She's Not Home by Lena George

Author:Lena George
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harborview Press, LLC

- 22 -

Sheryl

She squeezed the steering wheel and extended her arms. Rolled her shoulders. It wasn’t lost on Sheryl she was retracing Mark and Mariana’s route from eight hours before. She couldn’t push away the snake of jealousy.

It wasn’t fair to resent him. She knew this. Sheryl would’ve let Mariana call out of work. If he disagreed, she expected him to take responsibility for the Plan B, and to her surprise he had. Taking her to work and watching her walk in the door was the most active parenting she’d seen him do in ages. He’d been there for her, however briefly.

When he’d returned, he’d hardly looked at her, hardly spoken. “We’ll talk more when I get back,” he’d told her.

She’d fixed her gaze out the window on the oak in the backyard and said, “I guess so.”

But why did Mark get to be the padded landing? The parent with whom the wronged teenager might share confidences on the drive to work? Mark, who hadn’t earned a goddamn thing from Mariana.

She glanced at the empty seat beside her. “Mariana,” she said. “I—no—Mariana, I want to talk about earlier.” The absence beside her sat waiting for her next words. “I’m sorry—about earlier—I want you to know I’m very disappointed. You violated my trust. But I still should never have hit you and for that I’m sorry.” She paused. “Or should I lead with the apology? But that makes it sound like I was in the wrong with everything and—fuck.” She slammed the heel of her hand against the steering wheel.

Streetlights appeared at the top of the off-ramp. She was running out of time.

Coffee & Cream glowed in the middle of its block. “Perfect,” Sheryl said when she spotted Cat’s car directly across the street. There was a nice big spot behind it.

She slid out of the car. Music punched from the record store on her side of the street. Through its big front windows she could see a band playing in the back. A scrawny kid with spiked hair slashed his arm at a guitar. Beside him stood three dark-haired, pale-skinned girls in black miniskirts, all of them crowded around a single mic. A crowd of young people pogoed in the aisles between displays of records. This store had been there forever and was somehow still making money selling music in outdated formats. Sheryl wondered if any of the same people still worked there from when Sheena played with her band. If her name, or her band’s name, had become part of the shop’s lore.

Okay. Sheryl smoothed her jacket. Five minutes before closing. She could do this. Go in under the pretense of grabbing a drink before they headed out. Even offer to buy something for the girls, just for the gesture, because obviously they could make whatever they wanted for themselves.

She walked up to the door with its sign that still read Come on in!

Her breath caught in her throat. Something didn’t make sense here. There were two girls working, like always.

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