Page 38 of November

“Yes.” She laughed some more. “How did you–”

“You like tosharethose responsibilities, don’t you?”

“I don’t really consider themresponsibilities, but yes.”

“And not to make things worse for you, but she and Molly seem really happy together.”

“They do,” India replied. “Where am I going?”

“Oh, turn right and go straight for five blocks.”

“They are good together, and I’m happy for them, but that doesn’t make it any easier for me to see it,” India shared.

“I know. I’m sorry,” Maisie said. “I shouldn’t have said what I said back there. I promise, it’s not all about you. Some of it is just timing.”

“Timing?”

“The campaign. That Colter Stone guy gets on my last nerve. He thinks he can just waltz into my store, make fun of it, belittle me, and leave. It pissed me off. Then, you walk in,and you’re dressed… well, a little like he was. Super expensive shoes, for example. I let it go, but then you were picking a place for our first date, and that brought it back up.”

“I reminded you of Colter Stone?”

“Just the rich thing. How are youthisrich, by the way? Does Southern Roastery paythatwell? Maybe I should get a job there.”

“Family money,” she said, keeping it generic. “I have a trust fund, but I don’t tap into it often. I make good money at Southern, yes. I’m an executive there, reporting into the C-suite, and I worked my way up out of business school.”

“Family money?”

“Yes,” she said, trying to think about what, if anything, Colter had revealed about their family’s history over the years during his various campaigns. She wasn’t sure if he’d ever said where their money had come from. “We owned some businesses a while back, sold one, started another, sold that, and now, we just have the money and the investments, but I work, Maisie. I don’t have to, and I’m not asking for some pat on the back or anything, but I have a job that I love, and I try to donate to charity regularly. I like nice things, yes. These shoes, for one. This car. My condo is nice, but I don’t think overly so. It’s true that I didn’t want to go to this place with you, but that’s because I really didn’t want to. I could see myself getting sick from the food there and ruining our first date. I could see myself trying to find a clean place to sit and you getting annoyed with me because I couldn’t just be normal and sit down, but this outfit is–”

“Expensive?” Maisie guessed. “Left up here,” she added, pointing.

“Okay,” India replied.

She followed Maisie’s instructions to park and wanted to pick the spot that had two empty spots next to it because she didn’t want her car to be damaged, but that,too, would look like something a rich person would do, so she found a spot between two cars, parked, and they got out.

“Do you really have a problem with the fact that I havemoney? I can’t exactly change that. I suppose I could donate everything I have, just give it all away, but it’s a first date, maybe. I don’t know. Is this a date? I don’t know if I should commit to giving all my worldly possessions away for a first date.”

“Not a requirement,” Maisie said. “And no, I don’t have a problem with it. Technically, my family was upper crust, too. It was just a really long time ago.”

“Ah, yes. You’re related to a former beloved president,” India said with a smile as she joined Maisie to walk toward a bright blue building on the water.

It looked more like a one-room shack or maybe a concession stand at a Little League game. India had been to a few of those over the years because of her sister, but what this place didnotlook like was a restaurant where she’d get good food.

“Loosely.”

“So loosely, you have his last name?”

“My family is from Pennsylvania originally,” Maisie said. “No one signed the Declaration of Independence or anything, but we were in the mix. The oldest bookstore in the country is there, and the story goes that my family saw that, thought about having one of their own, but there wasn’t room or need for more than one in the same place, so they decided to move down here, which was odd because this wasn’t part of the US yet. That didn’t happen until the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. Anyway, they managed to buy up some land. Two plots. One for their family home. One for the shop. They also farmed a little and did other things until they sold the house and the land, and eventually, that place became your office building.”

“Their house was–”

“Is now Southern Roastery’s headquarters, yes.” Maisie shrugged as they joined the line of ten or so people in front of the blue shack.

“They kept the bookstore and were very happy when the land became part of the US. It made things easier. Anyway, I’m sure they were doing some shady things back then – white people in the South and all that – but I don’t know how bad it was; just that they had this bookstore, and it’s beenaround ever since.” Maisie smiled at India. “It’s important. That’s why I want to protect it.”

“You mean white people in the South owning slaves?”

Maisie nodded, looking sad.