Page 39 of November

“I hate it. That’s where I come from, though, and I try to give back when and how I can to make up for my ancestors, butChapter & Verseisn’t exactly rolling in the dough. I’m not in danger of going out of business, necessarily, because we own the land and building, but it’s not like I have millions of dollars rolling around.”

“Not even old money?”

“Nope. I had a great uncle who took care of gambling most of that away for us,” Maisie replied. “Everything from the sale of the land to the additional properties the family had bought over the years is all gone.”

“Wow!”

“Yes. So, I, too, could’ve had eight-hundred-dollar shoes, but the men in my family decided that card games and horse races were more important things to use our money on. Also, I’d never spend that much on shoes.”

“You know I don’t need you to be rich, right? I’d think seeing my ex-girlfriend is an indication of that: Finley is not rich.”

“You know how you said earlier that you’ve had trouble being flexible before?” Maisie asked.

“Yes. I like things a certain way. I can’t help that.”

“But it got in the way of you and your ex.”

“It did,” India said and cleared her throat as they moved up in line.

“Does that bother you? Knowing you might have made it work with her, but–”

“Fin and I aren’t right for each other,” she interrupted. “That’s the real reason we didn’t work. But, yeah, I wish I had given a little more instead of expectingherto give all the time. I didn’t realize how bad it was until it was too late, so I lost her, but I don’t want to talk about her anymore, Maisie. I still don’t know whether this is a date or just the two of us hangingout, but I’m here. I came here with you, okay? That has to mean something, right?”

“What’ll it be?”

India looked ahead, noticing for the first time that they had moved all the way up in line, and the man in the window was asking for their order.

“Number two and three, two light beers, and two bottled waters,” Maisie said.

“What?” India asked and looked at the menu board to her right to try to understand what a number two was.

“Fried catfish,” Maisie replied as she handed over her credit card. “And I got the fried chicken, too, in case you’re really worried about eating seafood. I thought we could share or switch or something. You eat meat, right? I don’t think I asked.”

“We don’t have veggie stuff here,” the guy said, swiping Maisie’s card. “Fried okra and pickles. That’s it.”

Maisie laughed and said, “We’re good. Thank you.”

She took her card back and stuffed it into the wallet that she then pushed into her front pocket.

“Wait over there,” the man said and nodded for them to wait at another window that India hadn’t noticed before.

It was on the side of the shack, and people were being handed their food through it by another person who worked inside.

“You come here a lot?” India asked.

“About once every couple of weeks.”

“So, this is your favorite restaurant in the city?”

Maisie laughed and said, “No, my favorite restaurant in the city is Commander’s Palace. And before you say that you didn’t think I’d ever even been there, I’ve been there over a thousand times if I had to count. It was my grandmother’s favorite place to go for lunch. She’d take me there for lunch at least once a week back when we had enough money to be able to splurge like that. They still give me a discount when I go in for dinner sometimes because of her.”

“You mention her a lot, but I don’t think I’ve heard youtalk about your parents or siblings.”

“Only child,” Maisie replied. “And my mom left when I was young. I don’t know where she ended up. My dad died not long after. Grams raised me then.”

“Oh. I’m sorry, Maisie.”

“Yeah, me too,” Maisie said. “But Grams made sure I had what I needed. She loved me and taught me the family business, but she never insisted or pressured me into taking it over.”