Jill Smolinski - The Next Thing on My List

‘ How the hell would I know? But if you’ re here to work, I’ ve got more boxes that need hauling. Brie here’ s afraid she’ ll break a nail.’

‘ I just got ‘ em done,’ she explained, holding up her nails, which were each painted with tiny flowers.

‘ Sorry to disappoint you,’ I said without sincerity to Martucci. ‘ I’ m just stopping by.’

When I introduced them to Deedee, Brie exclaimed, ‘ So this is your Little Sister! We’ ve heard so much about you. Hold on-’ She reached into the box Martucci had brought to hand Deedee a logo pen with a tip like a lava lamp that changed colors as you clicked it. ‘ This is for you. I’ m only giving the good stuff to friends.’

‘ Cool,’ Deedee said, clicking. ‘ Thanks.’

Brie turned to Martucci. ‘ How about you go get that box with the T-shirts? I’ ll bet this girl would like one of those.’

‘ Jesus, you women think I’ m a plow horse,’ he groused. ‘ You know, Elaine pulls her own weight when she’ s working with me.’

‘ That’ s because she doesn’ t have my skills. My job is to attract customers,’ Brie said. ‘ I can’ t do that if my nails are all nasty.’

He looked wearily at Deedee. ‘ What size you want?’

‘ Large?’ she replied.

He left, muttering something under his breath. When he was out of earshot, I said, ‘ Forget time and a half. If you’ re forced to work with him, they ought to pay triple your hourly rate.’

‘ What-you don’ t like Martucci?’

‘ You do?’

‘ He’ s all right.’

‘ I just hate the way he sucks up to Lizbeth. And that rattail braid of his is so gross. He’ s always feeling it.’

‘ He’ s probably scared it might’ ve crawled away,’ Brie said. ‘ Anyway, I figure I can get him to pick up hoagie sandwiches when he gets back. All this standing here is making me starved. You want a hoagie?’

‘ I’ ll pass.’ Although it occurred to me that if I ate something big, I’ d have an excuse to wait thirty minutes before going in the water.

Brie turned her attention to Deedee. ‘ So, hon, you got yourself a boyfriend?’

I couldn’ t believe she’ d ask her such a prying question right off. I expected Deedee to do the clamshell imitation I knew so well, but she made a noise like pbbbbt and rolled her eyes as if to say, Boys.

‘ I know that face,’ Brie said, nodding wisely. ‘ Go on, tell Mama Brie all about it. Who’ s the bum, and what’ d he do?’

‘ Carlos,’ she answered, as if saying ‘ dog turd.’

‘ Mm-hmm& ‘

‘ And he all says he likes me, that I’ m hot and all that& ‘

‘ I know that one.’

‘ And then I find out he’ s going out with& ‘ She paused because it was clearly too awful to say. ‘ Theresa.’

I cut in. ‘ Theresa from the movies?’

‘ Yeah. He was there that day, which she conveniently forgot to mention.’

Brie shook her head in disgust. ‘ You don’ t want Carlos anyway. He’ s a fool, going for a skank like Theresa. You know what I think?’ She leaned over and pulled the oversize tank top Deedee wore snug against her. ‘ You got a cute little figure there. You oughta dress real sexy and show that Carlos what he’ s missing. I got some clothes that I don’ t wear anymore. They’ re small on me, but I’ ll bet they’ d fit you real nice. How about if I give them to June to pass on to you? You can keep anything you like and throw away what you don’ t.’

Deedee wearing Brie’ s castoffs? Her bright and tight Lycra and spandex? That was good for a laugh! That was about as likely as-

‘ Sure.’ Deedee beamed. ‘ You got stuff like what you’ re wearing now?’

‘ This old thing?’ Brie wore a fuchsia tank top over matching short-shorts. ‘ Oh, way better.’

Well, isn’ t that swell? In five minutes she’ d managed to do more bonding with Deedee than I had in over a month. Although it was nice to see Deedee open up, even if it wasn’ t to me. At least it was in my general vicinity.

‘ Hey, I almost forgot,’ Brie said to me. ‘ That traffic reporter guy stopped by to see if you were here. Trey& ?’

‘ Troy Jones?’

‘ Yeah, that’ s it. He said he’ s here with K-JAM helping with the beach cleanup. Oh, speaking of that, watch this.’ She crumpled a brochure and tossed it into the sand. Within seconds, two children holding trash bags ran up and began to fight over who got there first to pick it up. ‘ Works every time! I guess they got more people showing up to pick up trash than they got trash.’

Deedee appeared delighted, but I was busy looking for Troy Jones. Hopefully he was gone by now. I didn’ t need him nosing around while I attempted to check a task off the list-especially one that required so little clothing on my part. ‘ I hope Martucci gets back with that T-shirt soon. We should get going,’ I said.

Brie eyed the boogie board. ‘ Looks like you’ ve got some fun planned. By the way, we still on for tomorrow night?’

‘ Yep.’ Brie was going to accompany me to the Oasis bar so I could cross off another task.

‘ You still buying?’

‘ Yep.’

We chatted a bit longer until Martucci returned, chucking a box onto the sand this time. Then he rifled through it and tossed a T-shirt at Deedee. ‘ There you go,’ he said. ‘ Wear it proudly.’

‘ Thanks.’ She held it up to inspect it. ‘ It’ s cute.’

‘ You think that shirt’ s cute,’ Brie said, ‘ you ought to see what I picked out for June to wear for tomorrow. Hoo-ee, it’ s nice. The top’ s this silvery blue, real shiny, you know? And it’ s got these sparkly things right along the-’

‘ Okay, then!’ I interrupted, not wanting Brie to elaborate in front of Martucci as to the location of those sparkly things.

Too late. ‘ Along the what, exactly?’ he asked a bit too innocently, his gaze dropping to indicate he was making a pretty good guess.

‘ We’ ll be leaving now,’ I said, trying to ignore him, but Brie, clueless, gestured across her chest as an answer.

‘ Nice,’ Martucci said. ‘ So what’ s going on tomorrow?’

‘ Girls’ night out,’ Brie replied. I began to worry she might start talking about the list, but she simply said, ‘ We’ re going to this bar called Oasis. That’ s the name of it, right, June? Oasis?’ I nodded, and she continued, ‘ Anyway, the guys there are going to have to pick up their tongues off the floor when June here walks in. She’ s definitely going to be& ‘ She paused to give me an exaggerated wink. ‘ The hottest girl there.’

Okay, shoot me now. I wasn’ t sure who was more amused by Brie’ s carrying on about me being hot, Martucci or Deedee. Luckily, an actual customer approached, preventing Brie from inflicting any further humiliation. I grabbed our beach stuff and said a quick good-bye, and Deedee and I started the trek to the water before I lost my nerve.

Although I had done a fair amount of body surfing in my day, I’ d never surfed on a boogie board. I may be a California girl by birth, but I grew up in the Valley, land of air-conditioning and outdoor pools. Anyone who’ s ever been in Van Nuys during an August heat wave would understand how Valley girls earned such a reputation for hanging out at the mall. It’ s shop or melt. And the beach-the beautiful, breezy beach that was over the hill and a forty-five-minute drive away-may as well have been a thousand miles for my parents’ willingness to drive us there. (Although I have to admit, now living in Santa Monica, it’ s embarrassing how few times I’ ve made the short trip to the beach myself.)

Chase had given me pointers when I’ d stopped by Susan’ s to borrow their boogie board. He’ d told me to paddle out to where the waves crash. Wait until one is about to break, lie on the board, then paddle like crazy and ride it gloriously into shore. ‘ Wait for your wave,’ he’ d advised, as if I had any idea what that meant.