Satellite of Love (30 page)

Good afternoon, sleepyhead. Had a meeting with lawyers and school board. Lunch is in the fridge if you don’t sleep through that too.
Then scrawled across the bottom, C
ar having snit. Took yours.

Car having snit? He called the garage. “What’s wrong with Maureen’s car?”

“I don’t know. What’s wrong with Maureen’s car?” Tony asked.

He opened the refrigerator door. Lunch was a do it yourself sandwich. Room service it was not, but she had put everything on the same shelf for him. “Maureen had to take the Satellite today. She said something was wrong with her car.”

“Did it not start again?”

“What do you mean, again?” He relocated his lunch fixin’s to the counter for easier assembly.

“Last fall she had trouble with it. It wouldn’t start and then by the time the tow truck got there it would. It’s an electrical problem.”

“You didn’t fix it?”

“It’s an electrical problem. Damn thing will probably start now.”

Shoving the bread and meat back in the fridge, he slammed the door. “Why did you let her keep driving that junker?”

“I know you haven’t known her long, but you did notice she’s a little independent? Plus there’s that stubborn streak.”

“The one that’s three feet wide and runs up the middle of her back? I noticed that.” Bear slapped the cheese and the top slice of bread on his sandwich. She’d put out carrots for him too, but he skipped those in favor of the chips on top of the fridge. “It’s been doing this for a year?”

“It started a year ago, but hasn’t done it much. At least, not that she’s called me.”

“I’ll bring it down and put in on the diagnostic.”

“Knock yourself out. I can’t find the problem.”

“I know. Electrical,” he replied as he settled at the table with his sandwich and the chips. “What she really needs is a new car.”

“No kidding, but try to talk her into it.”

“Yeah.”

“I found a guy to make the badge for the Satellite.”

Badge? Oh, the name on the side of the car. “Great. Thanks. I’ll be in later.”

“Okay, ’bye.”

He hung up. Her car was serviceable enough, but soon it was going to be more expensive to keep on the road than getting another car. If it had an electrical problem, it wasn’t going to be reliable. What if she needed to get to school and couldn’t because it decided not to start? Or if she got stranded? Trying to run down an electrical problem was a nightmare. If he was here with her, between albums, he’d have the months needed to test things and wait for them to fail. In six days? Six days he’d planned to spend with her and not under her car? The first thing out of her mouth when he told her she needed a new car would be
why
?

He needed to just go buy her a car.

* * * *

Maureen tried to be attentive to the meeting. It was her fate, after all. But it was dragging on forever with her lawyer insisting on full disclosure of everything the board had against her and the board refusing. Most of the board. Ginnie Labbe looked ill at the whole proceeding. She should. Maureen had taught Ginnie’s youngest son seven years ago before he’d been diagnosed ADHD. They’d had to work very closely to get Jeff into third grade and diagnosed.

She’d much rather be home with Michael. Two weeks, she’d sat around with nothing to do but follow her own notoriety in the paper and the very week Michael had off, the school board decided to meet. For hours.

Her lawyer stood up. Maureen jumped up with her. The guy who knew the guy who knew Tessa turned out to be a woman. Theresa Hanson had belonged to the same sorority as Tessa only several years earlier. “I’m very sorry to hear this, ladies and gentlemen.”

That sounded bad. Maureen wished she’d been listening.

“An unjustified dismissal is going to create a lot of hard feelings, both with the union and in the community,” Theresa said.

“Are you threatening us?” The board president stood, leaning on his fists on the table.

“Not a threat. Merely a warning. Miss Donnelly.” Theresa waved her ahead, so Maureen walked out of the room.

Dismissal. Unjustified or not. This wasn’t going to look good on a resume. Michael might have to support her when she couldn’t get another job. Ever. The small of her back hurt from sitting up straight on the hard plastic chair for so long. “It’s not going well.”

“No.” Theresa pursed her lips. “I’m sorry. There may be nothing we can do. Your contract is up for renewal. They can choose not to renew it for no reason at all. The only thing keeping them from doing that is the flap in the paper. Enough people support you to make it unpleasant for the board in the future.”

“Which isn’t going to help me at all when I’m fired.”

Theresa sighed and opened her mouth. At that moment, her phone rang. She held up a finger and answered it, moving a few feet down the hall for privacy.

The conference room doors opened behind Maureen and she turned. Six of the board members walked out in a self-satisfied mob. A couple of them glanced her way, but didn’t stop. Smug bastards. She hoped they all got voted out next election.

Ginnie Labbe walked out last and alone.

“Ginnie!”

Shoulders bent and deep lines around her eyes and bracketing her mouth, Ginnie waited at the conference room door for her. When had Ginnie gotten old? She had thought they were the same age. “I’m so sorry, Maureen.”

“Isn’t there anything you can do?”

Ginnie wilted another two inches. “You don’t understand. The city’s schools ranked near the bottom in the state. The voters were furious. We needed a reason.”

“And you picked me?”

“You had been in the paper because you were dating Bear D’Amato. Parents don’t want to think of their kids’ teachers having a private life at all, let alone such a public one. One with so much scandal attached to it.”

“Michael and I have hardly been scandalous.”

“Not you, but rock musicians in general. The drugs and the drinking and the wild parties and the sex.”

