Big Man's Contract

“Hi Haley.”

“Have you heard who’s back in town?” she asks.

Gossip spreads fast in this town. Like a virus. It’s in the air, on the door handles, jumping from one person to the next, infecting everyone.

I just shrug.

“Lina! She’s trying to open her dad’s bar again. Can you believe that? I bet she’s hard up for money and getting desperate. Or maybe she had an affair with a married man in California and had to run from his vengeful wife! She’s such a skank. I’m going to find a way to run her out of town. No one wants her here.”

Something inside me hardens.

“Or maybe she just wants to honor her father. You ever think about that? Some people change, you know. Maybe you should try it some time.”

Her mouth hangs open. I walk away before she can say another word to me. I’m surprised at how defensive I am. It’s not like Lina deserves defending. She was a horrible person just like Haley; that’s why the two of them were best friends. And Haley is a stark reminder of how Lina hurt me. Yet the need to defend her is as strong—if not stronger—than the need to defend myself, or my family, or anyone else I love.

Lina is walking out of her motel room just as I start to knock on the door. She startles for a moment before she breaks into a wide smile. It’s quickly gone, as if she’s surprised by her own reaction to me and tries to hide it. But I saw it. She was happy to see me.

“Your car is ready,” I tell her.

“Oh. Okay.”

She’s quiet on the drive to Abe’s shop. Not the comfortable kind of silence either. The air is heavy with unspoken words. I’m not sure if it has something to do with last night, or something else. I want to ask but the words get caught in my throat.

Eventually I get fed up with it. I need to know what’s on her mind. Asking might make me sound weak, like I care about her feelings, but right now I don’t care. I start to open my mouth, only she beats me to it.

“Are you and Haley close?” she says.

I raise my eyebrows, taking my eyes off the road for a moment to glance at her. The words sound surprisingly jealous. Lina must have been watching for me out the window of her motel room.

“There was a moment where we started to get close, right after you ran away—” I explain, but she interrupts me before I can finish.

“I didn’t run away. My mom dragged me to California. I never wanted to go.”

She folds her arms across her chest and grumbles something under her breath that sounds like “didn’t take you long to move on”. I ask her to speak louder so I can hear her. She tells me, “Never mind. I didn’t say anything.”

The truth is nothing ever happened with me and Haley. After Lina left, Haley reached out to me. I didn’t care why. All I cared about was finding out what happened with Lina. I figured since the two of them were best friends, she of all people would know where and why she went. But Lina never contacted her. It was as though she’d fallen off the face of the earth.

I can tell Lina has more questions to ask, but she’s not talking to me. She doesn’t say another word and her mood seems sour. That is until we get to the shop. As soon as the truck stops, she hops out and goes straight for Abe who rolls out from under an old Mustang when he sees us arrive.

Suddenly Lina’s mood changes. She smiling and laughing at something Abe said. It shouldn’t, but seeing her with him like that, happy and beautiful, sends a storm of jealousy through me. I get back in my truck, slam the door. They stare at me as the engine roars to life and I speed off with a shower of gravel flinging up from my spinning tires.

7

Lina

I sit on a bench made of a truck bed and graciously accept the cup of coffee Abe gives me even though it tastes like diesel fuel. As the caffeine rushes through my system I start to come alive.

“What’s his problem?” I say about Madden. He didn’t even bother to say goodbye before rushing off. I guess I was being sort of a brat by ignoring him in the truck. It surprised me about him and Haley getting “close” after I left. What does that even mean? Close as in hanging out, or close as in seeing each other naked? The thought makes me shudder and makes me more than just a little bit sick to my stomach. I try to tell myself not to be jealous, but I am. Why couldn’t he have been with anyone other than Haley? She’s such a bitch. I bet she would just love to rub her affair with Madden in my face. I think she knew back then, in high school, that I secretly liked him. That’s why she wanted to humiliate him. She couldn’t stand the thought of someone liking me and not her.