Part 13 (1/2)
The waitress appeared next to me with their drinks.
I stepped aside to allow her access to the table.
As she pa.s.sed out their gla.s.ses, she glanced down at Maury's photo on the table. ”Hey, that's a nice picture of Maury.”
I glanced up at her in surprise. ”You know him?”
”Sure. He's our linen rep. You know, the guy who delivers our tablecloths and napkins and uniforms and ap.r.o.ns and stuff. He comes here once a week, usually on Wednesdays.”
I couldn't believe my good luck. ”So you're saying he'll be here tomorrow?”
She shrugged. ”He should be.” She said Maury worked for a company called In-house Textiles.
I tried not to dance with excitement over the new lead and excused myself to call Ray right away with the news. He didn't answer. Impatient, I decided that if he didn't call me back by the time lunch was over, I would call the company and see if I could locate Maury myself.
I joined Cory at our table and filled him in on what I had discovered about Maury.
A minute later Leslie appeared, her lipstick and hair retouched. When she spotted Celeste, she raced across the room, pulled Celeste from her booth, and drew her into an embrace. ”You're the best.”
She released a visibly shaken Celeste. ”Look at me.” She twisted from side to side. ”I'm a babe.”
Celeste gave her a weak smile. ”Yes.”
”I'm going to ask him for a date when he comes to the farm tomorrow. I'll wear the green and say exactly what you told me to say.” Leslie threw her arms around Celeste again and squeezed her so tight Celeste's eyes bugged out.
”Good. Good.” Celeste's voice sounded more like a squeak.
”Thanks again for everything, Celeste.”
As Leslie trotted over to join us, Mindy pointed at Leslie and leaned forward to speak to Celeste. I thought I heard her say, ”That's her.”
Celeste's eyebrows shot up in response.
Was it my imagination or did I see gossip tendrils sprouting from both their mouths?
The dining room was beginning to fill up by the time Leslie sat down with us. ”What a great girl she is.”
Cory winked at me. ”Yep, that Celeste is one of a kind.”
The two gla.s.ses of champagne I drank to celebrate Leslie's new look took the edge off the fact that Celeste and Mindy kept looking over at our table and whispering to each other all through lunch. I couldn't imagine what the two of them were talking about, and I wasn't sure I really wanted to know. My family had been ”newsmakers” in this town for years. People loved to look at us sidewise like we were specimens under the microscope. I'd long ago decided that it was best not to ask too many questions. The answers were almost certain to depress me. This time their interest seemed to focus on Leslie. I couldn't decide whether or not to be relieved.
Leslie drank three gla.s.ses of champagne. With her size, they didn't seem to faze her a bit. She told Cory and me all about her visit to the hair stylist and the dentist's office, and how excited she was to unveil her new look to her friends and family-all punctuated by exuberant gestures, much batting of the eyelashes, and multiple fluffs of her wig. Overnight, she'd transformed from a rough cowhand into a radiant flower. And no one was more excited about it than she was.
”Wait until Dr. Albert sees me.”
I looked at Leslie over my winegla.s.s. ”Dr. Albert? Dr. Simon Albert who has an office next door to the psych center?”
She nodded. ”Do you know him?”
I set my gla.s.s down. ”My sister has been a patient of his for a couple years now.”
Leslie forked her last bite of cheesecake. ”I've known him about that long. We're almost finished with our sessions.”
Cory lifted his eyebrow and looked at me. I knew he was wondering if I would be so bold as to ask Leslie what she was in treatment for.
I would. But as open as Leslie was, I hoped she'd just spit it out before I had to ask.
Her cell phone rang instead. She pulled it out of her black leather backpack and flicked it open. ”h.e.l.lo ... okay, I'm on my way.” She pushed back from the table. ”I am so sorry, Jolene, Cory. I have to leave. The milking machine is on the fritz and my brother is losing it again. Thank you so much for lunch and for everything. Y'all have been wonderful. It's so nice to make some new friends.”
She hugged me and Cory in turn, smothering me with her b.r.e.a.s.t.s and cutting off my oxygen.
Halfway across the dining room, she turned and waltzed back to the table. ”And I'm going to hold off on the Caterham for now. I'm going to use the ideas Celeste gave me instead.”
I wouldn't ask what those were, not ever. It would be too much like shaking hands with the devil herself. But let poor innocent Leslie use whatever tricks she could live with to attract the man of her dreams. ”Okay, good luck. Keep us posted.”
”Don't you worry, I will.” With an excited wave and a couple funky chicken dance steps, she was gone.
Cory glanced at me. ”Is it only me, or do you think she has some future in the theater?”
____.
Cory headed for home while I sat at my desk in the shop and dialed Information for the number of In-house Textiles, which, come to find out, was based in Buffalo. When I asked their receptionist for Emerson Boor, however, she said he was no longer with the company.
”Since when?”
The receptionist sounded like a young girl. ”His last day was yesterday.”
”Did he resign?”
”I can't say. You'll have to speak to Human Resources.”
”Did he get fired?” I could be so much bolder on the phone than in person. h.e.l.l, I hadn't even given this girl my name.
”I really can't say. Would you like to speak to someone in HR?”
I scrambled for a way to get more information, knowing HR would just hang up on me. ”No, it's just ... he's been dating my sister. If he hasn't got a job anymore, I don't think they should get married, do you?”
”Maury's getting married? Does your sister ... hold on, I have another call.”
I listened to the music while I waited for her to return.
”h.e.l.lo, listen, I really can't talk. I'm sorry.”
”But you don't think my sister should marry Maury?”
”He's not so bad. He brought me roses for Secretary's Day.”
”So you think he's an okay guy?”
”He brings lots of girls roses. He's a little creepy. I have to go. Bye.”