“No,” I said. “I heard his name when he was going up to the counter as I was leaving. Gerry. He had an accent.”
“Oh, Lord,” Dee said, letting her head fall back as she closed her eyes. “Was it French-ish?”
“I guess? Canadian maybe?”
“I know exactly who it was,” she said, shaking her head slowly. “You definitely need to apologize. It’s Wendy’s coworker. Kind of her boss, really, since she’s studying under him and helping tutor her through her college courses.”
“He is?” I said, feeling the guilt mount stronger and stronger.
“Yes.” She opened her eyes again and stared at me. “He’s like the nicest guy in the world. Wendy and Finn adore him. And he’s from Quebec.”
To my rising horror, I was beginning to realize that not only was I rude to someone, I was rude to what was essentially the nicest dude in the town of Ashford. It was like kicking a puppy.
“Yeah, not good, sis. You fucked that one up, big-time,” she said, a smile crossing her face. At least she found it funny.
I knew I needed to apologize already but hearing her say it seemed to spark something in me. Even before I heard how great a person he was, I felt like I knew already he deserved my acknowledgement. Now it was cemented in my mind.
“So, Wendy knows him? Could she get his number or something?” I asked.
Dee shrugged.
“I suppose so,” she said. “You should find out. Do you have her number?”
“No, I always got to her through you or social media.”
“Here you go.” She opened her phone and handed it over with Wendy’s name already highlighted.
“Thanks. Mind if I text her?”
“Sure,” Dee said, standing. “You need a shot of something first?”
Laughing, she walked by me into the kitchen.
“Ha ha. You’re just full of the jokes today.”
Wendy, it’s Malia, I typed. Could I ask you to do me a big favor?
Sure, she typed back, almost immediately. What do you need, kiddo?
I was wondering if you maybe might give me Gerry’s number? I kind of need to talk to him. Can you be ready in about twenty minutes? I was going to go down to the diner and see my husband, and Gerry will be there. You can talk to him there.
I can, I responded. I just want to apologize to him for an incident the other day.
No worries, hon. He’s an absolute sweetheart. You can come and say what you need and then I’ll bring you home.
Thanks, I typed. See you in twenty.
For the first time since getting to Ashford, I went into my room and stared at my closet, trying to figure out something to wear that I actually cared about looking good in.
Wendy arrived right on time, and I made it out to the car on my own without falling on my face, so I counted that as a win. One less thing to be embarrassed about in front of her. Olly and Hope were in the back seat, strapped into car seats, and I got into the passenger’s seat beside Wendy, sticking my crutches in between the seat and the door.
“Hey, hon,” she said as I sat down.
“Hey, Wendy. Sorry about all this.”
“It’s okay,” she said sweetly. “I get it. You’ve had a rough go of it. Sometimes we snap at people when things are hard.”
I nodded.
“Yeah, but everything I hear about this guy, he’s like the sweetest guy ever,” I said.
“Well, he kind of is,” she said. “But just think about it this way, he won’t be a jerk about this. He will probably just be really touched you went out of your way to apologize to him.”
“You think so?”
She turned the ignition on again and put the car into gear, smiling.
“I know so,” she said.
The drive over to the diner was rather short. It didn’t leave me a lot of time to think about what I was going to say or how I was going to react if he decided that this would be the one time that he would be a jackass to someone.
As we pulled up to the diner, I took a deep breath. Wendy reached over and patted my hands and then got out to get the kids. I waited on her to get the sleeping Hope out, holding Olly’s hand with her free one, and then made my way behind them into the diner.
“Does he know I’m coming?” I asked.
“Nope,” she said. “But Finn is working, and he verified that Gerry’s here. Sitting at a booth alone, in fact.”
“Oh.”
As we got into the diner, I saw him in a booth near the corner of the diner, sipping on a glass of soda and eating a sandwich. I felt shy, probably for the first time in years. Part of it was the nerves of apologizing to a person I didn’t really know, but another part of it was the fact that he was gorgeous.