A Cherry Cola Christmas by Ashton Lee Page B

desk duty now that Marydell Crumpton was coming onboard on Monday. It would be a great relief not to have to spell someone quite so often when lunch hours rolled around. So she pulled out the old work schedule from her desk drawer and scanned it quickly. She decided she would continue to let Emma and Renette—and now Marydell—take the early lunch slot from eleven to twelve, while she would again reserve the noon-to-one slot for herself.
    But as she was filling out the new schedule, something began to gnaw at her, simmering just below the surface of her consciousness. It was trying hard to push through but couldn’t quite make it to the top. Was there anything more annoying than having a name, or date, or something else of crucial importance on the tip of your tongue and being totally unable to retrieve it? To be sure, a flash of it would entice her now and then, making her think the rest of it would soon emerge and unburden her, but the clever little tidbit always ran away and hid every time she wrinkled up her forehead. Once, she even stuck her tongue out at the schedule she was manipulating so diligently. Somehow, she knew the answer was looking up at her from the paper below. Perhaps whatever it was that was taunting her would return when she wasn’t trying so hard to wrestle it to the ground. She would probably be in the middle of something totally unrelated, and then one of those gasps of revelation would come out of her like a hiccup. Wasn’t that always the way?

7
    The Downside of Shelling Peas
    T he phone call from Periwinkle about an hour before the review and potluck was no big surprise to Maura Beth. They were all not very far removed from Ardenia Bedloe’s funeral and the raw, churning emotions that went with it.
    â€œParker’s just not up to comin’,” Periwinkle began. “And I’m not sure I am, either. I hope you’ll understand, girl.”
    Maura Beth was properly consoling and did not make a big deal out of it. “Oh, I do. Friday’s one of your biggest nights at The Twinkle anyway. Of course, we’ll miss you, and Mr. Place, too. Both of you always add so much to our discussions. It makes the club the melting pot it really is.”
    â€œOh, I don’t know about that part. I try my best to contribute. But I do appreciate you understanding how we feel right now. We’re both just gonna have to pass this time around.”
    Then Maura Beth realized how much Emma’s confession was affecting her perspective on the very mention of The Twinkle itself. The image of those stolen tips had suddenly heated things up on the front burner of her brain. It was very difficult keeping secrets from her best girlfriend in all of Greater Cherico. Almost as a reflex action, a question popped out of Maura Beth’s mouth.
    â€œThose security cameras working okay for you?”
    Periwinkle sounded a bit caught off guard. “Uh . . . oh, that. Yes, we’ve had no problems so far. They’d better work—as expensive as they were.”
    â€œSo, no more stolen tips to report, I hope?”
    Periwinkle’s hearty laugh quickly dissolved the awkwardness of the moment. “Oh, girl, you woudda heard from me long before now if somethin’ like that had happened again. And I b’lieve we woudda had us an arrest, too. Nothin’ says guilty like bein’ caught on camera.”
    â€œYou’re so right. Maybe the worry is all over for you,” Maura Beth added, carefully testing the waters. “If whoever did this knows about the cameras, surely they wouldn’t even think of trying it again.”
    Maura Beth clearly detected the concern in Periwinkle’s sigh. “But that’s not the point, girl. I want justice to be done. I can’t let go until this is solved. There’s no way anyone who works for me did this, so the culprit’s still out there somewhere. Sure, I made up Lalie’s tips to her, but as I