her head. “Hey, she never has to be cool in front of me. I know she’s not.”
“Funny,” I mouth at her before turning back to Esmé.
“I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings. I just don’t want you mocking my friend.”
Walking back across the room, she puts her arms around my waist. “You know, I had a pretty intense night, too.”
“I know you did. But maybe our takeaway from last night is that we can finally let Fran go.”
Wrenching herself away from me, she glares at me again. “Speak for yourself,” she says. “I have more questions than ever.”
“How can that be?” I’m flabbergasted. “We know why she killed herself. She was seeing aliens. What more do you need?”
“I need to know the truth.”
“The truth is that you know everything you are ever going to know,” I reply.
Glaring at me one more time, she storms out of the door, slamming it hard behind her.
Sam looks at me, shrugs, and goes back to playing with Frank.
“You sure have a way with women, my friend.”
Chapter Nineteen
Frank is sitting next to my face with one paw on my nose when I open my eyes. “Frank, it’s the middle of the night.”
He meows and I open my eyes. It’s already light. Picking up my cell to check the time, I realize I’ve already missed a call from Esmé. I should have called her yesterday, but I somehow never got around to it. I might as well get it over with.
“Hi Dana.”
“Hey. How’s it going?”
“It’s good. I had a good time with you the other night.”
“Yeah, yeah. I liked it. Some of it. Kind of intense in some ways.”
“Well, sometimes things get a little intense when you are trying to dig deep into the dark places of the universe.”
Sighing, I roll my eyes at Frank who is still sitting next to my head. “Look, we dug deep and we got the answer we’ve been looking for. I mean, I still feel like shit that I lost her, but I don’t think I could have saved her. How could I fight her particular demons?”