Free Ache by P. J. Post

still not getting it.  “So?”
    “Did you hit your head?  She said you were smart.  She’s coming to see you .  She’s shy.”
    I raise one hand to my cap.  Now I feel supremely stupid and I’m sure I’m grinning like a moron.
    Todd laughs at me, not with me — important distinction.  I can’t read Tonya’s expression.
    “She likes me?” I ask.
    “Put on the brakes there lover-boy, let’s just say she’s curious for now,” Carla says.
    I’ll take curious ; it beats the hell out of where I was yesterday afternoon.
    “I was trying to find her some fun stuff to wear, this is the best shop in town,” Carla says, then she puts one arm over Todd’s shoulder and points at Tonya, swirling her finger around from her boots to her oversized pants and baggy flannel.  “We need to do something about this.”
    “We?  About what?” Tonya asks.
    “Yeah, time to stop hiding and get some style, you can totally pull it off,” Carla says.
    “I’m not hiding,” Tonya says as she looks away.
    “Don’t make me pull out my psych degree, but yeah, you are.”
    “I like college girls,” Todd says.
    “I like college girls too,” Carla says with an evil grin.
    “Oh, it’s like that, huh?  You just haven’t met the right guy.  Ever think about trying out what you’re missing?” Todd asks.
    “Oh sweetie, not with you,” she says smiling.
    “Never hurts to ask,” he says.
    “Yeah, I think it does,” Carla responds with a knowing smile and pats his cheek.
    “Men are pigs, ignore him,” Tonya says, “except this one.”  She hugs me.
    “I hope not, be a shame to have to kill him,” Carla says, winking at me.
    I’m a happy camper at the moment.  “Carla, are you always this forward when you meet people?”
    She cocks her head slightly and stares up at the stained ceiling panels as though deep in thought.  “Yep, pretty much.  But, you can ask Tonya more about it tomorrow morning,” she answers through that sly grin.
    Tonya blushes.  “Whatever,” she says and turns away, but Carla catches up with her and hugs her.  Carla is too infectiously charming to be upset with for long.  I’ve never met anyone like her.  She’s like a long lost friend already.  It’s weird.  But I can’t say I trust her exactly.
    “So the mission is clothes for Shauna and Connor?” Carla asks.
    “No,” I say, “the mission is always the same here, more clothes for Tonya, but I’m curious about what you have in mind for Shauna.”
    Carla glares at me.  “Buzz off, that ruins the romance.  Do you read the last page of mysteries first?”  She starts to turn away and then looks back and raises that accusatory eyebrow.  “Do you read at all?”  Then she turns her full attention to Tonya.  “Shopping?”
    “Okay, guilty, help me or get lost,” Tonya says.  Tonya is the only girl I ever met who has a pouty walk.
    “I read,” I mumble.
    “Sure you do, kiddo,” Todd says patting me on the shoulder as he pushes past.
    Carla catches up with Tonya.  “Oh, I can help; I told you we needed to do something, didn’t I?”
    Todd and I follow along and spend the rest of the afternoon laughing and joking and getting to know Carla — and shopping for Tonya, of course.
    I’m trying not to obsess about tonight, the show or Shauna and think about the second hand store instead.  I snatch up a pair of fades blue jeans, a few plain white undershirts and a 1950’s gray and white bowling shirt that has the name Alex embroidered over the pocket.
    Score.

 
     
8
The Underground
     
     
    Hard alcohol in bars is technically illegal in Oklahoma, which means you can get it most anywhere, but you have to be twenty-one.  Beer, on the other hand, isn’t and the drinking age is eighteen.  The survey says, “Drunk eighteen year-olds like live music with their beer.”  So there are a lot of beer bars around town with live music.  But my favorite is the Underground.
    It’s a basement dive in downtown Oklahoma