Run Away Baby (6 page)

“Hi, Abby. How are you today?”

“Good Krissa. What’s up?”

“Mr. Greer asked me to tell you that he noticed Palmyra’s having their big yearly sale right now. He said you should stop over there if you feel like it, and pick out some things for yourself. I know you like that place,” Krissa told her, naming an expensive boutique Abby didn’t particularly care for, but that Randall thought epitomized how a yacht-riding model wife should dress.

“Thanks for the tip.”

“Sure,” said Krissa. “Do you think you’ll check it out?”

“Sure, I can do that.”

“Great! He thought you’d be happy to have the opportunity to get out for a bit and buy yourself something nice. And I think he already called your personal shopper there so she’d set some things aside for you.”

“Yeah, I figured that.”

“If you stop anywhere else, let me know, okay?”

“Well, since I’ll be heading out anyway now, I might stop at Westbrooke Mall.”

“Oh. Okay.” Abby heard the sound of Krissa scribbling this fact on paper.

“That should be fine. Anywhere else?” Krissa asked.

“I might get some lunch.”

“Do you know where?”

“I’m not sure yet.”

“Okay. When are you thinking you’ll head out?”

“Pretty soon I guess. I’d hate to show up late to the Palmyra party and find that all their best bikinis have been picked over.”

“Okay.” Krissa laughed. “Check in if anything unusual comes up.”

“Sure. Talk to you later.”

Abby hung up and went into her bathroom to take a shower and get ready. Even though her shopping trip was prompted by Randall’s suggestion for her to go to the Palmyra sale, it wouldn’t be unusual for Krissa to pop up someplace on Abby’s route today. Then again, if Krissa’s day was busy, it wouldn’t be unusual for her not to. This evening, Randall would want to review Abby’s receipts. As long as there were no huge gaps between purchase times, he probably wouldn’t interrogate her. Along with unaccounted-for time, Randall looked for irresponsible purchases like junk food and candy. These items were off-limits for Abby unless he was the one offering them to her.

Her first stop of the day was to Outdoor World at Westbrooke Mall for one reason: Items bought from there with a debit card could be returned for cash with no online records of the return happening. She had discovered this by accident a year or two earlier when she was returning some things she’d gotten Randall for his birthday. Now she went there almost every time she went shopping, purchasing several boring looking pairs of socks and underwear, then returning a few for spending money. As soon as she got home she’d get them all washed and added to her existing heap of outdoorsy socks and underwear, and Randall never noticed that there were fewer items than there were supposed to be. So far, he’d never questioned why someone who hated camping and cold weather enjoyed buying socks meant for mountain expeditions. Now and then Abby wore a pair around the house so her scheme seemed believable.

Today she purchased four pairs of thick, colorful socks, and five pairs of plain black underwear with “sweat wicking properties.” Then she went back and returned a pair of underwear and a pair of socks.

“I guess this is a little more than I really needed for my expedition. There’s only so much room in my backpack,” she explained.

“I don’t really care,” the girl behind the counter told her, handing Abby two twenties and change.

This was Abby’s secret spending money. Now she could have an unhealthy lunch, or go someplace slightly off-route if she walked there and left her phone in the car.

While at Westbrooke Mall, she went into Banana Republic and bought a pair of earrings. Like most of what she bought, she did it to kill time, to keep a record of her day so that Randall could review it later. She’d learned long ago that window shopping resulted in way too much paranoia from Papa Rottzy. It was easier to spend his money on forgettable items she didn’t even want.

Next she headed downtown to Palmyra. There she bought the gold bikini and navy striped sundress her personal shopper Marissa had set aside for her, along with a pair of flowy linen pants.

At this point Abby was getting hungry. She sat on the bench outside Palmyra considering whether to go home and have whatever Rosa would fix for her, or to stop at the Soup ‘N Salad bowl for the Lite Lunch Combo. Neither option sounded particularly appealing. What she wanted was something greasy and salty and delicious. Something off-limits.

Everyone from work was constantly bragging about a place called the Bigger Burger. It was a couple of blocks from where she sat, around the corner from the law office. Of course, Randall wouldn’t be happy if she ate there, so she wasn’t sure if it was worth taking the chance.

She looked in her Palmyra bag, stalling, wasting time. Marissa had given her a free sample of some of their new perfumes. A little card holding four tiny vessels. She smelled each one and put a dab of the third one on her wrist. Her stomach growled. She rummaged through the bag some more and discovered a free $20 voucher for her next purchase and a mini bottle of slate grey nail polish.

She took out her cellphone then and dialed her house phone. Rosa picked up after several rings.

“Hello Miss Abby,” she said.

“Hi Rosa. What’s happening today?”

“Nothing, Miss Abby. I’m just washing windows.”

“Oh. That’s a big job. Did you have lunch already?”

“I had a sandwich.”

“Okay.”

“Would you like me to make you something?”

“No. I was just checking in. Just bored.”

“I can make you whatever you’d like.”

“That’s okay. Don’t worry about it. I’ll see you later.”

Abby hung up. She stayed planted on the bench, unsure what to do with herself. Finally, she gathered her nerve and stood up. She picked up her shopping bags and walked the short distance to the Bigger Burger.

When she got inside, she was disappointed by how dim and dirty it was inside. Nothing like the places she was accustomed to eating with Randall.

She ordered her food, accidentally handing over her debit card, even though she had been planning to hide her visit from Randall. Her nervousness was making her dumb. She tried to stay calm. A person had to eat somewhere, and if she’d used cash, that would have meant buying a fake meal someplace later and throwing it away.

