The Foxe & the Hound by R.S. Grey

The Foxe & the Hound by R.S. Grey

Author:R.S. Grey [Grey, R.S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2017-05-31T16:00:00+00:00


CHAPTER SIXTEEN

ADAM

“Adam, we would have invited a mannequin to lunch had we known you’d be this quiet.”

I glance up from my untouched turkey sandwich and find my mom and Kathy eyeing me suspiciously, waiting for my reply.

“Oh, yeah. Sorry,” I say, shrugging off their concern.

It’s been a few days since my incident with Madeleine at the YMCA, and she hasn’t replied to my phone calls or text messages. The tables are reversed, and I don’t like it.

This morning, I was summoned to lunch by my mom and Kathy, and I couldn’t turn them down. I don’t have room in my schedule for another impromptu appointment courtesy of my mom and a stuffed bird.

We’re eating at a deli down on Main Street, just across from Madeleine’s real estate agency. I didn’t pick the restaurant, but I did pick my seat at the table, facing out, toward the agency. We’ve been here for thirty minutes and I haven’t seen Madeleine once. She must be eating at her desk or out with a client.

“If it’s nothing, then why aren’t you eating?” my mom asks. “I’m almost finished.”

To prove her wrong, I pick up my sandwich and take a massive bite.

“Alrighty then.” Kathy laughs. “Diane, did I tell you I saw Madeleine at the grocery store the other day?”

I pretend to be enthralled by my sandwich.

“Oh? No, you didn’t.”

Kathy nods. “Yeah, just for a second. We were both about to check out, but she stopped and struck up a conversation with me. I half expected her not to remember me since she and Adam weren’t at the barbecue that long.”

My mom hums. “She’s such a nice girl.”

“So nice.”

It doesn’t feel like they’re trying to get under my skin, and yet they are.

“Can we talk about something else?”

My mom laughs. “Sure. Why don’t you come up with something to talk about?”

“How are the girls?” I ask Kathy, knowing exactly what I’m doing.

Kathy is obsessed with her daughters, and she’ll talk about them nonstop if you get her started; it’s a tool I’ve used quite a few times at awkward family dinners when my mom is intent on aiming the focus on me and my life.

“Oh they’re good! Did I tell you Allie lost another tooth?”

For the next thirty minutes, I tune them out and slink back into my thoughts about Madeleine. I know I screwed up last week. From the beginning, I knew Madeleine was someone I could be interested in, so I did my best to respect that. I tried to be polite and distant. Obviously I had moments of weakness, but nothing as terrible as what I did to her in that gymnasium.

I was trying to do the right thing. I was so sure that turning her down and explaining that I wasn’t ready to date was the gentlemanly course of action, but then why did it feel like the exact opposite? Seeing her expression when I turned her down for a date broke something inside of me. She looked so defeated, so utterly embarrassed.



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