Ruby double checked that her phone was on record as she waited for Lucy to walk through the doors of the cafe. A small part of her felt bad that she was trying to trick Lucy into telling her what was going on, but the rest of her was steaming mad that Lillith was holding something over Lucy’s head. At that thought, Ruby took a quick inventory of the room. When she didn’t recognize any of the other patrons, she breathed a sigh of relief. Just then the door bell jangled and in walked Lucy.
Ruby waved from her chair and then made sure one more time that her phone was ready to go and tucked in a corner, as unobtrusive as possible.
“Hey chica! How are you?” Lucy walked over and leaned down to give Ruby a hug.
“Doing good, thanks!” Ruby returned the hug and the girls settled themselves in their seats.
Lucy picked up her menu, “I haven’t been here in forever. Is there anything new?”
“Probably,” Ruby murmured as she looked through the menu herself. Her nerves had taken a sudden hit when Lucy sat down. She could feel her heart rate pick up and it took concentration to keep her breathing under control. Good grief. I would make a terrible spy. She thought.
After a few moments the girls had gotten their orders off and they were once again alone.
“So ... ” Ruby pinched her lips together. “What’s, uh, new? Looks like you’ve finally recovered from your illness. What did you have again?”
“Pneumonia and bronchitis.” Lucy sighed. “With a nice side of laryngitis.” She chuckled. “You should have heard me talk. For a few days, I sounded like a frog with a sore throat.”
Ruby forced out a chuckle. “How is the online dating going?” She blurted out. Smooth Ruby, real smooth.
Lucy’s eyes shot downward and her face fell. “It’s uh ... going I guess.” She began to fiddle with her napkin.
“What’s wrong?”
Lucy shook her head. “Nothing. I mean, nothing worth worrying about.” Lucy’s eyes brightened. “What about you? Weren’t you going out with someone a few weeks back? How did that go?”
Ruby stiffened. “It was fine. Just fine. I didn’t really feel a connection though, so I don’t think I’ll go out with him again.” She shifted her silverware from one side to the other. “But I want to hear about you. Have you had any success?”
Lucy rubbed her lips together. “Not really. I mean, I started emailing someone I thought was pretty great, but I don’t think it’s going to work out.” Tears pricked Lucy’s eyes and she blinked rapidly to push them back.
Ruby sat dumbfounded for a moment. “Lucy! What‘s going on? Did this guy hurt you?” Ruby felt her temperature rise. Was Mateo lying to me? I’ll—
“No. If anything I hurt him.” Lucy’s lip trembled and she bit it to stop the motion.
Ruby reached over the table and grabbed Lucy’s hand. “‘Fess up girl. What’s going on?”
“Well ... I promised I wouldn’t say.” Lucy sniffed and grabbed her purse to look for a tissue.
“Shme ... ” Ruby blew a raspberry through her lips. “Promises, schmomises. Something that makes you cry needs to be told. You can trust me.” Ruby gulped at that last statement. Technically I’m not really trustworthy right now ... but I’m doing this for her own good.
Lucy blew her nose and settled back down. Just as she opened her mouth to speak, the waitress showed up with their meals and the conversation stalled for a few minutes. Once the meals were on the table and they were alone again, Ruby started again. “Come on Luce. You’ll feel better if you tell someone.”
Lucy nodded. “You’re right. And, actually, I only promised I wouldn’t tell Mateo, so technically I won’t be breaking my promise to tell you. But you have to promise to keep it a secret.” Lucy looked Ruby in the eye. “If Piper found out, Nash would probably end up doing something that would get him in trouble.”
Ruby’s eyes widened. “Whoa. Okay. I’m listening.” Please don’t notice I didn’t promise ... please don’t notice.
Lucy nodded and Ruby let out a small sigh of relief.
“A couple of months ago, a gentleman with the initials M.K. started emailing me. He sounded nice and actually ... normal. So I responded and we struck up an email conversation.” Lucy smiled. “He ended up being really funny and sweet. I was constantly checking my email, hoping for a reply. Sometimes we wrote several times a day. In those words, he was everything I thought I wanted.” Lucy paused and ate a few bites.
“Then what?” Ruby encouraged.
“Then things got weird.” Lucy’s shoulders fell. “The tone of his emails changed and he actually asked if we should stop writing each other. I was devastated. I had said in the beginning I wanted to go slow, but by this point I was ready to meet him and now suddenly he didn’t want to write.” She took a sip of water. “I mentioned I enjoyed our emails and he agreed to keep writing, but I don’t know that things ever felt quite the same.”
Ruby forced herself to eat a few bites. She was so caught up in Lucy’s story she hadn’t been eating. Even though she had heard Mateo’s version, she was captivated by what Lucy was telling her.
