Revenge Is Sweet Read online

  “I’ll run out to the hardware store and see what’s in stock.”

  As he left, out the back—Tally made sure of that—she crossed her fingers that the hardware store was well stocked. The clouds she had noticed earlier had gotten serious and were shedding a brief summer shower. Gene dashed to his truck, parked near Yolanda’s back door. She thought he got only moderately wet.

  She checked the candies in the dark, warming fridge and decided that they would have to be cooled very soon. So she texted Yolanda, who returned a text saying that she had room in her floral cooler.

  Tally stuck her head into the sales room. It was only half full, and Andrea and Mart didn’t seem overwhelmed. “I have to go out for a minute. Be right back.”

  When Andrea gave her an exasperated look, Tally motioned her over and whispered, “I’m taking the candies to Yolanda’s cooler. They’re getting too soft.”

  Andrea nodded. “Good idea. Don’t take too long. We might get busy. Is Gene here?”

  “No, he’s gone to get some parts.”

  Tally hauled her treasures, stuffed into a plastic garbage bag, out her back door, through the rain—now a light mist—and into Yolanda’s shop. There was a fair amount of business at Bella’s Baskets, Tally was glad to see.

  “What temperature is your cooler, by the way?” Tally had forgotten to ask that. Maybe it would be too warm or too cool.

  “It’s supposed to always be thirty-five degrees. I don’t check it, but the flowers seem to thrive.” She kept a few hardy varieties for her arrangements.

  “Mine is a tad above that, so this will be fine.” She unpacked the Whoopie Pies, chocolate-covered caramels, and other goodies into the empty space beside the carnations and daisies while Yolanda held the door to the cooler for her.

  As they finished, Allen, the other handyman and Gene’s employee, pushed in through the back door carrying a bag from the hardware store.

  Tally silently fumed, realizing that Gene could have called or texted Allen to pick up her items instead of making another unnecessary trip. She couldn’t afford for Gene to pad his bill by taking extra hours to do the job, or billing for extra trips.

  Chapter 3

  “Where’s Gene?” Allen asked as he set his packages on the floor by Yolanda’s sink in the rear of Bella’s Baskets. “I brought the pipe and the tools he needs.”

  Tally tilted her head up at him. The man wasn’t extremely tall, but it didn’t take much to be taller than Tally. Tally thought his weathered face and obvious strength were awfully attractive. Much more so to her than Gene’s classic movie-star good looks that Yolanda, Andrea, and every other young woman in town were so taken with.

  “He went to the hardware store,” Tally said. “You didn’t see him there?”

  “Huh? Why did he go there? I’ve got everything we need. He could have paid for this stuff.”

  “Tally’s refrigerator needed something,” Yolanda said.

  Allen shook his head and exchanged raised eyebrows with Tally. He seemed as bemused as she was by his boss.

  “I have to turn off the water for a bit,” he told Yolanda.

  “Do what you have to. I can always run next door if I need anything.” Yolanda turned to a basket she was beginning and pawed through her jingle bell collection to select the ideal one.

  Allen crawled beneath the sink to start working on the pipe that needed replacing, clanking with his wrench and other tools, and muttering about getting his money from Gene. He seemed doubtful it would happen.

  “Andrea and Mart were fairly busy, so I’d better get back,” Tally said. “Come over if you need anything.”

  “Do you know when Gene is showing up at your place?” Yolanda asked.

  “It shouldn’t take him long, why?”

  “He borrowed a few dollars and said he’d get to the bank today to pay me back. Ask him if he’s been to the bank when he shows up.”

  “Will do.”

  Tally left by the front door and lingered on her short stroll to her place. It was a pleasant day. Puddles steamed on the pavement in the aftermath of the sudden storm. She closed her eyes and turned her face to the July sun, a stray hair wisping across her face in the slight, sultry breeze, carrying the damp of the rain. She tucked it behind her ear. When she opened her eyes, she was overcome by a feeling of contentment, despite whatever else was going on. She had returned to the town where she grew up, on the way to her very own shop, and working next door to her best friend. Even better, she had to wait for a clump of tourists to enter her place before she could go in.

