Читать книгу Small Town Monsters - Craig Nybo - Страница 71

Craig Nybo

14

her. He opened his mouth to say something, anything, but he couldn’t even manage a “hi.”

Lucy looked disheveled; her shift must have been brutal. She wore too much makeup, more than Tory had ever seen on her, lots of base. Her pretty face required no makeup at all. Lucy made beauty seem effortless; she simply exuded it without even thinking about it.

“So what’s the big secret?” Lucy asked after a long moment of awkward silence.

Tory straightened up and turned to face her as squarely as he could. His eyes adjusted to the dome light and he got his first really good look at her for the night. Something, a thick fog, had descended on her. Her eyes seemed withdrawn. “You okay?” Tory asked. He noticed a dark stain around her eye and down into her cheek, mostly hidden by makeup base. Tory decided not to ask about it.

Lucy offered an iron smile, the best she could manage. “Of course I’m okay; why wouldn’t I be okay?”

“You just seem … kind of—”

“Kind of what? Tired? Like maybe I worked a double shift and served coffee to every creepy-eyed jerk in this whole town?”

Tory let her words trail off. He just sat there, looking at her, his eyes warm behind his glasses.

Lucy shifted in her seat a couple of times. “Sorry, you don’t disserve that. It’s just been a hard couple of days, that’s all. I don’t expect you to understand. And I shouldn’t take it out on you.”

“Hey, it’s okay. I’m a pretty good listener. Mostly on the count of I trip all over my tongue whenever you’re around.” Tory immediately regretted his words.

The two of them sat for another moment, nothing between them but the puttering of an idling engine.

Lucy laughed and shook her head back and forth. Tory just looked at her, listening to her laughter peel off like glass.

“What has become of us, Tory Bently,” Lucy said.

“What do you mean?”