The Payback Club - v4 by Rexanne Becnel

Author:Rexanne Becnel [Becnel, Rexanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2010-08-25T11:46:37.093000+00:00

I met Quentin the next afternoon at the coffeehouse. I’d spent two hours getting dressed. Ridiculous. He, of course, looked better than ever in black slacks and a crisp white shirt rolled up to reveal his strong forearms. As before he was friendly. But as he studied the three logo options and the preliminary designs for the bookmark and flier, he was all business.

He pointed to the second option. “This one with the stylized image of the child, and the shadowy images of adolescence and adulthood, it really captures the ongoing problem of illiteracy. If the problem isn’t caught early, it becomes a shadow dogging a person his whole life.”

“That was my favorite, too. I showed it in shades of blue, but of course it can be done in any color. It would be just as effective in black and white, too, which would save money.”

He looked at me with his mesmerizing amber eyes. “You know, Joan, you’re really good.”

My ego shouldn’t have been so affected by his approval, but, oh, it was. “Thank you. It helps working—” with such a stud as you “—on a project so dear to my heart.”

“Okay. It’s agreed then. I’ll show these to the committee, but I’m pretty sure they’ll go along with our choice. Now, how about I take you to dinner to show my gratitude?”

Dinner? I could practically feel the condoms prancing like little Trojan horses in the bottom of my handbag. It scared me witless.

“You don’t have to do that, Quentin.”

“I know. But I want to.”

And suddenly it was easy. “All right. Dinner.” I smiled at him. “I’d like that.”

“How about tomorrow?”

Tomorrow, not tonight. Like an idiot I was disappointed. Then again tomorrow was Friday. Date night. I took a deep breath. “Tomorrow would be perfect.”

I practically floated home.

I should have known my euphoria wouldn’t last. Pearl was in the kitchen making grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch. Lunch at five in the afternoon. Of course when you stay up all night and get up at noon, I guess five o’clock is lunchtime.

“So, what are you up to?” I asked, settling across from her at the breakfast bar.

“Not much,” she mumbled.

Okay, be that way. When I got up to leave she said, “What’s up with Ronnie?”

I turned to face her. “What do you mean?”

“I don’t know. I tried to talk to him and he practically snapped my head off.”

“When?”

“Just a little while ago. He came back from swim therapy snarling like a bear.”

That didn’t sound right. Oh no. I hoped my advice about Suzanne hadn’t somehow backfired. Maybe he liked her more than she liked him.

I left the kitchen, and knocked on his door. No answer. I knocked again, then cracked it open. “Ronnie? It’s me.”

He didn’t hear that either, because he had headphones on. Even from the doorway I could hear the music, loud enough to make him deaf. He sat hunched in the window bay, frowning morosely, blind to the beautiful day. What had happened?

“Ronnie?”

He started when he saw me, then whipped off the earphones and pasted this totally fake smile on his face.

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