Cherry Money Baby Read Online Free PDF Page B

9, a smaller street-level highway that traced the outskirts of town. In no time they’d reached the Webster border, having circumnavigated Aubrey entirely. It gave her a chilly shock. The world felt so small at this speed.
    “Tell me about yourself !” Ardelia said too suddenly. She sounded nervous, but that made no sense. Movie stars didn’t get nervous around normal people. Not that Cherry knew many movie stars. Or normal people, for that matter.
    “Not much to tell. One time I gave Ardelia Deen the Heimlich maneuver.”
    “Oh, I’m sure there’s more than that.”
    “Well . . .” A smile crept onto Cherry’s lips. Was it weird to tell a stranger before her family? The news was so big, so crazy in itself, it made a strange kind of sense that the first person she told was Ardelia Deen. In an Alfa Romeo.
    “I got engaged. Today. Just now.”
    “
What?
That’s wonderful news!”
    Ardelia’s glee was disarming. Cherry took her eyes from the road to glance at her. “You actually seem excited.”
    “I am!” She flashed her perfect teeth, bouncing in her seat. “What’s his name? Who is he? How did he ask? Tell me
everything.
”
    “His name is Lucas. We’ve been dating for a few years, but I’ve known him since we were little kids. He lives in the trailer behind mine.”
    “He’s
literally
the boy next door.” The starlet sank low in her seat. “That is
so
romantic. I wish I had someone like that.”
    “He’s perfect,” said Cherry. “He’s . . . he’s a street artist.”
    “Like Bonzo.”
    Cherry nearly took her eyes off the road again. “You know about
Bonzo
?”
    “Darling, he’s a cultural icon, not to mention a Brit. I mean now, he’s a little . . .”
    “Played out,” finished Cherry.
    “Exactly.”
    “
No one
around here knows who Bonzo is. They think he’s a TV clown from the sixties.”
    Ardelia laughed. “We
must
celebrate. Why don’t I take you to dinner? Do you know Ascot in Boston? They do the most fabulous
amuse-bouches.
. . .”
    Cherry’s good cheer evaporated. She imagined strolling into a fancy restaurant looking like an idiot in her sponge-gray track shirt. International Internet humiliation was bad enough for one day, thank you. Plus, who could afford a restaurant that served French-sounding food? And
Boston
? That was light-years away.
    “I’ve got a better idea,” said Cherry.
    The Spider huzzed into a 7-Eleven parking lot, stopping just short of the concrete benches and cigarette canisters guarding the entrance.
    “What’s this?”
    “You want food? This is food!” said Cherry. “This is what me and my friends do for late-night eats.”
    “Oh! Fabulous. Never been in one.” Ardelia hopped out of the car, striding toward the chaotic glow of the convenience store, dress swirling like an anemone. She managed to make 7-Eleven look like a red-carpet event.
    The store was empty save for Jim the Clerk, who in the movie version, Cherry thought, would have been reading a magazine with Ardelia’s picture on the cover. Jim barely noticed them.
    “What’s on?” Ardelia said, rubbing her hands. “I’m
famished.
”
    Cherry steered her toward the candy rack. “
This
is my favorite.” She handed Ardelia a length of rubbery something in a foil sheath.
    “What is it?”
    She expected Ardelia to recoil in horror. Instead, the starlet unwrapped the candy right there and took a bite.
    “Oh, my God,” she said, mouth full. “This is
divine
!”
    That was unexpected.
    “Really?”
    Ardelia considered the rack. “Are they all this good? What’s this?” She took a box of brightly colored straws.
    “You’ve never seen Pixy Stix?” Cherry said, now genuinely shocked. “Pixy Stix are, like, an
institution.
Didn’t you have a childhood?”
    “Clearly I’ve been deprived.”
    Cherry laughed. “You need to be educated.” She slapped the Pixy Stix and the remains of Ardelia’s Laffy Taffy on the counter, fishing in her shorts for spare change.
    “What about