Glimmers of Glass (A Glimmers Novel #1: Cinderella)

Chapter 25

I didn't know why I even bothered to come here anymore. Elle stood behind the counter and Tyler ogled her from the brown couch, as always. The only difference was that the blond girl that followed him around like his own personal backup dancer wasn't clinging to him today. She was on another couch, curled in on herself, acting like she hadn't been crying. I'd discovered her name was Brittney and she and Tyler had been on-again-off-again since freshman year. She made a good pretense of just looking annoyed, but I could feel the weepiness dripping off her like tears out of a soaked handkerchief.

Kyle was with me. He nursed a black coffee and glared darkly at Tyler.

"Remind me why you're here again?" I said.

"I'm keeping an eye on her," he said. "Not that I don't trust you to do it. But, you know." He raised his cup in Tyler's general direction in what looked like the most sarcastic toast I'd ever seen. "You arranged that."

"Elle's dad arranged that," I said. It was a stupid argument and I realized it as soon as the words left my lips. I just couldn't stand the thought of anyone thinking this awkward debacle had been my idea. "If it had been up to me I would have just given her fifty bucks for her buying-Pumpkin-Spice fund and left this whole thing alone."

"You don't like this any more than I do," Kyle said. "What happened?" He nodded toward Tyler, this time more curious than annoyed.

I didn't want to start trying to explain to him how stupid my job was. I was afraid that if I started, I'd never be able to stop. "It's kind of an unethical field," I finally said. That covered all my issues nicely. Well, most of them. "Also, I suck at it," I added, and that was everything.

"At least you've got one thing to be proud of, then." He scoffed as he watched Tyler heave a sigh and smile like a handsome mannequin toward Elle, who was busy telling her customer in a high-pitched, rapid voice how bad the coffee she was about to serve her was. The silver-haired woman looked confused. I watched to see if anything interesting would happen, but the customer just took her coffee and went back to her table, mouthing Wow at her friend as she sat down.

"It's so stupid!" Kyle said. The people at the table next to our window nook turned to frown at him, and he lowered his voice and said, "This is typical Elle. One minute, she's the smartest, most sensible person you've ever met. The next, bam. She's run full steam ahead with one of her stupid ideas and we're stuck at a furry convention wearing Ent costumes because she thought it would be funny and we're about to get literally bitten by a six-foot-four wolf."

I raised my eyebrows. "Traumatic memory?"

"Some of her ideas are awesome, don't get me wrong. No one gets great ideas like Elle. But she gets bad ideas too, and she goes after all of them with exactly the same enthusiasm."

"All enthusiasm, no discretion," I said. It matched what I'd seen of Elle so far. Kyle knew her perfectly, and still hadn't realized how much he liked her.

I was relieved to see Cortney appear behind the counter for her shift. I'd stolen the necklace from the locker room while she was in gym, and while she still looked tired, her face didn't have the gaunt haunted look it had before. Mallory had been harder to help; I'd slid an anonymous note in her locker advising her to claim she'd had a bad reaction to new antidepressants. I hoped she'd followed my advice. It would have been better to just wipe everyone's memories, but even Imogen could't have managed that.

Suddenly, Tyler stood up, vaulting himself off the couch and halfway across the room in a second. The upset blond girl unfolded her arms long enough to sit up straight, then slumped back into the couch as she realized he was headed to the counter where Elle was pulling off her apron. Tyler leaned over the counter and kissed her.