Page 23 of Two’s A Charm

‘My mom always says I have nine lives,’ he said, regarding his hands as though they contained the truth of the moment.

‘Although I’ve always been more of a dog person, to be honest. Which reminds me, I’ve been meaning to talk to Bowow about fostering.

Or adopting. Do you want me to carry that for you? ’

Shaking her head, Effie grabbed protectively at the straps of her book bag.

‘The umbrella, at least?’

All right. He was taller, so it only made sense. She grudgingly passed over the umbrella.

‘An animal is a lifelong commitment,’ she said stiffly, as they navigated the garden path.

She’d heard the stories from Bowow of people giving up their dogs on a whim: the pet was inconvenient to their travel plans, or it needed too many walks during the day.

Or it shed too much. ‘Especially if you’re just here temporarily. ’

‘Temporarily?’ Theo regarded her curiously as he opened the front gate.

Had she misspoken? For someone so into poetry, he seemed to struggle with subtext.

‘Yellowbrick Grove is a big change from the city,’ she explained. ‘In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s no stock exchange here.’

Theo chuckled. ‘I had noticed that, actually.’

Effie’s lips tightened. It was an unwritten rule that only locals were allowed to make fun of the town.

‘There’s not much for me back in the city, at least for now. It wasn’t my doing,’ he added, as though he’d read her thoughts. ‘I was perfectly happy with how my life was going. But my ex apparently wasn’t. And sometimes you need to step away to heal.’

Effie nodded slowly. All right, so he wasn’t wrong about that.

After Mom’s death, she’d seriously considered fleeing to the city, a place where she could be anonymous and unknown, and where anyone who looked at her wouldn’t instantly know her entire life story.

One of the hardest parts of working through grief in a small town was the constant pitying looks and the endless questions about how you were doing and whether someone could do something to help.

It forced you to face your feelings over and over, and constantly go on the record about how you were coping.

‘I lost you for a minute there, huh?’ Theo swiped the rain from his hair, his green eyes trying to find Effie’s hazel ones beneath the safety of her oversized glasses.

It wasn’t just grief Effie had been thinking about.

It was whether she wanted to risk getting to know someone who might pack up and leave the next week.

Effie had always been cautious with her attentions, even her friendship ones.

And with good reason. Because usually when she opened up, mockery awaited.

‘I was thinking about my coffee,’ said Effie, as she turned the corner to the main square, which The Winged Monkey had laid claim to for as long as she could remember.

The huge planters out the front overflowed with colourful wildflowers, and the hanging baskets swung gently in the misting rain.

The paned windows were steamed up from the inside.

Someone had drawn a heart on one of them, and Effie idly wondered if she’d ever be the subject of a heart drawing.

Shaking out the umbrella, Theo dropped it by the entrance with the others, then opened the door for Effie, gesturing for her to go ahead.

The shop was busy, as it always was at this time of the morning.

A line of customers hung out by the espresso machine, and a backdrop of murmured conversations was punctuated by the clinking of spoons and the rattle of coffee cups.

Curious eyes followed the two of them as they approached the counter, and Effie immediately felt defensive.

She could feel the questions on their lips, the way that people were trying to make sense of it.

Effie, not Bonnie, walking into the coffee shop with Theo.

Terrance, the barista with the crush on the other Chalmers sister, took her order: a coffee for herself and a pastry for library parking lot Thomas. Then, finger poised over an iPad, he glanced at Theo, who’d sidled up next to Effie and was brushing down his damp jacket.

‘Are you two together?’ asked Terrance. She could hear the undercurrent of confusion in his voice.

Spluttering, Effie took a step to the side. ‘Absolutely not. What a thing to assume.’

She would not be the subject of town gossip and judgement.

Terrance raised his hands to protect himself from her stark tone. ‘I meant your order.’

‘Sure,’ said Theo easily, handing over his card. ‘I’ve got it. Make mine a flat white.’

Effie rummaged in her purse for a five-dollar bill, handing it out to him. Amused, Theo waved it off.

‘It’s on me. As payment for lending me your umbrella.’

Effie put the bill in the tip jar, then hung back as Terrance set to work banging out the orders that were ahead of theirs.

About half were coffee-based drinks, and the rest tea – after a recent video from someone called an ‘influencer’, the whole town had decided that it was very important to start reading their futures in their tea leaves.

