NOT What I Was Expecting by Tallulah Anne Scott Read Free Book Online Page B

on Luke.  She said her curiosity was killing her, and it seemed like a
good idea a few moments ago when we were still in the car.  Now that we were
physically on the premises, CeCe’s fun idea of stopping to sneak a look at Luke
while he was working was a little panic inducing.  There was a soft ding as we
stepped through the second set of sliding glass doors that gave me the sudden
urge to bolt right back outside.
    I knew I had the
right to be here.  I had a library card.  My problem was that I knew the real
reason I was here, and it made me feel about 14 years old and very jumpy.  I
looked at CeCe to see if she was feeling it too.  She flashed me an excited
conspiratorial smile.  When she gets that look on her face things never go
well.  This was a big mistake.  My head said get out before you humiliate
yourself — again.  My heart said just one little peek-a-loo won’t hurt.  To be
completely honest, it could be another part of my anatomy that wanted to get a
peek, but that’s too embarrassing to contemplate, so I’ll go with heart.
    CeCe grabbed me by
the arm and dragged me into nonfiction.  “Okay,” she said in an excited whisper. 
“The addition is on the second floor, so we have to figure out how to get up
there.”
    “No, we do not,” I
whispered back.  “I thought you just wanted to take a little look, not run into
him.  No, no.  Too obvious.  I’ll feel like an obvious idiot if he sees me here,
so you have to get on with it and then we can get out of here.  And by the way,
you’re enjoying this way too much.”
    “Of course,” CeCe
whispered.  “This is just like when we were kids, and I wanted to get a look at
Mike Mendelson.  Remember?  So fun.”
    “That’s the
problem CeCe.  We were kids, and now we’re adults and should be ashamed to do
this.  How pathetic does this make me?” I whisper whined.
    “Oh, lighten up,” CeCe
insisted.  “It’ll be fun and besides, I can’t wait to get a look at the guy
that flipped your switch with one bump.  No offense Maggie, but you can be a
hard case.  You’re so picky you won’t give really great guys a shot with you. 
Remember that well-off, good-looking dentist?  You wouldn’t even give him a
chance.”  CeCe gave me the hands-on-hips, you-know-it’s-true look.
    “It was nothing
personal,” I explained patiently.  “He smelled like a dentist’s office.  Yuck. 
Brings up bad memories.”
    “You’ve never even
had a cavity,” CeCe pointed out eyeing me through slits.
    “That’s not the
point.  Smelling him every day would make me think of hearing that drill in the
next room.  Not my idea of a good time,” I said as I tried to keep my lip from
curling at the thought.
     “So what did Luke
smell like?”  CeCe asked smiling and moving close, like we weren’t already
whispering.
    “He smelled like,
uh,” I struggled with finding words to describe it.  How do you describe a
smell you can’t remember, when everything you can remember about the experience
leaves you feeling the warm and fuzzies (which is no small compliment when the
experience left you deposited on your derriere).  That’s not a smell.  “— like
something that I can’t describe, because I don’t know what it smelled like, but
it was really good.”
    I could see the
wheels turning in CeCe’s brain as she tried to get what I was telling her.  Long
pause.  “That helps me not at all,” she said finally as she gave up.
    “I know.  I’m
sorry, but I don’t know how to describe it.”  Reliving that encounter had me
back on board with trying to take a small innocent little look at him from a
distance.  No big deal.  “Okay.  Let’s do this,” I said.
    CeCe made the
motion of clapping her hands together real fast, although they never touched. 
“I’ll do some recon,” she whispered conspiratorially.  “I’ll just casually walk
over to the children’s section under the balcony.  That’ll give me half the
length