Free Adelaide Upset by Penny Greenhorn Page A

office once. I kept thinking it’s only a matter of time before he has to
pee ... but apparently Australians have
big bladders. My only other hope was food; he’d have to go off and
eat sometime. That was when Missy arrived, absurdly early for her
shift and carrying takeout from Dairy Queen. Grease stains had
turned the bottom of her white paper bags transparent gray. I
envisioned heaps of mayonnaise and almost gagged.
    “ Since you’re here,” I
said, grabbing my purse, ready to leave.
    Missy had turned her back
to Tim so she could glare at me without him seeing. “Nonsense, my
shift doesn’t start for more than an hour. I’m just here to hang
out for a bit first.”
    Missy made a habit of
coming to work early, but she never wanted me to linger, expecting
my prompt withdraw. But now I felt her frustration, it was directed
at me, as if Missy thought I was trying to thwart her somehow. I
surveyed her, analyzing the eagerness versus reluctance and
determined that she didn’t want to be responsible for the guests
yet. Summer months were busy, a Saturday doubly so, and she wanted
to chat Tim up a bit before her attention was turned toward
work.
    So I dropped my purse back
into the drawer, kicking it shut as I slipped back into the swivel
chair, wondering how I was going to watch those two for another
hour (especially as they ate Dairy Queen) and not go
mad.
    When it came to charm, it
seemed that Tim-whatever-his-last-name-was could give Reed Wallace
a run for his money. Ben who didn’t do small talk, had stayed hours
after his shift was over, swapping stories and dry jokes with the
Aussie as they crushed sunflower seeds together. I had been
disturbed by the sight, mostly because they kept missing the
trashcan when they spit out the shells, but for other reasons too.
And Stephen, who wasn’t one to shirk his duties, was reluctant to
leave the office to go clean rooms. Tim had been giving him a
guitar lesson, and I knew they were bonding. Bleck.
    That had been the last
straw. Standing up to see Tim clearly over the top of the counter,
I’d demanded, “Why are you here? Shouldn’t you be at the beach or
something? That’s what people do when they go on vacation. They
don’t hang around shitty motel lobbies, singing whiny renditions of
John Mayer.”
    “Adelaide!” Stephen had gasped, both
embarrassed and shocked.
    “ It’s alright, mate.” It
sounded more like might than mate— it was probably Tim’s
accent that drew people in. “I was doing a tour through Europe when
I got a job offer I couldn’t refuse, though when I came
here—”
    “I don’t care, and I’m not interested in
joining your fan cult either, so just piss off.” I thought that I’d
imbued that sentence with enough sting to send him running, but
apparently not. He stayed. And at nine on the dot, when my shift
was finally over, it was me that went running for the door.
    “ Adelaide,” Missy called,
stopping me in the open entryway. “It’s only five ‘til nine,” she
tsked, glancing at the wall clock. “Always trying to run off early.
But it’s okay, go, I’ll cover for you,” she added, playing the part
of generous friend.
    Everyone knew that clock
was slow. At one point Stephen had even tried to fix it, but it was
bolted to the wall.
    Missy smiled at me, her
cheap purple lipstick cracking as her mouth spread wide. It didn’t
feel right to let her have the last word, but truthfully, I didn’t
care enough to stick around. Lucas was waiting for me at home, an
unlike Missy and Tim, he mattered. So without a backwards glance I
stepped out of the air conditioned office and into the muggy, dark
night, letting the door snap closed behind me.
    I was thinking of Lucas as
I walked under the overhang toward my car, a row of dimly lit doors
to guide my way. I thought about the picture, his old girlfriend,
and how it’d only been a slight hiccup in our relationship. And
although I didn’t like to think of it, Nancy Bristow’s reading