Queen of the Trailer Park (Rosie Maldonne's World Book 1) by Alice Quinn Page B

my uncle’s loaded. Anyway, I don’t need to work today.”
    That really bugged him. He turned his head away, disgusted, and I added, “But if you need me, just let me know. I’m always here for you.”
    He gawked at me. Mimi did too.
    “Hey, what’s happened to you?” Tony asked. “We’ve never seen you be so . . . so . . .” He couldn’t find the right words.
    I whispered, “Laid back? Kind? Generous? Big-hearted? Easy to please? Pleasant? Come on, spit it out.”
    “Huh . . . Yeah . . . That’s it . . .”
    “I’m not usually in this kind of mood, so you’re surprised, right?”
    “Right,” they said in unison.
    “Well don’t worry, there’s an explanation.” At their blank stares, I continued. “Money. Oh, yes. Coin is king. I always thought I had an awful personality. But nope, see, it’s just that I never had enough cash to get by. It made me aggressive. Now I’ve got something to butter my bread. Thanks to my uncle, I’m feeling a whole lot better. Weird, huh? People always say money isn’t everything. But they got it wrong. Don’t believe a word of it. It’s not as simple as all that. It might not buy you love, but it lifts your spirits, that’s what it does.”
    I briskly walked past the bar, past all their open-mouthed faces, and made my way to the back of the room.
    I spotted Ismène Jourdain sitting at a table with a croque-monsieur and a cup of coffee. Even sitting down, wearing her dowdy, masculine threads, she couldn’t hide her superb body. I was hot, in my own way, but this one . . . she won hands down. She had a regal presence, a relaxed but elegant allure about her.
    She sensed my arrival and turned to face me with a questioning expression, which canceled out her haughty look. Clearly this chick was a real charmer, but she liked to give the impression of being cold.
    Then she smiled at me, her whole face lighting up.
    I sat across from her. After some preliminary small talk— how has your day been going and so on—she dove straight into the subject at hand.
    She lowered her voice. “So. You were right. People have been talking. And it’s not all aboveboard. The city council actually voted against it, so they’re doing it on the QT.”
    “What? The casino?”
    “Shhh . . . Don’t say it out loud. We need to speak in code. You never know. Walls have ears. The cops are everywhere. Listen, let’s say kaa . . .”
    “Like Kaa, the snake from The Jungle Book ?”
    “No! God! Just be quiet a second, I’m thinking . . . Let’s say cotton candy .”
    “Instead of casin—”
    “Shhuuushhh.”
    “Right, OK. Cotton candy. Got it. No probs.”
    “And for the other word, the one that starts with L, we’ll say . . . Hmm . . .”
    “Liberty?”
    “No, it’s too similar sounding. We need it to be like an analogy, but not too much. We don’t want to be getting all mixed up here.”
    She was inflating her role, but it was funny all the same.
    “Libya?” I suggested.
    “No, no . . . That won’t do . . .”
    It was starting to piss me off how she was rejecting all my suggestions. “Fine, then, you think of something. You got a better idea?”
    “Um . . . Leveler?”
    “Leveler? What’s the connection?”
    “Well, they’re leveling off the ground, aren’t they?”
    “You said something with a similar sound . . .”
    “No, I didn’t. Oh my God. We’re really wasting our time with this secret language stuff,” she said, exasperated, as if it was my fault.
    “Cool down, OK? It wasn’t me who wanted to speak in code.”
    She threw me a warning look. I lifted my head and spotted Mimi. She was nosily hovering nearby, trying to find out what I was up to.
    “Do you want something to drink, Cricri?” Mimi offered. “I’m buying.”
    “Sure. Yeah, I’d like a lemonade.”
    She was lingering, so I felt obliged to introduce her to my new pal.
    “Oh! Hey, Mimi, let me introduce you to—”
    “Chantal Clairette. Pleased to meet you.