The Will(170)

Chapter Eighteen


At Least Twice



The next morning, I opened the door to Maude’s House of Beauty and only had one foot inside when I heard Alyssa command, “Get over here, get those fancy-assed pumps off and sink your feet in the drink, babelicious, ‘cause I…got…news.”

I looked into her excited eyes, then moved my gaze and saw she had the pedicure chair ready and even had a glass bowl filled with foamy water sitting on the ledge by the arm of the chair.

She was ready.

With a look back at her face, I wasn’t sure I was.

But I nevertheless hurried to the chair, took off my jacket, plopped it and my bag in the chair beside it and pulled myself up.

I barely got my bare feet into the warm sudsy water before Alyssa reached out a hand, grabbed my wrist, plonked my fingers in the bowl and announced, “Got bitch dirt, and by that I mean Donna Spear and Terry Baginski bitch dirt.”

I felt my back go straight and my eyes go wide as I asked, “Really?”

“Really. Big dirt. A freakin’ avalanche of full-on mud.”

Oh dear.

“Is it good?” I queried.

“Uh…sister,” she started, yanking one of my feet out of the tub, setting it on the pad, dabbing it with a towel then reaching straight to her cart of implements to grab some cotton wool, doing all of this talking. “Would I be nearly creaming my pants to tell you if this shit was bad?”

“Um…no,” I replied.

“Right, no. Now, listen up,” she ordered and sucked in a huge breath.

I braced, furtively looking around and seeing two of her hairdressing chairs were taken, stylists working on clients, but they were all the way across the salon so we had a least a little privacy.

My gaze went back to Alyssa when she launched in.

“Soooo, Donna’s got a best friend, they been tight for freakin’ yonks. Her name is Rita. She’s a good gal. Really like her. She’s been a client for a long time, got a couple kids who are the same ages as a couple of my kids. We did the carpool thing back in the day and—”

“Not to be rude, sweetheart,” I cut in gently. “But do I need this Rita history prior to you telling me about Jake’s ex and the woman who seems to have it out for me?”

“Right,” Alyssa mumbled and switched my feet, doing this talking. “Just to say, she’s cool. And the way she’s cool is that, first, she stood by her girl for a long time and a lotta that time was hard time. And second, you know this ‘cause you two are scary open in a way that gives me the heebie-jeebies”—her eyes came to me—“but you told me that Jake laid Donna out this weekend.”

I grinned at her “heebie-jeebies” comment, especially when it was caused by honesty between partners, and confirmed, “Yes, I know it.”

She nodded and looked back to my feet. “Okay, so Donna was cut up about this, like, in a big way. Called her girl over to moan about Jake and do it inhaling rum. Now, Rita’s been listenin’ to this sad song for a long f*ckin’ time and that night, she got over it. Way over it.”

“Oh my,” I whispered.

“Yup,” Alyssa agreed then carried on with my pedicure right along with her story. “So Rita decided to perform a one-woman intervention right there, though with bad timing seein’ as Donna was drunk off her ass. But that didn’t stop her from laying it out for Donna, telling her everyone in town knew Jake was a no-go for her and was never gonna be a go for her again. She also shared that most people in town thought it was sad, and by that she meant pathetic, that Donna fell into her cougar ways. Not done, she told Donna that everyone in town also thought she was a shit mom. Thought mega-less about her because of it. Thought Jake was the bomb ‘cause he stepped up so huge in takin’ care of his kids without her help. And new talk in town was that everyone was super excited that Jake found you ‘cause folks have always wanted him to get himself a good woman, and he did. But more, they wanted his kids to have a good woman in their lives and they got that too.”

This felt very nice, that I had the townspeople of Magdalene’s seal of approval as Jake’s woman, but I was still concerned about this Rita woman laying it out for Donna.

“And how did Donna take this?” I asked.

“Not real great ‘cause Donna is not about honesty. Donna’s about denial. Gettin’ it straight from Jake and her best friend all in the same night?” She shook her head. “Had a piss fit. A big one. Kicked Rita out then called around to the rest of her crew to start moaning about Rita. Problem with that was, she did this, they all agreed with Rita and walked right through the door Rita opened to tell her that shit.”

“Oh goodness,” I murmured.

“Mm-hmm,” Alyssa replied, grabbing some cuticle clippers. “So, I’m sure it won’t surprise you that Donna didn’t nurse her hangover thinkin’ things through and deciding to get her shit together. Nooo. Instead, she nursed her hangover, walked into work yesterday morning and gave notice. Word is, she’s moving to Boston.”

I felt my entire body get tight.

“Pardon?” I breathed.

Alyssa looked at me. “She’s chucking it in. Another client of mine said that a friend of hers said that she talked with Donna in the grocery store and Donna told her she can’t live in the same town with a Jake Spear who has another woman, so she’s gone. That woman didn’t ask Donna but she did ask my client how Donna managed to miss the fact that Jake had two other wives and a few others besides but apparently her dream world was a fortress until Jake blew it to smithereens and she missed this shit.”