She took her food to the counter by the big front window and started with a sip of the malt. It was heavenly. Next, she dipped a fry in ketchup and ate it very, very slowly. It felt like childhood. It was almost more than she could bear.

Unaccustomed to eating three thousand calorie meals, it didn’t take long for her to become completely stuffed. She looked at the pile of food on her plate, considering whether she could somehow take it with her. She dawdled, taking tiny sips of her malt. By this point she’d been sitting at the Bigger Burger for almost an hour.

She got up to leave, dumping the uneaten remains of her lunch in the garbage, and then pausing in the airlock between the outside world and the restaurant to buy herself a handful of M&M’s from the vending machine for later. As she stood there, putting her second quarter in, Charlie came bustling down the sidewalk, his bag of mail bumping against his shorts, heading straight for her. He pulled the door open.

“Abby-from-the-law-office! What are you doing here?”

“Getting some M&M’s,” she said.

“Instead of lunch? That’s no good. Come in with me and have something to eat.”

“I…” she paused, unsure why she wasn’t telling him that she’d already eaten.

“Seriously, those are a pretty unhealthy appetizer. Come and have some real food with me,” he said.

“I guess I could,” she said.

“Great!” He held the interior door open for her. “Have you been here before?” he asked her as they stepped back inside. “For more than their M&M’s, I mean.”

“Uh, once.”

“I eat here at least once a week. Their bacon onion burger is the best. What do you want? My treat.”

“Oh, you don’t have to do that.” She took out her cash.

“I insist. What would you like?”

“Well, okay. Thank you. How about the walnut and feta salad and an iced tea.”

“Don’t you want a burger?” asked Charlie.

“No thanks,” she said, her cheeks burning as they stood before the guy who’d taken her order an hour earlier.

“So, are you working at the law firm today?” Charlie asked while they waited for their food.

“No. I’m out shopping,” Abby said, staring at the front door. This was, of course, a terrible mistake. Clark or anyone else she knew could walk in at any moment.

“Find anything good when you were shopping?” Charlie asked her.

“A few things,” she said, still keeping an eye on the door.

“Anything you’d want to model for me?” he asked her, leaning in close, his lips practically brushing her ear.

“No.”

“You wouldn’t want to do that for me?”

“Do what for you?”

“Put on a little show for me?”

She shook her head.

“Am I making you nervous?” he asked.

“No.”

“A little bit maybe?”

“Stop it,” she said.

“Okay. I’m done messing with you,” he said, laughing.

“I’m surprised to see you here,” she said. “Aren’t you normally way past this part of town by now?”

“I’m running behind schedule today. I guess it worked out okay,” he said, smiling.

The tray with their meals was placed on the front counter before them. Charlie picked it up and scanned the restaurant. “Where do you want to sit?” he asked her. “Up front so we can watch people go by?”

“No. I think maybe we should sit in the back.”

“Oh, I forgot. This could get you in trouble,” said Charlie.

“Yeah, I guess you could say that.”

“It’s just an innocent lunch.”

“Of course. I know that,” she said.

“Then again, I hope not,” Charlie said.

She looked down, feeling her face growing hot. “How about if we sit back here?” Abby asked, leading Charlie to the farthest corner of the restaurant, not too far from the restrooms. She figured if someone she knew came in she could dart away and hide in the ladies’ room.

“So you’d be in a lot of trouble if someone saw you right now?” Charlie asked after they’d sat down.

“Probably quite a bit,” she said.

“What kind of trouble?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. He wouldn’t like it, of course.”

“That’s too bad. You don’t deserve that.”

“Thanks,” she said. “But, you know, to some degree it’s normal.”

“For your husband to be protective, you mean?”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“You’re making excuses for him.”

“I’m not. Not at all,” said Abby. “What husband wants his wife having lunch with another man?”

“Some guys wouldn’t have a problem with that,” said Charlie.

“Actually, I’m not sure I ought to be talking about him.”

Charlie nodded, watching Abby as he sipped his soda. “So,” he said, after a moment, “tell me something about yourself then.”

“What do you want to know?” Abby asked.

“Well, maybe I don’t know you well enough to say this, but you don’t seem very happy. Am I right?”

Well, obviously. “We’ve been through this. I’m happy.”

“Okay. Good. Forgive me. But would you tell me if you weren’t happy?”

“Probably not, considering we barely know each other.”

He nodded and took a bite of his burger. “Why’s your husband such an asshole?” he asked with his mouth full. “Because he
is
an asshole, right?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know if he’s an asshole, or you don’t know
why
he’s an asshole?”

“He had a rough childhood, I guess.” Abby didn’t like making excuses for Randall. A lot of people had rough childhoods. They didn’t all end up like him.

“Didn’t we all,” said Charlie.

“Exactly. Tell me about you,” she said. “What do you like to do when you’re not a mailman?”

“As you know, I like to hunt. I like the outdoors a lot. It’s a passion of mine, going way back. I teach survivalist classes as a side job. How to start a fire, how to build a shelter.”

“Interesting.” She wanted to mention that she’d been at Outdoor World earlier in the day, but couldn’t think of any way to work it in.

“You should take one of my classes sometime.”

Abby laughed a little. “I don’t know if I’m really the outdoorsy type.”

“That’s exactly the reason you should take my classes. It’s like self-defense classes. Who needs self-defense classes the most?”

“I don’t know.”

“People who aren’t already strong, who actually need to defend themselves. My classes are like that.”