We Interrupt This Date Read Online Free PDF Page A

wander.
Patty’s boyfriend’s cousin might turn out to be my soul mate, even
though I hadn’t really wanted to go out and only agreed to shut
Patty up. And because Everybody Loves
Raymond reruns had lost their appeal. And because—just
because I was tired of being predictable, soft touch Susan, who
wasn’t special to anyone.

Chapter Three
     
    Humming Let’s
Get Together , I sauntered into the pawnshop through
the employees’ entrance at the back. Two seconds later Odell shot
out of his office as if someone had set off the Space Shuttle under
his chair. He had the phone receiver pressed to his ear so he was
brought up short by the cord. He deserved it. I’d told him before
he needed to get a cordless phone, but he was too cheap.
    I halted in front of him until he ended the
conversation with a final, “proud to do business with you,” and
frowned at me.
    “An hour or two to take your mother to a
doctor appointment is one thing. But…” He swung the phone receiver
back and forth on the end of its cord as if the pendulum motion
were driving his thoughts. “It’s after one o’clock in case you
didn’t notice.”
    I sighed gently and said, “Sorry. I’ll work
late to get caught up.” I lowered my gaze to the floor, hoping he
bought the penitent act.
    Pathetic, but I needed the job too badly to
risk getting fired. I thought about Veronica’s business proposition
and wished I were in a position to take a chance. Maybe in the next
lifetime, as Patty would say.
    I scooted into my office and powered up my computer.
The phone rang every few minutes. I kept having to ask the
customers to repeat themselves. Odell made a point of shooting me
warning frowns every time he walked past, the legs of his too-long
trousers flapping around his ankles and threatening to trip him up.
Must be tough trying to find size 38X26.
    It isn’t that easy to determine when Odell is
frowning and when he’s using his normal expression because he has a
long, saggy, bassett hound face and droopy lower eyelids. Still,
I’ve worked for him long enough to have a pretty good idea of what
he’s thinking most of the time. Usually something negative. It was
all I could do to keep from telling him I’d had a better offer,
which I’d decided to take.
    Pure fantasy. The chances of me changing my mind
about Veronica’s offer were about as likely as me deciding to dance
naked in front of the tourist information center on Meeting Street.
I managed to clamp my mouth shut and act apologetic every time he
looked at me.
    You rat , I
thought, after he left early because of a crisis with his
niece. Wait until I find another
job.
    I made it a point to be especially nice to
the next customer who called, even though he was three payments
behind on his loan. He seemed to think that gave him the right to
say, “You’re nothin’ but a witch, lady,” when I told him I couldn’t
get Odell to push back the due date or lower the interest rate.
    “Have a nice day, sir,” I sang into the
receiver before he hung up.
    Patty finished ringing up a sale and waved
from behind her register. “Thank God, Odell’s finally outta here.
What’s going on?” She sashayed out from behind the counter to
lounge against the doorway to my office.
    “Nothing.” I put my fingers on my keyboard
and glanced at her sideways.
    She reached up and tugged her hair clips
loose, letting her black hair fall from the loose pile on top of
her head to a full cascade down her back. She’d once told me that
there comes a time in every redneck woman’s life when she has hair
down to her butt. Then she’d planted her hands on her hips and
said, “Honey, except for my interest in the occult, I’m as redneck
as they come.”
    Odell makes her wear her hair on top of
her head because he’d once had a cashier who caught her ponytail in
the register and she threatened to sue when she had to cut a chunk
of it off to free herself. But whenever Odell leaves early, Patty
lets her hair down. In