Page 40 of Take Two

‘It means he never gave you a big job. He’d just ask you to lob some flour onto the board or sprinkle something on the top of a cake. He kept you out of the actual baking.’

‘Why?’

‘Because you could burn things just by looking at them.’

Callie laughed, half-shocked, half-delighted.

And then a miracle happened. Mae smiled at her. Not a sneer. A real and true smile.

Just for a moment, they were them again—Callie and Mae.

Back Then

Callie stepped outside the bakery, trying not to cry.

What Mae had said didn’t make sense. None of it. It was like Callie was trying to complete a jigsaw puzzle. But instead of the missing pieces, Mae kept handing her things from other games entirely. A Monopoly top hat, a Scrabble letter, a Connect Four disc.

Moving on without her?Drifting apart?Helping it along?

Mae didn’t talk like that. Mae didn’t think like that. It was something else. Something wrong.

Callie walked a few paces down the pavement before stopping under the dim streetlamp.

‘Idiot,’ she muttered to herself. She wasn’t leaving things like that.

Callie went back the way she’d come. She pushed open the bakery door quietly.

Mae wasn’t there. Had she left? She wouldn’t just leave the door unlocked and go upstairs. Mae would sooner…

Then Callie heard it. A small sound behind the till. A sob.

Callie stepped around and found Mae on the floor, knees pulled in, shoulders shaking, her face buried in her hands.

Without a word, she slipped behind the counter and sank down beside her.

‘Hi,’ Callie said.

Mae jerked so violently she smacked her head slightly against the counter. ‘The fuck!’ Mae yelled, scared. ‘Why have you… What are you do… Why would you…’

‘I don’t believe you,’ Callie said.

‘What?’

‘I thought about everything you just said,’ Callie went on, ‘and I don’t believe it. I don’t believe you want to stop being my friend because of… whatever the hell it was you just said.’

Mae sniffed hard, wiping her face with the heel of her hand. ‘Well… you should.’

‘Well, I don’t,’ Callie said insolently. ‘I know you, Mae. You’re not like that.’

Mae stared at her. She looked young suddenly. Lost and terrified.

Callie knew that she wasn’t leaving. Not until she got to the truth. This mattered more than anything else.

She wasn’t giving up on Mae.

Nineteen

Now