Or, in the case of the people ordering Turkish coffee, in their coffee grounds.

She was about to pick up a newspaper to try her hand at the word puzzles when she noticed Hannah and Alana lounging on the L-shaped sectional in the corner, sharing a croissant and a pot of tea, and no doubt some local secrets.

It was strange to see just the two of them without Bonnie around.

Until Alana had shown up at the crochet night, Effie hadn’t even been sure that Bonnie’s friends existed independently of her.

Tessa always joked that they lived in a stairwell cupboard, coming to life like weird puppets only when Bonnie needed her entourage.

To Effie’s surprise, Alana waved, the bangles on her slim wrist jangling.

‘Hey, Effie,’ she said.

‘Alana,’ responded Effie, baffled. Was this a trick of some sort?

Hannah waggled her fingers in an indifferent hello. She was clearly busy on a text thread filled with emojis of houses. Her nails clacked irritatingly against the screen as she typed.

‘So, the crochet night was actually super fun,’ said Alana, sipping her tea. ‘I didn’t have high expectations, given it was a library thing and all, but I had a good time. Everyone did.’

Effie smiled stiffly. A library thing and all . Well, a backhanded compliment was still better than an insult.

‘Tessa is great,’ offered Effie.

Alana nodded as she sipped again. ‘How’d you enjoy it, Theo?’

‘That’s right,’ said Hannah curiously. Setting down her phone, she looked askance at Theo. ‘Library craft sessions over a visit to the bar. Interesting.’

‘It was fun. I went home and made a koala,’ said Theo, who was holding one of the for-sale plants from the plant wall – this one in a sausage-dog-shaped holder spangled with glittery gold stars.

‘Someone must’ve put something in his drink,’ muttered Hannah to Alana. ‘It’s the only way it makes sense.’

Alana regarded the tea leaves in the bottom of her cup. ‘The library’s not so bad,’ she murmured.

‘What’s the verdict on this?’ Theo waggled the ceramic dog at Effie, drawing her attention away from the judgemental conversation going on right in front of her face.

Well, if this was the sort of dog Theo had meant when talking about getting a pet, Effie could abide it.

‘Cute,’ she said. ‘Could do with some grooming.’

Theo chuckled, then whipped out his phone to pay using the QR code stickered to the dog.

‘Coffee for Ebby and Neo?’ called Terrance from the counter.

Close enough, thought Effie. At least it wasn’t just her name getting butchered.

‘Here, Longdog can live there while I grab our coffees.’

Theo loped off to get their drinks, clearing the mugs off an empty table on the way. Hannah and Alana watched him go with raised eyebrows.

Hannah turned a hawkish gaze to Effie. ‘What’s the story there? Did you buy a love potion from your uncle’s shop or something?’

‘We just bumped into each other. In the rain,’ said Effie cagily. She tried not to flush as an image of the two of them huddled under her umbrella flashed through her mind.

‘In the rain, huh?’ Alana was not buying this at all. But beneath her bemusement she sounded almost pleased for Effie. At least one of Bonnie’s friends had some semblance of empathy.

Hannah tapped her pouty bottom lip with a perfectly manicured fingernail. ‘Does Bonnie know about your extracurriculars?’

Ah, that was more like it. It was almost comforting to be back to her usual defensive position.

‘I think Bonnie would be more interested in Kirsty ’s extracurriculars,’ Effie retorted.

Before Hannah could ask for clarification, Theo returned, cups of takeout coffee in hand.

‘Here ya go, Eff.’

‘Effie,’ she corrected. Effie did not abide nicknames. Especially from someone she barely knew. Even Tessa knew better than to try it. Still, Effie took the coffee, stuffing the pastry bag into her tote.

With Theo back, Hannah spun her phone on the table to face him. On the screen was a picture of the quaint cottage that everyone in town called the Dorothy House. Effie had always loved it. It felt like it had a thousand stories inhabiting its walls, and possibly a few ghosts as well.

A few years earlier, the owners had opened it up as part of a historic homes tour, with proceeds benefiting the Downtown Small Business Association.

Effie and Tessa had spent hours poking around, investigating the decorative glassware on the mantels and conjuring backstories for the people in the watercolour portraits on the walls.

‘Theo, do you know anyone interested in this place? It’s a bargain compared with what you’d pay in the city,’ she added.

‘It’s cute,’ he said. ‘I’ll have a think.’