“Oh, Millie,” she laughs. And she doesn’t answer, even though I thought it was a very good question.
“So how are you liking the neighborhood so far?” Jonathan asks us as he settles into his own high-backed wooden chair and carefully lays a napkin on his lap.
I squirm in my own chair. The chairs look painfully expensive, constructed from solid wood, but they are surprisingly uncomfortable. “We love it.”
Suzette leans her chin on her fist. “Have you met Janice?”
“I have.”
“She’s a trip, isn’t she?” she cackles. “That woman is afraid of her own shadow. And she’s so nosy! Isn’t she, Jonathan?”
Jonathan takes a sip from his water glass and smiles vaguely at his wife but doesn’t say anything. I appreciate that he doesn’t immediately jump to bad-mouth his neighbor, even if it might be deserved. Suzette, on the other hand…
“She did have her son on a leash,” I recall. “It was coming off his backpack.”
Suzette giggles. “She’s hilariously overprotective. She thinks there are gremlins waiting to snatch her child at every corner.”
“She was paranoid about some boy a few towns over that she was saying was kidnapped.”
“Right.” She bobs her head. “It was a custody battle between the parents, and the father drove him over the border to Canada. They got him back. It was in the news at the time, but she acts like the boogeyman is out there! And that’s not even the worst thing about living next door to her. You should hear some of the crap she’s pulled.”
I wince. “What else?”
“So we had the grill going in the backyard once,” she says, “and we were hardly even cooking anything. Only some crayfish and a filet. We only had a few guests over, right, Jonathan?”
“I don’t really remember, dear,” he says.
“Anyway,” she continues, “right in the middle of our little barbecue, the police show up! Janice called the police and told them we had started a fire in the backyard! Can you imagine?”
“You have a grill in the backyard?” Enzo asks with interest.
“You should get one,” Jonathan says.
“Or try ours out,” Suzette offers. “You’re welcome to come over and give it a whirl if you want.”
“Could I?” he asks excitedly.
It’s funny because when I first met Enzo, nearly two decades ago now, he seemed so much more exciting than any man I have ever met. He was practically dashing. Now I realize the cold, hard truth: this man’s biggest fantasy in life is grilling burgers in the backyard. Or that’s what you would think as he quizzes Suzette about the ins and outs of grilling. I would be able to get more on board if, while Suzette is talking to him, she didn’t feel the need to touch his arm the whole time.
Like, you can talk to somebody without touching their arm. It’s possible.
Thankfully, the conversation about grills is interrupted when Martha emerges from the kitchen, carrying plates of salad for the four of us. I don’t know what’s in it, but it smells like raspberries and there are little lumps of cheese in it.
“Thank you, Martha,” I say when I notice Suzette didn’t bother to thank her.
I wait for her to say “you’re welcome,” but instead she just stares at me again until I have to look away.
I can’t eat with Martha’s gaze on me, but as soon as she leaves the room, I dig into the salad. I’m not much of a salad person, but wow. I mean, wow. If all salad tasted this way, I might be a salad person. I had no idea it was possible for salad to be this delicious.
“Millie,” Suzette giggles. “You’re using your spaghetti fork to eat the salad!”
I am? I look around the table, and everybody is eating, apparently using a different fork than I am, even though the truth is they all look identical to me. And Enzo, who definitely does not have more fork knowledge than I do, points to the fork farthest from my plate. How did he know that?
Wow, this is weirdly embarrassing. I swap out the forks as quickly as I can.
“So what do you do, Jonathan?” I ask to draw attention away from the fork debacle.
“Finance.”
I offer a smile. “Sounds interesting.”
He shrugs. “It pays the bills. It’s certainly not as exciting as what Suzette does.”
When he says that, he reaches across the table for her hand. She allows him to hold it for only a split second before pulling away. “I love being around people,” she says. “Because of my job, I know everyone in this town. Actually…” Her eyes widen as a thought seems to occur to her. “I could be of help to you, Enzo.”
Enzo frowns. “Me?”
“Yes!” She dabs her lips with her napkin, and I can’t help but notice her lipstick is completely intact. I’m fairly sure mine rubbed off several lettuce leaves ago, but I guess that’s okay since it was the exact same color as my lips. “You’re looking for customers for your landscaping business, aren’t you? Well, I know everyone in all the surrounding towns buying new houses. I can put your name in the welcome package.”
His mouth falls open. “You would do that?”
“Of course, silly!” And then she touches his arm again. Again! Is she trying to go for some sort of world record? “We’re neighbors, aren’t we?”
“You do not know if I am any good.”
Enzo is really good at what he does. Sure, some percentage of the women who hire him only do so because he’s hot, but he keeps clients because his work is stellar, and he knows it. But he also feels strongly that he should prove himself.
“In that case,” she says, “maybe you should give me a private demonstration.”
