Dark Water - Laura McNeal [59]
I didn’t know what the plan was, unless it was the one where he went on dating someone he didn’t respect, but the next day, I had a surprise customer at Subway.
“I’d like a turkey on whole wheat, please,” Mary Beth said, and I said what I’m supposed to say, which is, “Do you want that toasted?” Then I couldn’t help looking shocked to see her.
She asked if I was going on break soon, which unfortunately I was, and that’s how I came to be sitting in a booth with her as she unwrapped her sandwich.
“You look tan,” I said. “Been playing a lot of tennis?”
“I have, actually,” she said. “I need the money, so I’ve been teaching more lessons.”
I said that sounded nice.
“Mrs. Wallace went to Paris, though, so she’s not taking lessons right now.”
This was a new twist. “I didn’t know you were teaching her,” I said.
“Yeah, that’s how I first met the Wallaces,” Mary Beth said. “Agnès was looking for someone to help her brush up on her game, and the regular coach at the club recommended me.”
This all seemed logical. I decided to ask if my uncle took lessons, too.
“No,” she said. She looked away and fiddled with the wrapper of her sandwich. She ate a stray piece of lettuce.
“Did I do something wrong with your sandwich?” I asked.
“No,” she said. “I just don’t feel that hungry. Do you want it?”
“That’s okay,” I said, though I did. I hadn’t eaten yet.
“Are you sure?”
“Yes.”
Finally, after a long, uncomfortable pause, Mary Beth said, “I came here because I wondered if Robby said anything to you.”
“About what?”
“About me.”
“I’ve barely spoken to him,” I said, not wanting to look straight at her. “First he was at these college prep camps and music camp, and now he’s in Paris with my aunt and uncle.”
“I know,” she said.
“Oh,” I said, confused. “So did you two go out this summer or not?”
“When he was home, we did,” she said. “And I drove up to Orange County once when he was doing that music camp and we met for dinner.”
That seemed kind of serious. “To tell you the truth,” I said, “he’s never gone out with girls much. He’s always kind of focused on school and track and music.”
“Yeah, he told me that,” she said. “He said I was the only person he’d ever wanted to date.”
That seemed misleading at best, given what the reasons for his interest had been.
“And now he’s just completely stopped calling me.”
“It’s probably expensive,” I said.
“And e-mailing me,” she said.
“Well, I haven’t gotten any e-mail from him, either. I don’t know what the setup is at his grandmother’s. She’s kind of old and she might not be wired for that kind of thing.”
“I’ve been to Europe,” she said. “There’s an Internet café on every corner.”
“Well,” I said, out of excuses, “I just wouldn’t wait around for him. He’s really fickle lately. He’s not even as friendly with me as we used to be.” I wanted to add, Besides, he’s just a high school student, but to point out that he was beneath her seemed insulting to both of them.
She sighed and looked truly miserable. “Okay,” she said. “Thanks for talking to me about it. I realize he’s too young for me, but he doesn’t seem young. And I just thought there might be some reason why he went from sixty miles an hour to a dead stop, you know? I just don’t get why he’d be so intense about it and then, for no apparent reason, just shut off.”
“I don’t know, either,” I said, and reminded myself that Mary Beth had engaged in some sort of romance with my married uncle and was not deserving of sympathy. I told myself not to eat her sandwich, either, even though my break was nearly over.
“Are you sure he didn’t say anything else to you?” Mary Beth asked. “He didn’t say, for instance, that he was going to stop dating me because …” She waited for me to fill in the blank.
I tried to formulate an answer in my mind as she wrapped the sandwich back up. It crossed my mind to say, He saw you kissing my uncle. Or, He wanted to stop you from breaking up his parents’ marriage. I should have said these things, I think now, but I didn’t, which made me wonder if I was losing my compulsive honesty now that