What Eyes Can't See by Paulette Stout

Author:Paulette Stout [Paulette Stout]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Media Goddess Inc.
Published: 2024-01-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 27

Barbara

For the second morning in a row, I awoke disoriented. Broken glass and arguing in the street below startled me at 2 a.m., then kept me on edge until falling back to sleep. It was a sharp contrast to the quiet neighborhood I came from, and to my fun evening with Glenora.

Like my mom, Glenora told me exactly what she thought with no sugarcoating. A laugh riot, mostly at my expense, Glenora combined joy with an infectious sass. Though, our conversation ground to a halt when I asked about Sebastian’s childhood. I expected to hear fun stories of his exploits, but she clammed up and started fidgeting. Then, quickly changed the subject. The evasive maneuver grabbed my attention. Sebastian alluded to having it tough growing up, so that could be it. Not wanting to discuss a difficult period in their family’s history with a total stranger.

I rubbed my tired eyes, then threw off my covers. The familiarity of my old dresser awaited. I put all my garments in the same place as I had them when living with Rebecca. That shortcut had me dressed and out on the street in record time.

Around me, most of my neighbors trudged west, out of the neighborhood and toward public transportation. My achy body creaked, stiff from the intense manual labor of the last several days. With every step a protest, my feet refused to walk ten minutes to Starbucks. There had to be coffee closer. I turned uptown at Avenue A and within a few blocks saw a hive of activity around a door in the middle of the block. As I approached, the smoky scent of bacon, toast, and all things breakfast wafted over. Patrons exited, immersed in their first sip of morning caffeine.

Funny how our eyes instinctively close when savoring something special. Chocolate, coffee, kisses. Keeping them open lets the magic escape.

Did Sebastian kiss with his eyes closed? I was too drunk with pleasure to imprint the memory. I thought we had more time to record personal quirks like that. Now it feels like I’ve lost a priceless treasure.

Stop it, Barbara. Stay on mission.

Coffee, then I have to deal with my work situation.

Once back with my steaming cup of java, I found my laptop and punched in the Wi-Fi password Nikki slipped under my door while I was out. I never gave a moment’s thought to Internet service. Lucky for me, she preferred adding it as a line item to the rent than having tenants wrangle with cable installs or poke holes in the walls to rig bootleg antennas. Nikki’s cash-strapped renters didn’t have money to blow on fancy cable packages. And that now included me.

Hopefully not for long, though.

I opened my computer and created a spreadsheet of potential networking connections. I listed names, organizations, and roles down the left side and tried to estimate when I’d last connected with them and whether they had relationships to people who might help me. After an hour of wracking my brain and purging my phone contacts, I had a list.

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