Free Director's Cut by Alton Gansky Page B

Celeste say about that?”
    He shrugged. “We kinda broke up. It was her idea.”
    That surprised me. Floyd was no ladies’ man, but his refreshing honesty and his ability to take himself lightly was attractive. “When did this happen?” I motioned him to take a seat.
    â€œLast week.” He sat, his round shoulders drooped another inch.
    I waited for more but nothing came. This was going to be a question-and-answer situation. “Did you have a fight?”
    He shook his head and gazed at the edge of my desk and rubbed the arm of the chair with his right thumb. “I think she’s seeing someone else. Someone at the college.”
    Celeste had just started her junior year at USB. Floyd was two or three years older and already out of college. They had hit it off, and I thought they made a great couple. Floyd isn’t every girl’s cup of tea, but he has a good heart and a fine mind even though the latter occasionally gets lost in youthful fog.
    â€œI’m sorry, Floyd. These things are always tough.” Now I understood his barely concealed interest in Catherine. Of course, Catherine had the kind of beauty that broke men’s hearts when she walked down the street.
    â€œIt’s okay.”
    â€œNonsense. A broken relationship hurts and shouldn’t be minimized. What makes you think she’s seeing someone else?”
    He shrugged again. “I dunno.”
    â€œFloyd, do you have any reason to believe that she is seeing someone else? Has she told you that? Have you seen her with another man?”
    â€œNo.”
    I waited again. Nothing. I pressed on. “When was the last time you spoke to her?”
    â€œLast week. I called her, and she said she was too busy to talk.”
    â€œWas she?”
    â€œWas she what?”
    â€œFloyd, maybe she was too busy to talk. You know how overwhelmed we get sometimes. Maybe she was telling you the truth.”
    â€œMaybe.”
    â€œIt’s up to you, but here’s what I think you should do. Call her up and offer to meet her for lunch. She probably has classes today. Drive up there and meet her at the White Gull. Have some chowder or order burgers. See what she says. If she turns you down, then at least you know your hunch was right. If she has lunch with you, you may discover that you’re worrying over nothing. How’s that sound?”
    â€œGood, I guess.”
    â€œI’ll call ahead and make sure they have a table for you. In fact, I’ll arrange to make the whole thing my treat.” The White Gull was one of my favorite Santa Barbara restaurants. It sat on the ocean’s edge. Even during a business lunch it was romantic.
    â€œOkay. Maybe you’re right.”
    â€œWhat do you mean, ‘maybe’? Have you ever known me to be wrong? Don’t answer that. Just go pull those stats on new business licenses I asked you to compile. I’ll need it for my luncheon.”
    Floyd walked from the office.
    I read through the papers and digested what I needed from the files on my desk and returned a few phone calls. That took a little over an hour. At a quarter past nine, I started perusing the business license information Floyd had gathered for me. Cities have several forms of income. The primary sources of revenue come from three taxes: property tax, the uniform local sales tax, and the vehicle license fee. We also receive money through state and federal aid, special assessments, and fees. That’s why most cities work so hard to get businesses to move into city limits. More businesses mean more jobs, more tax revenues, and additional fees. A healthy city has a growing business base. Ours has fluctuated over the last three years and I had dedicated myself to improving Santa Rita’s tax record without damaging our unique Edenesque setting.
    That’s what I planned to tell the chamber of commerce at their monthly luncheon. I also planned to talk about my run for