Shade of Avocado - Part 42
Unexpected Visitor (Piper)
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I was making more notes about the problems my main character was facing because of the man who kept showing such an interest in her. Now he shows up and wants to take her to dinner tonight. She doesn’t have time for this right now.
The doorbell rang and I set the notebook aside with frustration, a bit because of the interruption, but mostly because the situation in the story was so aggravating to me.
I looked out the peep hole, seeing a woman standing on the porch. I opened the front door and spoke with her through the storm door (the screened panel was partially open). The woman seemed a little surprised when she saw me.
“Hi, I think I have the right house?” the well-dressed blond woman asked. “This is Avery’s house, isn’t it?”
I tried to decide if I should provide an answer until I knew who I was talking to. She must have noticed my hesitation.
“I’m a friend of Avery’s. My name is Brooke Linderman.”
I recognized the name immediately while having some difficulty reconciling the photo of the author of a book I found in Avery’s library matching this very pretty woman.
“You’re Brooke?” I said with great astonishment. “Yes, this is Avery’s house but he’s out at the moment.”
“Oh, dear. I’ll be disappointed to miss him.”
I unlatched the storm door and opened it to her. “He should be back shortly. Come in. I’m sure he wouldn’t want to miss you either.”
“Thank you…um…” she paused as she stepped through the threshold.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I’m Piper. Piper Fanssen. Also, a friend of Avery’s.” I held out my hand to shake hers.
Brooke reciprocated. “I’m glad to meet you, Piper. You’ve known Avery a long time!”
“Well, I knew Avery a long time ago, and again, rather recently.”
“Yes, I understand you met again at the reunion picnic. It’s so nice you were able to reconnect after all those years!”
I wondered how much more this woman knew about me than I knew about her. It was interesting how enthusiastic she sounded about Avery and I meeting again and resuming our friendship. I wondered if Brooke knew yet that Avery and I were now more than friends.
“Please, sit down, Brooke. Would you like something to drink?”
“Just water, please,” she answered. “I forgot how dry it is here.”
I brought her a glass of ice water and she took a sip. “Thank you, Piper. Is this your first visit to Santa Fe?”
“Yes, well, sort of,” I answered truthfully. “We went on a road trip to Arizona, then we came back here. But I’ve been here since the beginning of July.”
“My goodness.”
I wasn’t sure how to interpret Brooke’s reaction, so I changed the subject. “Avery took his sister to, wherever it is you do that, to get her marriage license. Josie and her partner Tracy are getting married here tomorrow.”
Brooke became clearly flustered about dropping in at such a time. She was trying to explain to me while gathering herself to leave. “Here I am, barging in on a family thing. I came to town rather suddenly to fill in at an environmental conference. The scheduled speaker had to cancel, so I only tried to call Avery when my plane got in this afternoon. But he didn’t answer. I thought I’d take a chance and come over. But I should get on out of here and let all of you get on with your plans.”
“Hold on,” I told her. “At least you can take a few minutes to say hi. I’m sure Avery would not want to miss seeing you.”
“You really think it’s okay?” Brooke asked.
Sending her away would not have been me protecting Avery’s interests. The truth is, it would have been me protecting my own interests.
“I’m certain Avery would not want me to let you go. I know you’ve been a wonderful friend to him. He’d be frustrated knowing you came to town and didn’t get even a brief chance to visit.”
“If you’re sure I wouldn’t be in the way. I promise I won’t stay long.”
“I’m certain. I don’t think it will be too much longer. Not that I know what the line is like at the marriage license window. Lord knows, I’ve never been there.” That was a weird thing for me to say aloud.
Brooke laughed at my comment. Not a fake laugh, as if to indulge my wittiness. She thought what I said was funny. I guess she doesn’t hate me.
“You’re a high school teacher, right?” Brooke asked. “I’m sure you keep your students engaged!”
“I’m a retired English teacher. Probably on a permanent sabbatical.”
“Really? I’m on sabbatical for the year, too. I suppose it wasn’t pleasant dealing with conservative school boards?”
“Oh, Avery told you about that?”
“No, I don’t think he did. But I’ve seen a lot of stories in the news. Restricting curriculum, book banning, that sort of nonsense. And I know, firsthand, the education field has been a challenging one for women.”
I agreed with her assessment. “I was fortunate, but I know of teachers who had to deal with sexual harassment.”
“That and plain old sexism and discrimination,” Brooke said. “I spent most of my university career downplaying that I was a woman at all.”
Looking at Brooke objectively, I thought that disguising her femininity couldn’t be easy. It didn’t seem like she was hiding it now.
I shifted topics again. “I saw your book here, Brooke. The one you signed for Avery. It looks very interesting.”
“You’re too kind, Piper. I know for a fact Avery hasn’t read more than twenty pages of it, and I wouldn’t expect many other people would either. It’s arcane as hell. Even just the title takes a while to read.”
“From your picture on the book jacket, I would have never recognized you.”
“Well, the photo was from, what, six years ago?”
“You must have gotten younger, Brooke.”
“Aren’t you a sweetie! No, trust me, that’s not it. I ended up reaching a place where I’m okay showing the real me. At least, I’m trying to. It’s still…not easy.”
I heard a tinge of sadness as she finished speaking. I wondered if it was regret not being herself sooner or all the trials she endured before she got there. As our conversation had gone along, it was becoming harder for me not to like this woman.
It was then that I heard the sound of the garage door opening. “That’ll be Avery getting home. He’ll be happy to see you, Brooke.”