Free Commuters by Emily Gray Tedrowe Page B

hard to make out. “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not your own doing…” Rachel could delay no further.
    “Mommy,” she blurted. And stopped, horrified at what had come out of her mouth. The words Mom and money must have collided, with the result being every bit as humiliating as Rachel had imagined this moment to be. A short, giddy laugh escaped her.
    There was a pause, on Winnie’s end. “Is everything all right?”
    “I was hoping to ask you for a loan. Or Jerry. Not—you know what I mean. I’m not asking for Jerry. Ha. Just to borrow some money. From him, from both of you. Whatever.” Rachel shut her eyes and held very still, overcome by painful self-consciousness.
    “Well…of course. Don’t be silly. Of course we can do that. Aslong as you’re all right.” Winnie’s voice was warm but retained an uncertain note. Rachel could feel the sun on the back of her neck. “You are, aren’t you? Rachel?”
    “I didn’t want to bother you,” she whispered. Meaning, I didn’t want you to know.
    “I can hardly hear you. Why don’t you come over after closing up. That’s at five, right? We’ll have a glass of wine, and Jerry will be here, and you and he can talk about the…about all of it. It’s going to be fine , sweetheart.”
    Rachel could hear her mother relieved to be back on firmer terrain: making plans, solving problems. And it felt good to her, too, simply to be on the phone again; these past few weeks of tension between them had unsettled Rachel. Would it really be having to ask for a loan—she shivered with embarrassment, again, at the thought—that would bring things back to normal between her and Winnie?
    “I didn’t want to bring this up, but as long as I’ve got you”—now Winnie was fully back in the swing of it—“remember we wondered why we hadn’t seen the Donaldsons in ages? How they weren’t at the church barbeque, or the other thing? Well, turns out they were out of town, for almost two weeks. At a place called Casa Naturale. I think it’s in Mexico.”
    “So?” Rachel walked over to unlock Hand Me Down. She was smiling, despite herself. They were back, she and her mother. “They went on vacation, so what?”
    “Don’t you get it? Casa Naturale .” Winnie was brimming, triumphant. “It’s a nudist colony! I thought it sounded funny, so I Googled it. Ian and Sherry Donaldson, naked on a beach. Now tell me that didn’t just make your day.”

Six
A VERY
    He stared at the silver tube of lipstick in the toilet water. God damn it. It had happened in slow motion, the merest bump of his towel-wrapped hip against the sink, itself an overflowing steamed-up mess of jars, bottles, and strange metal wands. All he’d done was reach for the faucet and there it went, right off the edge and plunk into the toilet before he could even stretch out a hand. Now it was lodged in the stained porcelain hollow at the very bottom of the bowl. Of course it was. Avery looked around the tiny bathroom in dismay. What was all this makeup, anyway? It was like a fucking pharmacy in here. Well, there was only one thing to do, and it wasn’t going to help to spend a lot of time thinking about it.
    He plunged his hand in, almost to the elbow, fishing and fumbling, and then he had it. Now what? His first instinct was to wrap it in a wad of toilet paper and bury it in the trash. How could she miss it, really, with all these other lookalike lipsticks? He’d get her another one! Replace it, later tonight, and she’d never know. The dime-size label on the bottom read only garbo. What did that mean? And what if it was a favorite? She was so particular abouther outfits, not just for performances but planning costumes for herself every day, a shifting thrift-store parade, calibrated to minute changes in mood or plan or the music playing on the stereo. What if, stumbling into the bathroom after him, Nona started to brush her teeth and then thought, You know what would be