Blended Ch 20

Riley stays at the table after Bella and Kayla have gone off. Piper clears the dishes and tidies the kitchen, then goes over it all with a Clorox wipe while Riley makes several phone calls. Each time, she leaves a voicemail asking for a call back.

Piper puts her apron away and joins her. “What’s wrong?”

“Shondra gave me people to call to get the repairs done, but nobody’s picking up. People are already leaving comments about the shitty bathroom. We have to get this fixed. And I hate calling people. Can’t we text like adults?”

Piper lowers her voice. “Did you ask Flynn?”

“I don’t have his number. And isn’t he kind of informal?” Riley leans close and whispers. “And you know I can’t ask Kayla for it.”

“I don’t have it.”

“Do you have Graham?”

“No.”

Riley looks skeptical. “Really?”

“Riley, if I had it, I’d be asking him. I don’t have it.”

“Pretty sure he has a thing for you.”

“That’s just the normal big boob attention,” Piper lies, gesturing toward her chest. In fact, there are some signs that Graham is more than just cursorily interested in top-heavy women. After all, Bella’s as stacked as Piper, and Graham doesn’t flirt with her. “But like Bella said, Graham does Habitat.”

Riley’s eyes light up. “We can go talk to him.”

We? Piper twitches. She’s thinking it would be easier to just ask Bella to get Flynn’s number, but it looks like Riley wants to get out of the house. “Gonna head over there?”

“I mean, can I?”

“Why not?”

She looks dubious. “I don’t like crashing stuff.”

“Just text Bella.”

“I don’t want her to feel like I only hit her up when I need something.”

“Riley, breathe.”

“I’m good!”

She’s not. “Go take a shower. I’ll come with.”

Her face lights up. “Thank you, Piper.”

Piper’s face hurts from smiling.

BLENDED

Going to the site means helping out. It would be beyond gauche to show up, get a number, and walk off while volunteers are doing legitimately good things. It’s early, but already brutally hot. Piper packs a cooler with water, diet soda, and the little packets of cheese and crackers that Mary gobbles when she’s slamming huge glasses of chardonnay after a big day in court. Piper takes a shower and considers her closet. Indeed, her precious Fenty teddy is there. And it was, as planned, if Piper may say so herself, a smashing success with Ines. Piper bites her thumb, remembering. Then she sighs. Ines isn’t here, and even if she were, there are no guarantees. There’s a twinge of sympathy for Kayla. What Piper feels is not at all like whatever crisis Kayla’s going through with this Flynn thing, but it’s never easy to see someone you like flirting with other people.

Piper focuses. The goal here is to get what she wants from men, and the setting will be a house under construction. She has khaki shorts. Jean shorts. Shirts like the one Bella is wearing. Those would make sense. She pushes all that to the side and grabs a pink denim microskirt from Urban Outfitters. She has a white lace gimmie top. Her bra will show, but that’ll be a feature, not a bug, under the circumstances. Denim means no need to worry about lines, so white underwear will be the most impactful if she has to bend over. Sneakers could work and would make sense, so she grabs tall, brown boots with a short heel. There’s a time to be sensible, and a time to slay. Riley is counting on her.