  She quickly grabbed her smock from the kitchen, noting that Gene hadn’t returned yet, and got to work helping sell her handmade delectables. Life was so good right now, she felt like pinching herself.

  “My time’s kinda up,” Mart said at five. “You want me to stay extra?”

  “I’m sure we’ll be okay,” Tally answered. “We’re stocked up, so Andrea and I can stay out front and sell.” They were alone in the kitchen, so she took Mart aside. “Mart, are you okay? You’re not sick?”

  “Why do people think I’m sick? I’m perfectly healthy. See?” She stuck out her tongue as if that would prove she didn’t have any diseases.

  “It’s…something I heard.”

  “From who? Who’s spreading rumors about me? Is it Andrea? You know she’s jealous of me and Gene. He doesn’t pay any attention to her. I wouldn’t listen to her either, if I were you.”

  Tally resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “I shouldn’t have given it a moment’s thought. No, I didn’t hear anything from Andrea.” Technically, that was true. Yolanda had relayed the information from Andrea to Tally. “Forget I said anything. See you tomorrow.”

  Tally would have to look up the symptoms of VDs, but Mart did seem healthy.

  Mart ran out the front door and climbed in the passenger door of a waiting car. Tally ducked down to squint at the driver. The car looked like Gene’s little gray convertible, a Fiat Spider, but the top was up and she couldn’t be sure. Whoever the driver was, he leaned over and gave Mart a long kiss before they took off. It had to be Gene. No one else in this town owned a gray convertible Fiat Spider. She fumed, thinking about the fact that he was supposed to be working.

  When she turned from the door, Andrea was standing behind her, a stormy frown of rage on her small, delicate face. Yes, Andrea was definitely jealous of Mart and Gene. But Gene wasn’t innocent. He seemed to be leading everyone on.

  He also should have been fixing Tally’s fridge.

  So, did Mart have a disease that meant Tally shouldn’t be using her, or was Andrea lying out of jealousy to get Mart fired? Tally decided to come down in favor of the latter. Mart didn’t look sick, but Andrea was definitely jealous.

  She didn’t have time to dwell on her employees, though. A merry call rang out from the kitchen. She ran there from the front room to receive a shipment from the nut farm man. How she loved handling the bulging bags of whole and half pecans, shelled peanuts, slivered almonds, and other nuts that lent crunchy goodness to her treats.

  When it was almost seven, time to close up, she finally heard Gene in the other room. She ran to the kitchen to make sure it was him. He had his head inside the appliance, fiddling with something.

  As she was about to return to the front, Yolanda rushed in the back door, carrying a half-done basket. The jingle bell she had already inserted tinkled as she swung the basket onto the counter.

  “I need to know what you think,” she said. She noticed Gene and said “Oh!” with a smile. “Did you get the cash?”

  “Completely forgot. I’ll get it next time I’m by the bank.”

  “I thought you were closing up early,” Tally said, noticing the frown Gene’s response had drawn on Yolanda’s brow.

  * * * *

  Yolanda held her anger inside, not wanting Tally to see how ups
et she was. She grabbed Gene’s arm and pulled him out the back door of Tally’s shop so she could talk to him in private in the alley.

  “I need that money,” she said. “You promised to give it to me today. You said you positively would pay me today. I’ve been waiting a long time.” Yolanda knew her parents would dole out any money she asked for, but she wanted to prove herself with her shop. She hadn’t gotten any handouts from them yet this month and didn’t plan to. She wanted so much to make a go of Bella’s Baskets on her own.

  “Not that long.” He gave her that devastating smile. It didn’t devastate her now, though. In fact, it bounced off her anger. “I’ll have it. Hold your horses. Be patient.”

  “How much longer? I’ve been patient. And you did promise me. You swore you’d have it. I need to buy some things for the shop. Tally might be right about you. If I don’t get that money by the end of the day, I’ll go to your father.”

  She saw alarm creep into his deep gray eyes. Maybe she’d gone too far. But she did need the money very soon. It wasn’t a small amount, and she couldn’t afford to be without it much longer.

