Lost Along the Way(85)

“Me too,” Meg said as she flagged down the waitress and asked for the check. Cara slipped the waitress her credit card while they finished off the rest of the wine, and five minutes later, the waitress returned, holding the card in her hands.

“I’m sorry, ma’am, your card has been declined,” the waitress whispered politely so the rest of the diners wouldn’t overhear. They’d given them enough of a show for one afternoon.

“What? That’s impossible,” Cara said.

“It could be our machine. Do you want to try another card?”

“Yeah, maybe the strip is worn,” Cara said. Meg knew immediately that the second card wouldn’t work, either.

“He canceled my cards,” Cara said as soon as the waitress left again, reaching over and grabbing Jane’s wineglass to finish off her drink. “I was wondering how long it would take. He lasted longer than I thought he would.”

The waitress returned before Meg or Jane had a chance to ask a question. “I’m sorry,” she said. “This card isn’t working, either.” Cara wondered which one of them was more embarrassed, the waitress for having to say it, or herself for having to hear it.

“Can you give us a minute?” Jane asked the waitress politely. She nodded and walked away. “Okay, this is not that big of a deal! I’ve been there, and while I can’t say that the day when the ATM refuses to give you money because of insufficient funds is fun, exactly, I can tell you that it’s not the worst thing in the world. I’d offer to cover you for lunch but I’m broke, too, which means that Meg is now lodging and feeding us both for free. God, we are awful houseguests.” She added, “Then again, that’s another reason why it’s probably a good thing we don’t have kids. You and I can’t afford them, and Meg is too busy taking care of us at the moment to buy onesies and diaper bags.”

“That’s true,” Meg agreed, stifling a laugh. “You guys do keep me very busy, not to mention, if I had a baby, there’d be no place to put Jane’s wine. Babies drink a lot of milk and I don’t think I’d have enough room in my fridge.” Meg held her credit card up in the air for the waitress and she quickly returned to take it.

“See! There’s another bright side,” Jane said.

“You guys, seriously, this isn’t funny. I have nowhere to go,” Cara said, the moment of levity crushed by her realization that Reed’s patience had worn out.

“Can we please worry about this tomorrow? We were having such a nice day,” Jane said.

“Ignoring your problems won’t make them go away. You should know that better than anyone,” Cara said.

“That’s true. But addressing them now does all but guarantee to ruin our day. Come on. Let it go for now, and we’ll deal with it tomorrow. So he took away your credit cards? Big deal.”

“I’m so angry I could scream. I am so pissed off at him, and pissed off at myself, and pissed off at the world in general. I want to hit something. I swear to God, I just want to hit something!” Cara said, a little louder than would be considered acceptable for a public lunch conversation.

“Oh, I know!” Jane said. “Want me to find a tennis ball machine? Remember when you were pissed at Mark and we broke into the courts and you nailed tennis balls at the fence? You felt great after that! I will find you one. There has to be a country club out here I can break into.”

Cara laughed, which Jane considered a huge victory. “Oh God, I’d forgotten about that. We had fun that night.”

“We had a lot of fun nights,” Jane added.

“I still think I’m lucky I didn’t get tetanus,” Meg said, which caused the whole table to giggle. “No one cared that I injured my butt.”

“I’m serious. It’s been a while since I’ve wielded bolt cutters. I will do it for you, Cara. Because I love you.”

“Thanks. I miss that girl,” Cara said. “Teenage me had fire. She had confidence. She knew what she wanted. She’d be so disappointed to meet me now.”

“Stop it. We’ll figure this out. You still have some money in the bank, right?” Jane asked.

“Just a little,” Cara admitted.

“That’s all you need. We will figure out the rest,” Jane replied.

“Aren’t you the optimist today? What happened to you?”

“Rising from the dead has given me a whole new perspective on life. You learn to not sweat the small stuff,” Jane said with a smile just as she caught sight of Sheila out of the corner of her eye. The brat from the coffeehouse had her cell phone aimed directly at them and was snapping pictures from two tables away. “Oh, hell no!” Jane screamed as she jumped up, knocking her chair over in the process.

“You want to take pictures of me for cash, huh? It’ll be a cold day in hell before anyone makes money off me and my misery, sister!”

Before Sheila knew what was happening, Jane pounced on her and ripped her cell phone from her hand. Before Meg knew what was happening, Jane tossed it to her, like they were playing a grown-up version of monkey-in-the-middle, while Sheila helplessly looked on. Meg wanted nothing to do with the phone, mostly because she was pretty sure that Sheila was stronger than she was and would probably be able to take her down. So she turned and threw it to Cara. If a fight broke out between Cara and Sheila, smart money would bet on Cara every time.