“Anyway, one day after I was finally getting well, I walked to the park. I ran into a man there, but we weren’t able to really talk because my voice was still gone. His name was Mateo and he was so cute about the fact that my voice was gone. And when he sat on the bench by me, I could feel this ... electricity is probably the only way to describe it. I was so drawn to him and we had never even met. Well ... I felt bad because I was still emailing M.K. and he mentioned he was waiting to meet a woman. So I left the park assuming we would never meet again.”
“But you did ... didn’t you!” Ruby snapped her mouth shut and looked around, realizing she may have been a bit loud, but no one was paying attention to them.
Lucy laughed lightly. “I did.” She fiddled with the toothpick from her sandwich. “In fact, I discovered that Mateo was the mysterious M.K. from my emails. “
“That’s perfect! So why are you so sad?” Ruby knew the answer but needed Lucy to be the one telling it.
“Well ... I’m not sure you’ll even believe me. I discovered that somehow Mateo had come to meet me in person, but I had forgotten to tell him I was sick and no longer teaching summer school and he happened to meet Lillith instead. With us having the same initials and blonde hair, he naturally assumed Lillith was me.” Lucy took another bite.
“Why don’t you just tell him the truth?” Ruby asked. This is where we start to get our answers.
“First, I don’t know if he’ll believe me. I mean, you have to admit, the story is crazy. What are the odds of something like this happening?” Lucy asked, her eyebrows raised.
“I have no idea. Honestly, this is one of the craziest things I’ve ever heard. But I still think you should just tell him the truth. You won’t know if he’ll believe you til you try. You obviously like him.”
Lucy’s cheeks turned a light pink and Ruby smiled. “You do!”
When Lucy cleared her throat and looked away, Ruby had to hold her jaw in check. “Do you love him? No ... that’s silly. A few emails can’t make someone fall in love. Plus it’s not like you’ve kissed him yet.”
Lucy glanced up from beneath her lashes and a smirk played on her lips.
“No way!” Ruby put her hands on the table and leaned forward. Mateo held out on me! Men! “You’ve kissed him! How? When? Details!”
Lucy chuckled. “It really shouldn’t have happened.” She paused and looked at her hands. “But it was wonderful,” she breathed with a goofy smile.
Ruby frowned. “If it was so wonderful, what do you mean it shouldn’t have happened?”
Lucy’s eyes lost their gleam. “He’s just ... I mean ... ” She sighed. “We have this chemistry that is just amazing. I’ve never felt this drawn to someone before. But ... he was sitting next to me on the park bench and we kind of just got lost in the moment. Before I knew it, we were kissing,” she shrugged.
“Well, then what happened?”
“I finally came to my senses and stopped the kiss because I was kinda seeing M.K. at the time. I didn’t realize M.K. was Mateo. And he was headed to meet up with another woman. Who turned out to be Lillith, who he thought was me.”
Ruby huffed, “This is the most messed up story I have ever heard.”
Lucy nodded, but didn’t speak.
“But you still haven’t explained to me why you haven’t just told him what was going on? You like him, might even love him and you’re just going to sit back and let Lillith have him?” Ruby clucked her tongue and shook her head. “No one deserves that kind of punishment.”
Lucy blurted out a laugh before becoming somber again. “Well, when we all met up at Piper’s barbecue, Lillith threatened my job if I told Mateo.”
“What!” Ruby shouted.
“Shhh!” Lucy patted the air with her hand, to quiet her friend. “She claimed that Principal Grimm had told her he was going to hire her this fall and she could have any grade she wanted.”
“She’s lying!” Ruby spat.
“I think so too, but I can’t prove it. She showed me a text to prove it, but I’m still not sure. I told her I would keep quiet, but I only planned to until I could talk to Principal Grimm and confirm she was all bluff. I went to the school a couple days ago and Principal Grimm is out of town, so I have no way of finding out what’s the truth.” Lucy’s eyes became wild and desperate. “I need my job and I’m not willing to risk it, no matter how much I like Mateo. I just need to get by until Principal Grimm gets back. As soon as I can confirm Lillith is lying I’m going to tell him everything.”
“And what if she’s not lying?”
Lucy shrugged, tears glistening in her eyes. “I don’t know. How do I choose between my career and the man that turns my legs to jelly?”
“Oh ... ” Ruby reached over and grabbed Lucy’s hands. “We’re gonna fix this. You shouldn’t have to choose.”
Lucy nodded, but didn’t look convinced.
“I mean it! We’re going to fix this. There’s no way we’re going to let Lillith get away with this.” Ruby’s voice was strong and determined.
Lucy gave a weak smile and went back to finishing her lunch.
Ruby decided to let the topic drop for awhile and talk of something lighter. A little while later the two women said goodbye and went their separate ways.
Ruby waved goodbye to Lucy and waited for her to drive out of sight. Once gone, she quickly grabbed her phone and stopped the recording. Then she texted Mateo.
Got it. It’s crazy, you gotta hear this.
It took only moments for him to answer back.
Where do you want to meet?
Right now?
Yes.
Okay, the park?
Lucy goes there. Can’t risk it.
Library?
Be there in ten.