First Dates by Gregory Ashe

Author:Gregory Ashe [Ashe, Gregory]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hodgkin and Blount
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

5

Tean was stepping out of his apartment when Hannah came up the stairs.

She froze when she saw him. Then she tucked her hair behind her ears and tried to smile.

“Hi,” Tean said, adjusting the gear bag on his shoulder.

“Hi.”

“I’m just—”

“You weren’t answering your phone, and I was worried Derek had chopped you up in a bathtub.”

“Look at me,” Tean said. “Not chopped up at all. I’ve got to help Mrs. Wish.”

“I’ll come with you.”

“Sure.”

Mrs. Wish lived at the other end of the building, so they walked down the exterior corridor together. It was another of those perfect Utah spring days. In the shadowed corridor, it might have even been a little too cool, the air smelling like the damp indoor-outdoor carpeting. Mixed with the sound of Tean’s and Hannah’s steps came the thrum of tires, a boy singing “Put a Ring on It,” a window thudding shut.

When Tean knocked, Mrs. Wish opened the door in a full-length nightgown, even though it was mid-afternoon, over which she’d thrown a terrycloth robe the color of Pepto-Bismol. Her long, white hair was up in a severe bun. An orangish tabby squirmed between her legs, obviously intending to make a break for it, but Mrs. Wish caught him by the scruff and pulled him into a hug.

“No, no, no, Senator Norris. Not today. Well, come in, unless you want the others to get bad ideas.”

Tean nodded for Hannah to precede him into the house; she’d come with him once before, when Mrs. Wish had declared a state of emergency, and the two women exchanged smiles and murmured greetings. Tean followed, shutting the door behind him. He was immediately overwhelmed by the smell of animal dander, wet cat food, and the sickeningly sweet, floral potpourri that Mrs. Wish kept in collectible presidential ashtrays around the apartment. More than once Tean had been summoned to deal with a case of potpourri poisoning, when Mrs. Wish was convinced one of the Irreconcilables had overindulged when she wasn’t looking.

“Senator Henry Cabot Lodge is in the guest room,” Mrs. Wish said, pointing. “I’ve already put the bath towels in there.”

Tean nodded.

“Violet will be by in an hour,” Mrs. Wish said, setting Senator Norris back on the ground and then straightening to examine Tean. “Really, Dr. Leon, you could have at least made an effort.”

“Mrs. Wish.”

“I know, I know. You’re not getting any younger, though. For that matter, neither is she. And she’s a perfectly lovely girl. You could get her buckteeth fixed right up, and—”

“Mrs. Wish.”

“Have it your way.”

Nudging Hannah down the short hallway toward the bedrooms, Tean tried to navigate a path through the herd of cats. The exact number of animals in the apartment fluctuated between twelve and eighteen; Tean tried to count as they made their way through the space, but he came up with a different number every time, and after a while he gave up. Then a cat hissed, and Tean looked down in time to see a Sphynx sprinting toward the sofa. Hannah stared after the cat, her face horrified, one foot half-lifted from the ground.

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