Casey felt someone behind
him and swung around defensively, only dropping his hands when he realized it
was his brother. “Damn, you startled me,” he said in explanation.
“Sorry,” Bing replied with a
laugh. “What are you doing, buying out the store?”
“Feels like,” Casey admitted
as he looked at the overflowing shopping cart. “But I’ve got an excuse; I
decided to celebrate my birthday at my new house with a barbeque. I expect to
see you and Sammy there.”
“If you insist,” Bing said,
sounding as he felt quite put upon. Then he laughed. “Of course we’ll be there.
Wednesday? Or are you pushing it back to...no from the look of that cart it
better be Wednesday or we’ll be eating wilted lettuce.”
“For sure. I did think
briefly about doing it last Saturday but then I realized that was even shorter
notice than this is and that you and Sammy would probably already have plans.”
“If you consider the fact
that the store doesn’t close until nine on Friday and Saturday as always then I
did. And Sammy had some legal-eagle event he had to attend. He didn’t get home
until close to midnight.”
“No wonder you two make sure
you’ve got Sunday’s to yourselves.” Casey chuckled. “I think I’m getting old, I
always forget about your later hours.”
Bing smiled. “Short term
memory loss there, Casey? Guess we’ll have to get you some of that, what’s it
called? Biloba?”
“Yep, and a big bottle of
it.” Casey laughed while checking out the selection of cheeses, debating which
ones to get. Bing made a couple of suggestions and between them they added
enough to the cart that Casey wondered if he’d get it to the checkout stand
without loosing the top layer. As he pushed it in that direction he asked
casually, “Did you come in here to buy something for lunch?”
“No, just to pick up some
water, which we passed three aisles back. I’d better get it and get back before
the lunch crowd overwhelms my employees.” Bing paused saying, “You’re not
working today?”
“Nope. Once I got the
brainstorm for the party I figured I’d better get things in motion so I called
in sick.”
“Smart man. Well have fun
getting all that home. If you need help on Wednesday give me a call.”
Casey nodded, watching as
his brother headed away, and then got into the checkout line, chuckling when
the person coming up behind him took one look at his cart and immediately moved
over to the next lane.
* * * *
Once Casey got home from his
shopping trip and put all the food away he made some calls. The first one
was to let Thomas know about the party, putting it on his shoulders to tell
their employees about it. “Don’t make them feel obligated to come,” Casey
cautioned. “I want this to be fun, not a command performance.” Thomas agreed although Casey had a feeling, knowing the man, that he would do his best
to make certain everyone came even if he had to lay a guilt trip on them.
Next he called Alma. She
surprised him by sounding almost civil, saying that she and Parker would
definitely be there. He thanked her, giving her the same story he had given
Bing about deciding to do it on the day rather than the previous Saturday,
figuring that that would have been too short of a notice.
She agreed, saying
somewhat scathingly, “You can not expect people to give up their weekend plans
unless you give them at least a two week’s notice. Mid-week is much better if
you’re going to be inconsiderate.”
He rolled his eyes, asking
as if he cared, “And what would you have been giving up?”
“Why the hospital’s charity
ball of course. Certainly you got an invitation, Casey. That in and of itself
should have told you not to throw your party Saturday night.”
“I got one, but quite
honestly I didn’t want to run into Kathy,” he replied.
Alma humphed, said a few
choice words about that, and hung up.
His last call was to
Darla. She practically bubbled with enthusiasm, asking if it would be alright
if she brought her newest boyfriend, who it turned out was not the infamous
Skull but some wannabe rock musician she’d met at a club Saturday night. He
told her that was fine with him and left it at that after making certain she
wrote down the time and day. Knowing his younger sister he was very aware that
she’d forget moments after the call ended if she didn’t.
Now he leaned casually
against the fender of his SUV as he waited for Marcia to come out of the door
leading to the theater’s parking lot. As he watched the door flew open and a group
of people exited, Marcia among them. She was talking animatedly to a very
good-looking young man who appeared to be intently listening to whatever she
was saying. When she’d finished he replied with something that made her laugh.
And then she spotted Casey and sobered, obviously excusing herself from the
group before coming over to join him.
“You did show up,” she said.
“I did, though from your
face when you saw me anyone watching would think you wished I hadn’t.”
“Sorry.” She looked at him
and then smiled, wrapping an arm around his neck and kissing him quickly.
“Better?”
“As far as what we’re trying
to pull off, yes,” he replied, not willing to admit that he would have returned
the kiss if she’d given him half a chance. He really hated these up and down
feelings he had about her but there was nothing to be done about them for now.
If their plan was going to work he had put aside the feeling of betrayal and go
with the ones he’d begun having before her revelations.
“Any place you’d rather go
eat?” he asked once they were both in his vehicle.
“Not really as long as it’s
public. One close to where one of your family lives maybe.”
He nodded. “I know just the
restaurant. Darla’s not big on cooking so she might just show up there.”
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