Chapter 3

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 423.

It was a refrain still dogging her thoughts come six pm that Friday. Her appointment book was empty till Monday and the work of invoicing and billing just wasn't holding her attention like it should. Instead the image of a cute smile and a freckled nose kept drifting across the page.

“Oh for Pete's sake, I give up.” Andi muttered to herself, sweeping the papers off her desk, locking the safe and the front door. “I'm so starved for company I'm obsessing about the new straight gal next door -- a child who works at a donut store at that.”

She was still shaking her head and muttering when she pulled (very carefully) into her parking space, only to see the object of her thoughts straddling the low wall outside their units. Gill had what looked like a large text book balanced on her lap. As Andi exited her truck, she looked up and waved.

“Hi there neighbor, nice to see you can keep between the lines when you try.” Gill piped up cheekily. “Luckily for you I wasn't late for work the other morning though I just squeaked it in by a hair, so I figure you owe me one. Tell me what you know about Tax Edict 304A as it relates to small businesses with less than ten employees.”

She laughed across at Andi who, as hard as she tried, couldn't help grinning in return as she swung her leg over the wall and looked at the book Gill was holding in her hand.

“Accounting 2.1, that's pretty heavy stuff. Are you doing this part time?”

When Gill nodded in reply Andi began rapidly revising her opinion of this girl, she might not quite be the lightweight she had originally presumed.

“Oh and by the way, I apologize for not introducing myself earlier, I am...”

“Oh I know all that already.” Gill smirked happily. “You're Anthea Cooper aka Andi, you're forty seven and you run Cooper's Tax Consultancy down on 8^th and Citrus. You live alone, no partner, no pets, no kids and, let me see…” She snatched up a bemused Andi's left palm and studied it intensely. “Oh yeah, there's your love line. Gay as they come! How'd I do?”

Andi was blushing and she knew it, hell she hadn't done that since she was a teenager. Her attempt at a cool and calm response was somewhat spoiled by the way her voice broke on the first words of her reply.

“H…How did you know that? I mean, yeah the basic stuff I'm sure came from Mrs. Johnson, our landlady from two units down right?” At this Gill nodded happily and Andi continued. “But, I mean, how did you know, the other, you know…..”

Good grief she was acting like a tongue-tied idiot around this gal. Since moving in Andi had kept pretty much to herself. She said good morning and nice day and other pleasantries to some of her neighbors but in three years she hadn't been inside any of their front doors, nor they through hers. Certainly she hadn't brought any women home here. There had been a few awkward and uncomfortable dates when she was trying to ‘get back on the horse, so to speak, in the early years following her break up with Lana but of late she had resigned herself to being alone. And that is the way I like things, she told herself, trying not to get drawn into whatever game Gill was playing. This gal had straight and trouble written all over her.

“Oh, no great detective work there.” Gill grinned, gesturing back at Andi's truck.” It was the rainbow dog tags hanging from your mirror that gave you away. So, now we have that out of the way, what's your take on 304A? I've got an assignment due on Monday and I'm not sure I have my head around the concept”.

Later Andi wasn't sure exactly how it happened; one minute she was outside talking about tax relief and its application to small business and the next she was inside Gill's unit, drinking red wine and eating tacos at the small kitchen table. This gal was mesmerizing! She produced and served food, took notes, asked questions which showed she was whip smart, all the time looking so damn cute that several times Andi found herself paused in mid-sentence, just staring. It must be the wine, she thought stupidly, they seemed to have got through over a bottle without her even noticing and she wasn't much of a drinker at the best of times. Finally Gill closed her book and leaned back against the wall with a grin.

“Hell, you are good!” She sighed contentedly. “I've got more out of a few hours with you than all the lectures I've been to this semester!”

Her face glowed with the obvious satisfaction of conquering a previously confusing subject and Andi, mellowed by the wine, saw the last of her preconceived ideas float out the window. She inwardly chastised herself for falling back into an old habit of labeling people simply from their outward appearances or occupations. Many years back there had been a group of Lana's friends from the hospital who had congregated at their house most Friday nights playing poker, drinking and unwinding at the week's end. Andi had taken a particular dislike to a young blonde who seemed to have ‘airhead' tattooed on her forehead. She was raucous, flirty, drank too much and seemed to inevitably be at the centre of any nonsense that got out of hand. After one particular incident, that resulted in a police call out for excessive noise, she'd had a heated conversation with Lana about her choice of friends, remarking that Karin hardly appeared qualified to be a hospital domestic, much less on the nursing staff. To this day she still cringed recalling the cold disgust in Lana's voice as she explained that Karin was actually a fifth year med student who worked in Pediatric oncology all week, dealing with critically ill and dying children and their distraught parents. These few hours on Friday nights was all the time she allowed herself as a break from the pain and heartbreak of her daily world.

Not long after that, the group had stopped meeting there and began going to a local club instead. Andi was invited along but she'd been stubborn and convinced herself she was too tired to go out late when she worked Saturdays and that Lana was selfish and unreasonable. In hindsight she knew it had been her pride and embarrassment at their age difference that had been the main stumbling block. Not for the first time she mentally kicked herself for the hard, unyielding attitude that had been the beginning of the end.

“Hey, Andi, where did you go? Wakey, wakey.”

A hand was gently shaking her shoulder and Andi opened her eyes with a start, taking a second to realize that she must have got lost in her thoughts and dozed off. The warmth of another's touch and the pain stirred up by the memories, plus the wine, all combined to make her feel vulnerable and lost, and neither of these emotions sat at all well with Andi. Jumping to her feet she shook off Gill's concern and, expressing shock at the lateness of the hour, made her exit with as much haste as possible. Once inside her own four walls she cursed herself for letting down her guard so obviously. Gill was a nice kid but the last thing she needed was to get involved with anyone, much less a kid. She was smarter than that these days.