My mom sighed. “Yeah, sure. Got your coat?”
“Of course. It’s November.” I didn’t know a single other spy in the world whose mother felt the need to remind her to take her coat.
The ever-present town car was waiting downstairs and I sent the driver to an address a block from Roux’s actual house. There was an alley that connected the two parts of the street, and after he dropped me off, I let myself into one building (no doorman, thank God), walked straight down the hall, and went out the back door to the alley.
Two minutes later, I was at Roux’s front door with nary a driver in sight.
“Hey, Harold,” I said when I saw her cranky doorman. “What’s new? Things good? Wife okay? Kids?” He didn’t even blink. “Great, glad to hear it. Do you mind buzzing Roux?”
He turned and pressed a button. Two rings later, I heard, “HELLOOOOO, HAROLD! It’s been too long! We haven’t talked since this afternoon! Did you miss me? Say yes, you’ll break my heart if you don’t.”
I have to hand it to Harold, he was as stoic as a soldier. A soldier in the Roux War.
“There’s a young lady to see you, Scarlet.”
“Ugh, Hare-Bear, call me Roux, for the love of God. Why do you insist on being so formal? Oh, by the way, I owe you twenty-five dollars. I stubbed my toe on my bed and let’s just say that my language got colorful.”
I don’t know how much Harold made per year, but whatever it was, it wasn’t enough.
“Maggie?” Now Roux was yelling down the phone at me. “Is that you?”
“It’s me,” I said. “Let me up.”
“Is it really her, Harold? You know this crazy city. Imposters everywhere!”
I raised an eyebrow at Harold when he narrowed his eyes at me. “Really?” I said.
“Oh, that’s Maggie, I’d know that sarcasm anywhere. Come on up, lady! Harold, let her pass.”
When I got upstairs, Roux flung the front door wide open. “I love surprises!” She grinned. “What are you doing here? Why didn’t you just call or text? Did you give up technology for Lent?”
“Lent’s not until the spring.”
“I didn’t know you were Catholic!”
“What? No, I’m not.” Not even five seconds had passed and Roux had already completely distracted me. “I came over because I wanted to talk to you.”
“Excellent.” She shut the door behind me and watched as I started to kick off my shoes. “Aww, you’re so polite. Listen, how cool do you think this would be? Next year I wanna make Harold dress up as Gandalf for Halloween.”
“The wizard?”
“No, the other Gandalf. Yes, the wizard! How many famous Gandalfs are there? Anyway, this is amazing. I just thought of this while you were in the elevator. He’ll dress up as Gandalf and then anytime someone comes to the building and doesn’t get allowed in, he can stand there and say, “YOU SHALL NOT PASS!” Roux looked delighted. “Isn’t that great? He’ll complain, but I think he’d look good in a cloak and a floppy hat.”
I could feel a major headache starting to pulse and I wondered if I had made a huge mistake by coming here.
“Uh-oh, what’s wrong?” Roux said, reading my face. “Trouble in Jesse paradise? Was the first date that bad? I’ve been waiting for you to call me, you know. Tsk-tsk.”
My date with Jesse felt like it had happened last week rather than just yesterday. “No, it was fine. It was really nice.”
Roux waited for me to say more, and when I didn’t, she said, “Fine and nice? Wow, those are sexy adjectives. I bet you’ve waited your whole life to go on your first date to say it was ‘fine’ and ‘nice.’” She shook her head. “If he took you bowling, I’ll kill him. Why do guys think bowling is fun? It’s not fun.”
“No, we went ice skating. And he took me to this amazing atrium and we saw stars.”
“Ooooh.” She plopped herself down on the couch and tucked her legs against her chest. “That sounds very romantical. Tell me everything.”
I sat down next to her, feeling a little ill. My nerves were jangled, to say the least, and it was hard to hold a thought in my head. If this didn’t work, I was screwed.
“Do you really want to know everything?”
“Duh,” she said, then wiggled her toes. “Do you like the color? Is it too red?”
“It’s fine.”
She made a face. “Fine, fine, fine. Something’s wrong.” She sounded like Angelo when she said that. “Tell it to your old friend Roux.”
I was scared, though. I had spent most of the day worried about how I had been lying to Jesse, but I was only now realizing that I had been lying to Roux, too. And worse, I had been pretending to be friends with someone who didn’t have any friends left. I knew when I started this assignment that I would be digging a few large holes, but now I didn’t know how to fill them back up.
“Maggie?” Roux was as quiet as I had ever heard her. “Um, is everything okay? You look … well, not great. No offense.”
It was the first time I had heard her actively try not to offend. “I … I have something to tell you?” I said, even though it came out like a question. “And I’m really scared?”
She scooted closer to me on the couch. “Okay,” she said. “Well, just tell me. Let ’er rip.”