Page 14 of A Fine Line
“Well, Marshall is certainly out.” Saying his name out loud made my whole body cringe in vibrant shivers. “Alright, I’ve got to get there’s people outside, love you, miss you!”
“See you soon, Winnie Girl.” Lottie cheered and right before she hung up I heard, “Crate, leave Barrel’s ball alone!”
My smile only picked up more. I was so ready to see them. Not just the cows of course, but everyone. All of my cousins, aunts, uncles, and of course my grandparents. But they were the hardest call, so I saved them for my strongest days.
A knock rattled outside my order window, a woman’s voice following. “Excuse me, are you open?”
I sat up straight and set my phone to the side near the register, before lifting my hands to open the window. “So sorry, I was just-” the words coming out of my mouth paused entirely, floating out into the air around a man and woman right outside my window.
Something was…off about this.
The man has a very artificial looking mustache, black strands in a little too perfectly groomed design. Sunglasses and a hoodie pulled up, staring at the ground and kicking lose gravel at his feet. I lifted my eyes just across the way and saw a certain rival of mine and his food truck to be missing entirely. My eyes went back to the mustached man and I squinted.
Crew. It was Crew. With a mustache. A horribly fake one. Besides him was a woman who wore a terrible excuse for a wig, streaks of blonde peeking out of the short black bob. She also wore sunglasses- pink ones with daisies on them- and a nude trench coat.
I’d seen her before, ordering food from Crew and hanging out with him and his brothers outside the truck. If she were to be his girlfriend, or any kind of love interest, then I felt bad forher. Not just for putting up with him, a full time job in itself I was sure, but because I caught him looking at my boobs on the regular. I normally never minded, especially when his gaze was so…heated. I wasn’t blind, I knew what he was thinking when he looked at me. Other than my down fall, anyway. But the thought of him ogling me and then seeing another woman made me want to shout at her to run for the hills. Red flag dodged on my end.
A slow smile pulled at the corners of my lips as my gaze bounces between the two.
“How can I help you?”
Crew cleared his throat, lowering his baritone to something reminiscent of a man who’d been chain smoking for the last fifty years. “Yes, my honey and I would like to-”
“Honey?” The woman next to him pulled back and gave him a disgruntled look. “No, no, no. My name is Autumn Rainfire. Autumn Rainfire belongs to no man.” She attempted to brush back her hair, but her fingers tugged the black bob wig, exposing her blonde roots. She didn’t move to fix it. “Her priority is to the wind itself.”
Crew groaned and his sunglass covered eyes lifted to the menu above me. “Yes, well Autumn and I would like to order one of everything.”
I smiled sweetly enough to give them both a cavity.
One of everything. It took all of my strength not to smirk. This man had come here for some thieving of his own, that little hypocrite. Acting like he was so much higher than me with all his morals. Well, if it was ideas he was coming to steal, I was going to make the best of this.
“Of course,” I answered in my every day southern tone, determined to let this cheater assume I had no idea what he would look like under a mustache and colored brows. “Give me just a little bit and I’ll call out your order Mr…”
“Dick!” Autumn spoke up and Crew elbowed her arm.
“I prefer Richard.” He cleared his throat.
“Yes, well, don’t we all?” I pulled back and got to work, smiling to myself the whole time.
“You think she knew it was you?” Rachel asked, using her car window as a mirror and replacing the wig on her head.
“No way,” I scoffed. “Look at this.” I pointed to the glued on mustache that felt like a caterpillar taking a nap on my upper lip.
“True,” my sister in law shrugged. “Maybe I should consider going dark. I look like a sexy Edna Mode.”
I squinted at her. “Can Edna Mode be sexy?”
“Anything can be sexy if you want it to. Just ask Adam when he’s-”
“Dick!” A loud voice yelled out from across the parking lot.
“Why did you name me that?” I hissed to my sister in law.
She raised two hands in defense, her wig bouncing with the movement. “I thought it sounded sophisticated.”
“Dick has never sounded sophisticated. Ever.”
Although the mustached was doing wondrous things for my ego right now and the consideration of growing a real one wasn’t quite lost on me.