Knowing Is Not Enough by Patricia Chatman, P Ann Chatman, A Chatman Chatman, Walker Chatman

asked me to call her from the car, but I knew I would be calling Linda first. There has to be a reason that Jake had shown up out of the blue, and if anyone knew what that reason was it would be Linda. She was a vault when it came to keeping secrets.
    “Hey, are you busy?” I asked.
    “No, just got home. What’s up?”
    I was surprised. “Why are you home so early?”
    “Well, nosey, if you
must
know, I went for my annual physical and decided not to go back to the office.”
    “Oh, good—you need to take more time off.” I smiled. “I guess I shouldn’t be giving that advice.”
    “No, you shouldn’t. So what’s up?”
    I pulled out on the street and headed toward the hair salon. “A visitor stopped by today. I figured if anybody knew something about my visitor being in my office today that person would be you . . . Ms. Sneaky.”
    “Sneaky?”
    “Yes, Sneaky, what have you been up to? Spill it.”
    There was a pause. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
    I started feeling impatient. “Don’t play. You know Jake came to see me.”
    She ignored the question. “Where are you at?”
    “I’m in my car, driving to the salon.”
    “I thought you were going out tonight,” said Linda.
    “We
are
going out.”
    “Who all’s going?”
    “Tobey, Sanford and me.”
    “Sanford? Hmm—interesting.”
    I hadn’t told her everything about our sort-of-not date Wednesday. I left out the kiss. “We’ve started to get back to normal.”
More or less
. “Tonight will be the first time we’ve seen each other since Wednesday.”
    “Oh, wow, then this should be good. Okay, so what is it you think I did?”
    Think?
“I know you talked to Jake.”
    “Why do you think I talked to him?”
    “Because you did, and I know you did. Why else would he just pop up?”
    “So what did he say?”
    “He didn’t say anything, just stopped to say hello, and told me to call his mother.”
    “Was Karen there when he stopped over?”
    Her questions were getting to me. “Yeah, she works there, remember?”
    “Smarty, I was just asking—but the truth is I don’t know what you talking about. It doesn’t sound like you need Scooby Doo to solve this mystery. He wanted to see how you were, he did that—and now he’s gone.”
    “The last time I saw Jake was with you in the courthouse. How’s that not a big deal? He just shows up unannounced out of the blue.”
    “Let’s not get too dramatic about this, okay? What else did he say exactly?”
    I took a deep breath. “He said he was in the neighborhood doing some business and decided to stop in and see if I was there.”
    “Okay, so what’s strange about that?”
    She made it sound completely reasonable, even I had to admit to its plausibility. “Nothing, now that you put it that way.”
    Linda laughed. “Girl, stop bugging me about nonsense. Aren’t you supposed to be meeting this new guy tonight?”
    I pulled off the road into a gas station and parked. “Oh, shit, Linda! I completely forgot about that.”
    “Maybe I should come—you’re in a pickle, my dear.” She laughed. “Well, try not to get back on Sanford’s naughty list. Call me tomorrow and let me know how it went.”
    I put the car in drive and headed back toward the gas station exit. “So, still not telling me anything?”
    “Girl, bye!” There was a decisive click. It didn’t matter, she reminded me there was a bigger issue tonight than Jake.

The conversation with Linda hadn’t revealed any diabolical schemes. Perhaps, despite my suspicions to the contrary, she really didn’t know anything. Until proven otherwise, the visit for now was classified as just a visit. But in the category of
what matters most
, Jake’s reemergence from the depths didn’t stack high on the bookshelf.
    Being with Sanford and avoiding meeting Peter’s friend took precedence.
    A key element of my “potential new boyfriend” analytical process was defining and labeling. I was feeling a little adrift in