That Part Was True Read Online Free Page A

That Part Was True
Book: That Part Was True Read Online Free
Author: Deborah Mckinlay
Pages:
Go to
you?” she asked.
    Jack felt, in the intensity of her gaze, as if he might be suffering from something grave, possibly terminal. “Let’s all walk down to Mama’s and eat crab,” he said in response, too loudly. He had to stand up and clap his hands like a fool to fit the weight of his pitch.
    Â Â 
    Later, in the men’s room at Mama’s, Dex said, “Since when are you hitting on this Lisa broad?”
    â€œI’m not hitting on this Lisa broad,” Jack replied, soaping his hands.
    Dex raised an eyebrow.
    â€œIt’s a misunderstanding,” Jack said. He pulled a paper towel from the dispenser, dried his hands, and tossed the towel into the plastic trash bin.
    â€œI’ve had misunderstandings like that,” Dex said. “Reeeeeel messy.”
    They began walking back into the restaurant, but Jack came to a sudden stop next to a potted palm. He could see the women sitting outdoors on the terrace under the shade of the striped awning. “I’m never going to be able to shake her,” he said somberly.
    Dex stopped, too. He looked in the same direction as Jack. Lisa was talking animatedly while Adrienne toyed with a breadstick that she wasn’t eating.
    â€œPooped pretty close to your own backyard there, didn’t ya, fella?”
    Jack sighed. “I’m going to have to sell my house.”
    â€œNah.” Dex laughed. “If you keep ignoring them, they get it. You have to check your car for incendiary devices for a while, but they get it.”
    Jack ran his palm over his face.
    â€œNow, if you’d waited,” Dex said, “instead of jumping the first thing that smelled good, you randy old goat, you’d have seen that I could produce the perfect woman to get you over your ‘Do I turn women gay?’ crisis. Adrienne is that woman. Do you not agree?”
    â€œI’m not sure what I’m agreeing with,” Jack said. “There’s too much bullshit floating around.”
    â€œAdrienne,” Dex said, turning to him, index finger outstretched, “is classy people. Don’t foul it up.”
    Jack was momentarily mesmerized, thrown by this shift in their roles. It was Jack’s job to tell Dex not to foul things up. That was how it had always been. And yet here he was, the erstwhile steady guy of the pair, ducking behind couches and nursing hangovers while Dex was apparently straightening out. And he was right, Adrienne was classy people.
    â€œI went to the Kingston School of Design,” she said a few minutes later, when he asked about her training over coffee, which she had refused in favor of more water.
    â€œGood school,” Jack said.
    â€œGood student, too, I bet,” Dex added.
    Lisa, offering Adrienne the plate of macaroons that had been served with their coffee, said, “Would you like one of these?” She gave the plate an inane little shake, and immediately wished she hadn’t. Unnerved by Adrienne’s silvery cool, hideously unsure of where she stood with Jack, and dreading knowing, she had become increasingly flighty over lunch. She was aware of it. She couldn’t stop.
    â€œNo, thank you,” Adrienne said, returning Lisa’s smile with one that was gracious, if somewhat lightless. She hadn’t eaten any crab either.
    Eating his, Jack had wondered, as he always did, at Mama’s cooking. She’d been serving up crab for twenty years with no apparent diminishment of enthusiasm. You could still taste the heart. She and Hatty, who ran the little coffee shop on South Street, were among the few people left in Grove Shore, Jack thought, who understood that key ingredient in food. Too many of them were just serving up immaculate plates of pretty precision. But Mama’s touch had been wasted on Adrienne.
    â€œI’m a vegetarian,” she had explained when they ordered. Adding, unnecessarily, “I don’t eat animals.”
    â€œ I had an eating
Go to

Readers choose