Between the Lanterns(17)
Samantha’s excitement flew out of the window in an instant. Her face grew bitter, and she said in a venomous voice, “That’s not right, Mr. Parr. Neither the government nor Montek… hHell, let’s be honest, we all know they’re almost one and the same… but they can’t tell me that I have to use their filthy, disgusting machine to feed people fake food. The whole point of places like these is that we only serve REAL food. They can’t’ take that away from me. They just… they can’t!”
Lee regarded Samantha without any emotion showing on his face and replied, “I’m sorry, Miss Vann. It’s the law.”
Chapter 7
MUSCADINE WINE
Tara fussed and fussed over the state of Samantha’s hair. She put it up, then let it down, and then repeated the process all over again.
“Sam, dear, I just can’t decide which way looks best on you,” Tara said. “You’re so damn good-looking that, either way, you’ll be the most beautiful bride this town has ever seen, but I want it to be perfect for y’all. What do you think:; up or down?”
“Oh sweets, it don’t matter to me,” Samantha said, beaming with joy. “The only thing I care about is walking down that aisle and marrying that incredible man, spending the rest of my natural-born life with him, having babies with him, and growing old together. These are the things that concern me at the moment, not my dang hair. Just put it up or down, and be quick; please and thank you.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Tara replied with feigned annoyance. “Jeez, Miss Bossy Pants. Get a house, a diner, and a fiancé and all of a sudden you’re the queen of the world.”
“Tara, I’m sorry if that came off as rude. I’m just nervous, is all,” Samantha said, putting a hand on her best friend’s cheek. “And you know, it all seems so sudden, even though I signed those papers for the house and our diner over a year ago, and August only proposed six months ago. Should we have waited longer?”
Samantha said “our diner” because as soon as legally possible she had signed half of it over to Tara, since she had been there just as long and worked just as hard to keep that place going.
“Do you feel like you should have waited, Sam?” Tara asked, already knowing the answer.
Samantha looked at her, and with the world’s biggest smile, said, “Hell no, sweets. Hell no. I want August all to myself as soon as possible; every night and day!”
Tara, still fussing with Samantha’s hair, said, “Oh, tell me again how August proposed to you, Sam. I love that story.”
“Well, I love it, too,” Samantha replied, “So I’ll tell it. As you know, I waited as long as possible to install the mandatory Nutricator in our diner. August knew I was feeling pretty upset about having it in there, so he chose that day to propose. He said that he was initially going to do it another time, but he felt that I especially needed something good to happen on that specific day, you know?”
“Mmmm-hmmm,” Tara said with a grin and a wink.
Sam continued. “Anyway, as he walked me home down West Main, right as we passed between the lanterns…between our lanterns, he knelt down and pulled the box out of his pocket. As soon as he did that, I knelt down, too, and pulled a box out of my pocket.”
Tara hooted with laughter at this, and said, “I utterly adore that part! Why did you have a box with a ring in it, again?”
“You see, sweets,” Sam reminded her, “I was planning on asking him to marry me. I had made him a ring out of wood a couple of months before, and I’d been carrying it around just waiting for the right moment. Well, when he got down on one knee between the lanterns, I knew that was the right moment! So we asked each other at the same time right there, between the lanterns. I gave him the wooden ring I had made, and August gave me this beautiful diamond ring that used to be his granny’s.”
Tara and Samantha both looked at the antique ring she was wearing. It was a platinum band with an almost one-karat diamond. It wasn’t big, but Samantha didn’t care about that. She knew that this ring had a history, and it was important to August. It was Samantha’s favorite possession.
“Sam, it’s a gorgeous ring,” Tara said, jealous but happy for her friend.
“Thank you, sweets. I think so, too. Now, my life is perfect except for one thing,” Samantha said, sadness dripping from the words.
Tara tilted her head at Samantha, and asked, “What’s that, Sam?”
Sam shook her head and closed her eyes, whispering, “Having that filthy machine in our diner, making nasty, old, fake food for silly fools who wouldn’t know a good bite of food if it bit them back.”
Tara threw her head back and laughed even more, saying, “Oh, it’s not so bad, and you know it, Sam! Business has tripled since we put in the Nutricator. We actually make enough Credit now to afford some nice things. Did you know that last week I went ahead and got a Montek.Automaton?”
Samantha whirled on her oldest friend in the world with shock and disgust plastered all over here face and said, “Sweets, why on God’s green Earth would you buy one of those dreadful things? Who is it for?”
Tara laughed at the expected response from Samantha, and replied, “It’s mine, for your information. And no, I’m not dying. I just wanted to have it and be prepared, since I’ve already got the Credit for it. One day, I’ll be standing in the corner of the diner greeting all the customers as a tin can full of memories. Won’t that be just weird as all get out?”