  He reached out to stroke her hair and she swatted his hand away.

  His eyes turned hard. “If you couldn’t afford it, maybe you shouldn’t have given it to me in the first place.”

  “I didn’t give it to you. It was a loan.” Yolanda felt her jaw clench, along with her fists. “I mean what I say. I’ll go to Mayor Faust.”

  Gene turned and went through the door into Tally’s shop. Yolanda composed herself and followed him. Where was she? Oh yes, she was bringing the basket to Tally for her opinion. She turned her attention to Tally. “I was locking the door, and I got a call for a rush job. They want this tomorrow. It’s for a birthday party the next evening.”

  * * * *

  Yolanda indicated the basket she had set on Tally’s counter. “Tell me which is better.”

  Tally wanted to ask Yolanda what was going on between her and Gene, but she would save it for later when Gene wasn’t around. She turned her attention to the basket. It was white wicker with a thick, twisted wicker handle.

  Yolanda had filled it with Shasta daisies, a yellow teapot with matching cup and saucer, and some yellow cloth napkins. “This is for a sixty-fifth birthday. And she’s a big tea drinker. I’ll get some tea bags, and I want to use something from you, maybe your handmade Twinkies?” Yolanda tilted her head and twisted a curly lock around her little finger.

  Tally’s Twinkies were a different shape than the classics, but were the same golden color. She considered the taste of hers superior, but maybe that was a bias on her part.

  “They’d go with the color scheme. Do you want them now?” Tally started to pull a wrapped package, ready to sell, from the freestanding freezer.

  “I’ll get them later so they’ll be fresher, but here’s my question.” She set two spools of ribbon on the counter with her scissors. “Which color is best?” One spool was bright yellow with white polka dots, the other pale yellow striped with another yellow a shade deeper.

  Yolanda used her huge ribbon scissors to cut a snippet of each and looped them over the handle.

  Tally reached toward the handle. “Let me see what—ouch!” She had run into the point of the scissors that Yolanda brandished and it had nicked her knuckle. “Those are wicked.” She squeezed a teensy drop of blood out of the joint of her index finger.

  Yolanda gasped as the scissors clattered from her hand to the countertop. “I have to keep them sharp.” The blades were fiendishly long. “Are you all right? Can I get you a bandage?”

  “No, no, it’s almost stopped. I’m fine. I wanted to see one color at a time. Are you all right? You’re very pale.”

  “I…I don’t like blood. Seeing it, touching it, thinking about it.” She stared at Tally’s cut, looking stricken and pale.

  Tally pulled out a stool and ordered Yolanda to sit. Her color soon returned, and Tally held her hand behind her so Yolanda wouldn’t see that her cut hadn’t quite quit bleeding yet.

  Andrea came into the room clutching her large bag to her chest. “Should I lock the door and turn on the closed sign? No one is here.”

  “Sure,” said Tally. “But tell us first which ribbon you like better.”

  “I like the dots,” Andrea said. “I have to leave right now, if that’s okay with you.” She walked over to Gene and gave him a poke on his shoulder. “I have a hot date tonight. Right, Gene?”

  Tally managed not to let her mouth drop open, but Yolanda wasn’t as successful. Tally felt the temperature drop to near freezing as a stunned silence stretched among the four.

  Gene straightened up and grinned at Andrea. “I’ll be there.”

  “I’ll go switch the sign to closed,” Tally said, wanting to leave the room. It was early to close, but she wanted everyone gone.

  “Gene Faust, I meant what I said. I want my money today.” Yolanda’s voice was frigid. Before Tally could move, Yolanda ran out the back in a blur of hot colors.

  A short time later, after everyone was gone and peaceful quiet reigned inside Tally’s shop, she took another stab at counting her money and matching the numbers on her spreadsheet. When the numbers showed a shortage one more time, she stood and shoved her chair back so hard it rolled away and smashed against a cupboard.

  She sent Yolanda a text and waited. No answer.