“Are you kidding? Michael doesn’t take anything harder than aspirin. I’ve been to exactly one party with him. It was a backyard barbecue.”

“But you went on tour with him.” Ginnie made an uncertain face.

“Believe me, it’s not like in the movies.”

“People think you aren’t going to be focused on your job because you’re thinking about your boyfriend.”

Maureen put her hands on her hips. A hundred instances where other teachers hadn’t been focused on their job because they’d been distracted by their personal lives boiled behind her lips, but she didn’t want to start naming names.

Theresa put a hand on her arm. “Maureen, you really shouldn’t be talking to board members without counsel.”

Ginnie took a step backward. “I’m really sorry, Maureen.”

“I got her son through second grade. He’s in high school now,” Maureen told Theresa.

“It’s not fair. I don’t think the board expected you to fight.” Theresa guided her down the hall toward the stairs. “What you need to do right now is be an exemplary second grade teacher.”

“It’s the middle of summer.”

“I know. You’ll just have to keep as straight and narrow as you can. Be home every night by nine. Dress conservatively in public. Play down your involvement with Mr. D’Amato.”

“Michael is visiting me this week. I was supposed to go back on tour with him and now I won’t get to see him again until school starts. How did this become an issue of my morals?” As she pushed open the outside doors, the heat settled around her like a weight.

“I don’t know, but it did. We need you to appear as squeaky clean as possible.”

“I am squeaky clean.”

“Then I guess you’ll just have to be all you all the time. The board meeting is in four days. If they vote for non-renewal, we’ll file for defamation of character. That’s all I can do for you.” Theresa patted her arm. “I’ll talk to you on Tuesday.”

“Thanks.” Maureen crossed the parking lot to Michael’s car. She’d intentionally parked far away from the building so no one would see the mismatched muscle car. Every car she’d been parked near had moved and no one replaced them so now the Satellite sat all by itself, almost on a pedestal. Or a stage. She drove home, certain the heavy growl of the engine was attracting all kinds of unwanted attention.

Someone had carelessly parked dead center in the middle of her driveway. Who could be visiting? Parking on the street, she hurried up the drive to the house to have them move so she could hide Michael’s car in the garage. Maybe now that he wasn’t fighting with his brother Tony could store it for him.

She threw open the front door. “Michael!”

He walked out of the kitchen grinning. “What do you think?”

He’d shaved, but that wasn’t unusual. The t-shirt and jeans she’d seen him in before. His hair hadn’t been cut, as far as she could tell. “Think about what?”

“Your new ride.” He shifted from grinning to beaming.

“My—” Her mouth didn’t close as she glanced over her shoulder.

“Nice, huh? I wanted to get you the Candy Red, but none of the dealers in the area had that in stock so I figured the Grabber Blue would be good. We can switch it if you have your heart set on a different color though.” He draped his arm over her shoulders, pulling her outside to the front of the car.

From this angle, she could see the little horse on the grill of the light blue convertible sitting in the middle of her driveway. “It’s a Mustang.”

“Yeah, a GT Premium. You want to take it for a spin?”

She pointed at the car. “That is not my car.”

“Yes, it is.”

“No, my car— My car. Where is my car?”

“In the garage. You said it wouldn’t start this morning.”

“It’s an intermittent problem.” Her voice had risen to a shriek, but she couldn’t stop herself. He bought her a car. A loud, gaudy, not conservative, un-second grade teacher-like car.

“I don’t like to think of you having that intermittent problem so I took care of it.”

“You took care of it. Are you out of your mind?” She pressed her hands to her temples. Were the neighbors listening? He bought her a car. “Oh my God.” She stomped into the house.

“What is the problem?” He walked through the door and slammed it behind him.

“You bought me a car.”

“I thought you’d be happy.”

“What are people going to think?”

“That you have a rich boyfriend who wants to spoil you a little. Shit, it’s not like I bought you a Mercedes.”

“There’s no difference.”

He sneered. “There’s at least ten thousand dollars difference.”

“Oh my God. I don’t want to know how much it cost.” She started to run her hand through her hair and got her fingers caught in her barrette. “Ow. Damn.” She ripped it out, taking a few strands of hair at the same time, and threw it across the room.

“Maur, you need to calm down. Did you have a bad meeting or something?”

She gripped the back of the couch. “This is not about the meeting.” One of her fingernails snapped on the fabric, sending a sharp pain through her, and tears sprang to her eyes. “Have you not been paying attention?”

“Yes, I have been paying attention,” he roared. Surely the neighbors could hear that. “I’m trying to help you fix things.”

“Fix things? By giving me an extravagant gift?”

“I thought it was logical. Your car is a piece of junk. I got you a better one.”

“A better one. Too much better. Everyone in town is going to know you gave it to me.”

“So?”

“Michael, I am fighting for my life here.”

His face hardened. “No, you’re fighting for your job. There is a difference.” He stomped past her and out the back door.

She wrapped her arms around herself. Through the curtains, she could still see it. It was a nice color and he knew cars so it must run well. Tony said electrical problems were almost impossible to fix. Miles of wires throughout the car. The problem could be anywhere. It could get worse or stay the same. No telling. A new car would solve the problem.