Cherry Chapstick

40

Leslie smiled but it never reached her eyes. I worried about how things would go once her husband stepped through the door. I closed my eyes silently praying to myself that it wouldn’t blow up in all our faces whatever her plan was.

After we were fully dressed with our messy hair now brushed out, we all headed downstairs to her kitchen.

I was still amazed how clean and organized everything was as my eyes wandered around.

Leslie smiled and this time it did reach her eyes.

“Sierra does a fantastic job doesn’t she?”

Sierra blushed at the unexpected compliment and mumbled something about trying to please Leslie.

“Yes she does. My entire apartment could easily fit into any one of the rooms in your house.” I realized that I was making myself look poor but nobody pointed it out.

“Yeah but at least you enjoy it there. My house is mostly like a museum; on display for whoever comes to visit.” She frowned “which is mostly just John’s clients.”

We sat at the bar where four stools rested, two on each side, and watched as Leslie pulled three fancy looking coffee cups from out of her pristine white cabinets. I wondered if her coffee pot would take long to brew but then I watched as she placed one cup at a time under a single serve coffee maker.

“I’ve always wanted one of those” I told her as it made the coffee in less than a minute “my coffee maker makes twelve cups and takes just about as long to finish it.”

“Well then, we’ll just have to get you one now won’t we?” She turned and winked at me as the third cup was finished being filled.

She had barely had time to sit down when we heard a car pulling up outside.

Her face hardened momentarily.

“Well it would appear that we got everything finished up just in time.”

“Leslie” Sierra moaned out, desperation in her voice “I still don’t think this is such a good idea.”

Leslie silently blew on her coffee and made no effort to respond.

Moments later we heard the side door slam and the sound of something dropping to the floor.

“Briefcase” Leslie told us rolling her eyes “I’ve told him a million times to put the damn thing up but clearly he can’t follow simple instructions.”

Loud footsteps pounded through the house followed by a deep voice.

“Babe where are you at?”

“In the kitchen!” Leslie called out her demeanor changing from icy to pleasant in a matter of seconds.

I was amazed. I knew people could do that from watching movies but seeing it so perfectly in front of me was nothing short of wow.

He pounded into the kitchen and stopped short when he saw the three of us sitting around.. his eyes immediately zeroed in on Sierra and I could tell that he was taken back by her being there and not cleaning.

She looked down at her coffee, blowing away the steam trying not to make eye contact.

“I didn’t know you had company over.” He finally regained his voice as he made his way over to Leslie.

I watched as he leaned down behind her and kissed her on the cheek while staring Sierra down.

“Yes I decided to have a girls day today. I’ve been in need of one for awhile now so I just up and did it.”

She still sounded pleasant as though nothing was out of the ordinary.

“And Sierra? Shouldn’t you be cleaning the house today? His voice was stiff.