Ray arrived at Adele’s early. Maybe he could catch Brandon before the deliveries. He unlocked the front door while thinking about what he’d say. He was seriously considering telling Brandon the truth. Ashley called last night, worried about Brandon.
“He said he was hanging out with you, but he’s not, is he?” she said.
“No. I haven’t seen him.”
Normally, he would cover for his friend, but he wasn’t even sure they were friends anymore. “He knows about me and Laura. He came over last night and screamed in my face about it.”
“Really? He didn’t say anything to me.”
“He kept saying, ‘Tell me you’re not fucking her.’ I told him we messed around a bit because that’s all we’ve done. Then he stormed off.”
“He doesn’t think you’re fucking Laura. He thinks you’re fucking me.”
Ray told her he’d fix things. He’d been thinking about how ever since. It didn’t seem like a good idea to say, “I’m not messing around with your girlfriend. I’m messing around with your mom.” But what else was there to say? Any alibi he came up with might be found out, and then he’d be back to Brandon thinking he was messing around with Ashley.
The back door opened. Augie came in.
“Hey there, Ray.”
“Hey, Augie.”
“Friday at last, eh?”
“Yeah.”
An hour went by. Augie got the morning deliveries ready. Ray opened the front of the store. Ray called Brandon around eight a.m. No answer. He called Ashley. No answer. He called Laura. No answer.
“Augie, something seriously fucking weird is going on, man. I called all three of them. Nothing.” Augie looked around.
“Did you guys run any alibis last night?”
“No. I told you. We’re done with that.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah.”
Augie grabbed a clipboard. “Either way we have a problem. First delivery is in Fircrest in twenty minutes.”
“Are you okay to run the shop until I get back?”
“Ray, I’ve been working in this flower shop since Nixon. Go make the deliveries and I’ll ready the afternoon flowers.”
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