LITMIR.BIZ

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coffee dwindled, though most of the tables remained occupied. The Mocha’s a popular place all day long. Sadie left. So did Johnny and Carlos, my regulars. A few of Darek’s came in, but he took care of them. With Joy gone for the rest of the day I had time for a break, and I took my oversize mug of chai to Meredith’s table.

      She looked up from her computer when I sat. “You missed some good stories today. You still haven’t told me yours, though.”

      “Haven’t I told you enough crazy stories?” I’d told her plenty, most about my summers as a kid in the commune. “What, The Compound wasn’t wacky enough for you?”

      “Those were about a place you were, not things you did. There’s a difference.”

      I sipped chai and looked her over. “Do I look like someone who does crazy things?”

      “Aren’t you?”

      I shrugged. “I don’t even have any tattoos.”

      Meredith waved a dismissive hand. “Every sorority girl has a tattoo these days. Piercings all over the place. They wear nipple rings like it’s something special.” She eyed me. “When I said you were our wild child, I didn’t mean because of the way you dress or wear your makeup.”

      “What, then?” The mug warmed my hands better than the sunshine slanting through the glass. Early October in Pennsylvania can be glorious, warm and fragrant with the scent of changing leaves. This year, it was getting cold early.

      Meredith shrugged, so graceful and artless that jealousy slivered through me. I could practice for a million years and never look that elegant. “Let’s just say there’s something about you.”

      “There’s something about anyone, isn’t there?” I lifted a fingertip to point discreetly toward Eric, sitting alone with legal pads and lists. “Check out Dr. McSexypants over there. What’s he doing with all that stuff? Every time he comes in here, he’s writing on those legal pads. Why don’t you ask him about a story?”

      Meredith laughed, low and throaty, not the same laughter that had earlier filled the shop. This was just for me. “Because he won’t tell anyone about them. Still waters run deep and all that shit.”

      “Maybe I have still waters, too.”

      She shook her head, playful. Charming. “No, honey, you’re more like a waterfall.”

      “Because I rush a lot?” I asked with a wink.

      “Nope. A thing of natural beauty with some treasure hidden behind it. C’mon, Tesla. Tell me. The craziest thing you’ve ever done.”

      There was no trying to deny her. What Meredith wanted, she’d have, and she made me want to give it to her. “I don’t think anything I’ve done is crazy. Crazy’s like … I dunno. Putting a dead bird in your locker at school so you can bury it later. Lighting stuff on fire.”

      “Okay, not crazy. Wild, then. Free? Unique?” She paused, thinking. “Unencumbered.”

      “Ah. You mean sexual.”

      Meredith wore a huge diamond and a gold band on her left hand. She talked sometimes about her husband, but only in the vaguest of ways. I knew his name was Charlie and that he was a teacher at some fancy private school. They had no kids.

      “Yes-s-s,” Meredith hissed with glee. “Sexual. Tell me, Tesla. What’s the wildest sex thing you ever did?”

      I wasn’t surprised she wanted to know my wild sex secrets. She liked to talk about sex a lot. Well. Who doesn’t?

      “Hmmm.” I turned my mug round and round in my palms, the ceramic sliding on the tabletop. “The craziest thing, huh? I’m not sure I can beat old people porn.”

      “Did you know Sadie was married to someone else before Joe?” Meredith said quietly.

      “No. She was? Huh.” I shrugged. “Was that the craziest thing she’d done? Got divorced?”

      Meredith shook her head. “Oh. No. Her first husband died.”

      I frowned, thinking of pretty Sadie with her big belly and gorgeous husband. “Gee, that’s too bad.” Meredith shrugged. “It happens.”

      It wasn’t the first time I’d heard her sound a little bored by the pain of others. She liked hearing stories, but mostly only the funny or exciting ones. Sad stories didn’t melt her butter.

      I looked up to the counter, but Darek was busy flirting with one of his favorites. Nobody else was waiting. I still had time—and half a mug of chai. “Fine. Crazy things. You go first.”

      She shook her head and licked her mouth again. I couldn’t help watching her tongue move over her lips. Meredith has a mouth like Angelina Jolie. Full, soft lips. Pillowy, I think some people call them. She has a smile full of teeth, the kind you can’t help but smile back at. Meredith’s mouth is the sort that would break your heart if you saw it frowning.

      “I haven’t done anything crazy. I’m married.”

      I laughed at that. “So? Were you a virgin when you got married? Don’t married people get up to crazy shit?”

      Her eyelids lowered for a moment, as if she was remembering something. “No. Not really.”

      “You must have something crazy to tell me.” I sat back when Eric got up to help himself to a refill from the jugs on the counter next to us.

      “Tesla,” he said, and nodded at Meredith. “Hi.”

      “Hi, Eric.” She didn’t flutter her lashes or anything contrived like that. Meredith didn’t have to. “How’s tricks?”

      “Putting Houdini to shame,” Eric said, though he didn’t have quite the same easy flirting tone with Meredith that he had with me. He looked at her sort of warily, keeping his distance.

      She made sure to ogle his ass as he walked away, then turned back to me. “I would bang that man like a screen door in a hurricane.”

      “If you weren’t married.”

      “And if he didn’t look at me like he was afraid I might bite him instead of kiss him,” Meredith said with a touch of scorn.

      I looked away from where Eric was again looking at his lists. “Oh, c’mon. He didn’t.”

      Her smile lifted a bit. “He never looks at you like that.”

      “Because I’m not a moron and because I give him sugar and caffeine,” I said with a laugh. “Eric’s a good guy.”

      She shot him another glance, then dismissed him with a wave. She lifted her mug and drank, her eyes never leaving mine. She licked her mouth again.

      “I kissed a girl,” Meredith said.

      “And let me guess. You liked it?” I swallowed hot tea.

      She shrugged. “It was okay. It wasn’t much of anything, really. It was in college. We were just fooling around.”

      “To see what it was like,” I offered. I’d heard that story before, too many times.

      “Sure. Lots of people do it. You do it,” she added.

      “Sometimes.” It wasn’t something I considered crazy or wild, and obviously she didn’t, either, since she already knew about it and was still teasing me into telling something else.

      “And you like it.”

      “Well … of course.” I laughed. “I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t like it.”

      “See? That’s what I mean. You do what you want to do, what you like to do, whatever turns you on.” Meredith paused. “I admire that about you. I envy it, I guess.”

      As if she could really envy anything about me, a chick who worked in a coffee shop, drove a piece-of-shit car, didn’t even live on her own. Besides, it had

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