High-Caliber Concealer Read Free

was fine and he’d call you in a couple of days.”
    “A couple of days? He’s not supposed to
disappear like this!” Nikki heard the wail of confusion and worry
hiding behind the woman’s gruff tone.
    “I’m sure he’ll be fine,” said Nikki
soothingly.
    “Who are you?” asked the woman, her tone
suddenly becoming suspicious.
    “Just a friend he bumped into,” said Nikki.
“Nice chatting with you. I’m sure he’ll call. Bye now.”
    “But,” began the woman, as Nikki cut her
off, flipping the phone shut.
    “Why didn’t you give him your name?” asked
Z’ev.
    “Her,” corrected Nikki. “And I have enough
women yelling at me during the day. I refuse to give my name to one
at night just so she can yell at me on my phone.”
    “You don’t think she had caller id?”
    “It went through a switch board. I don’t
think it’ll be that easy.”
    “Aren’t you worried about him?”
    “Who, Donny?” Nikki scoffed. “He can take
care of himself. Besides, he seemed fine.” She wanted to say that
she’d get Jane to run a check on Monday when she went into work,
but didn’t.
    “So where do you know Donny from?” asked
Z’ev, changing the subject.
    “We went to school together in Kaniksu Falls
and his mom used to babysit me.”
    “Kaniksu Falls? I thought you went to school
in Seattle? Where’s Kaniksu Falls?”
    “It’s a postage stamp of a logging town in
Washington, About as far north as you can get without being in
Canada, and as far East as you can get without being in Idaho. My
grandparents live—lived there. Now it’s just my grandma. Mom and
Dad moved in with them before I was born. So I went to elementary
school there, spent most of my summers with Dad’s mom in Canada.
Donny’s mom used to baby-sit us; we were the Three Musketeers.
Then, in sixth grade, when my dad split, Mom and I moved to
Seattle.”
    “Who was the third?”
    “What?”
    “You said three musketeers. That usually
implies three.”
    Nikki kicked herself for her slip up. All
she had to do was stick to Donny, but no, she had to go mention the
three of them.
    “Oh. Uh, our friend Jackson. We kind of ran
around like wild monkey-children.” Nikki chuckled a little,
remembering their eight-year-old selves.
    “Jackson? Is that the guy Donny asked about?
Guy you used to go out with?”
    “Uh, yeah, we dated for about a second and a
half. I think that’s the restaurant Jenny recommended,” said Nikki
pointing out the window.
    “In Junior High?” Z’ev sounded
skeptical.
    “No, his family moved to Seattle when we
were in high school. We went out for a bit during senior year.
Jenny said that restaurant was really good. We should try it
sometime.”
    “But you broke up?”
    “Yeah, we did.” Nikki looked out the window.
She didn’t want to talk about Jackson. She didn’t want to think
about Jackson. For years now, she had been avoiding the topic in
her head the way a person with a cavity will avoid chewing on that
side. Why did he have to bring this up?
    “It was just one of those things, you know?
Stupid high school boyfriends.” That hurt a little to say, but she
could see that Z’ev believed it and that was what mattered. “I
haven’t seen him since college.” That at least was true.
    “That’s too bad,” said Z’ev and Nikki
glanced over at him nervously, waiting for the other shoe to drop.
“You hate to lose touch with someone you grew up with over
something like that.”
    “Yeah,” agreed Nikki. “I guess I should have
asked Donny how he was or something.” She waited a beat. “Oh well,
too late,” she said cheerfully and Z’ev laughed again.
    “Nice to know you’re not bitter.”
    “No, really, I’m not,” denied Nikki. “It’s
just been so long, you know? Why go there? What would we have to
say to each other?”
    “Yeah, I guess,” he agreed with a shrug.
    “Anyway, why do you care about some old
boyfriend? You’re not suspicious I’ve been secretly corresponding
with