  She called Yolanda and got her voice mail. Two more calls went unanswered. Now she had another worry, and she began to fret about her friend. Tally started pacing her kitchen, then noticed the abandoned basket sitting on her countertop. The flowers hadn’t wilted yet, she was glad to see. Tally and Yolanda each had keys to the other’s shop, so Tally fished her key to Bella’s Baskets out of her desk drawer. After sticking some Twinkies in amongst the flowers, she grabbed the basket and headed out the front door, the jingle bell rattling softly, slightly out of tune with the door chimes.

  The lights in the basket shop were turned off, but it wasn’t yet eight o’clock so the sun was still up, and would be for about another hour. There was enough daylight that Tally didn’t need to switch on the lights, so she went straight for the cooler and stuck the basket in.

  She snapped her fingers and grimaced when she realized she had left the spools of ribbon at her place. Her snap sounded loud in the dim, empty shop. Then she heard another sound. It was barely audible, but the shop was otherwise completely silent. She followed the sound of the soft snuffles and found Yolanda on the floor, slumped against her worktable, quietly weeping.

  Wordlessly, Tally knelt beside her and wrapped her arms around her bereft friend.

  “You can say you told me so,” Yolanda said, thickly, hanging her head.

  “No, I won’t say it.”

  “You don’t have to. Gene is no good. You were right. He doesn’t like me. He’s only after my money.” Yolanda rested her cheek on Tally’s shoulder.

  Tally petted her dark, wild, springy curls. “I’ll bet he enjoys your company, though.”

  “Ha.” The syllable was mirthless. “He’ll enjoy Andrea’s a lot more. She’s much younger than I am. And she works out.”

  “Oh, come on, young isn’t always so good. Andrea jogs. I’m not sure that’s the same as working out. Any man should be proud to be seen with you.”

  “Well, whether they should or not, they’re not flocking to my side.” She raised her head and looked around. “I don’t see any here. Do you?” She displayed the ghost of a grin.

  Good, Yolanda was cheering up. “I brought your basket over to put into your cooler.”

  “Tally, what’s that?” Yolanda sat up straight, sounding panicked.

  A drop of blood from her nicked knuckle had fallen onto the floor. “Oh, I guess it’s still bleeding. Do you have a bandage?”

  “My first aid kit is on the shelf behind you.”

  Tally
got up and doctored herself, putting some antibiotic cream and a bandage on her finger, and wiping the drips from the floor.

  “Did Gene get your refrigerator fixed?”

  “No, and I’m upset about that. I believe he could have. But he left before he finished the job.”

  “Tally, I’ve always thought you were the naïve one and I was the better judge of people, but I might have to change my mind about that.”

  They sat on the floor in companionable silence, drawing comfort from each other, until daylight started to fade outside. Tally rose and dusted off her hands on her jeans. “I know what we need. A night on the town.”

  “Yes. I don’t have to drop this basket off until tomorrow.” Yolanda’s smile was almost up to her normal high wattage. “That sounds good. Let me fix my face. What do you have in mind?”

  The nightlife in Fredericksburg wasn’t exactly glamorous, nothing like Austin or Dallas, but there were some fun places.

  They dropped in to a couple of them, Crossroads and Hondo’s, both on the main street where their own shops were located. Each had a live band and plenty of mirth and noise. It served to drown out some of their sorrows.

  After a couple of drinks each, soaked up with nachos, stuffed roasted jalapeños, and shrimp and grits, they walked home, sated and much more content than they had been a few hours ago.

  “I have to ask you something,” Tally said. “Well, two things.”

  “Shoot.” Yolanda cocked her thumb and stuck her pointer finger at Tally.

  “Andrea—”

  “I don’t want to hear about her.”

  “This is in relation to her working for me. I’d like to know if you have any tips. I’m having a hard time relating to her. I know she’s shy and insecure—”

  “You could have fooled me.” Yolanda twirled a curl around her little finger.

  “You’re right, she was rather forward with Gene today. She’s always seemed shy to me before today. With me, she usually seems…distant, or maybe a little prickly. I’m having trouble getting her to loosen up with me.”