Turn up the Heat

police. I didn’t want to raise false hope about getting him off the hook. “Consider it a pregnancy gift!”
    “I’m not in the mood to argue with you, but I don’t see why you don’t just go talk to Gavin or Josh about this.”
    “I promised Isabelle. Oh!” I clapped my hand over my mouth. I’d just completely broken my promise by blabbing everything to Adrianna! The Office of Ethics and Professional Review of the National Association of Social Workers would be furious! “Pretend you don’t know anything!”
    “Chloe, I’m pregnant and tired, and I have the worst indigestion of my life, and I don’t even have an eBay account, so I don’t know anything, and that’s close to the truth. Just go be me on the computer. My credit card is in my wallet. And you better pay me back!”
    I squeezed between a few boxes, sat down in front of the computer, went to eBay, and started setting up a new account for Adrianna. “What do you want your user ID to be?”
    “Do I seem like I give a shit today?” she hollered from the kitchen.
    I dubbed her grouchymama and filled in all the correct boxes. “You’re all set!” I called out happily.
    “I still don’t give a shit!”
    “How can you not give a shit? This is shopping!”
    I repeated my chinois search until I again found the seller offering the suspect items. Only one of this mystery seller’s auctions was ending soon. Actually, it was ending at midnight tonight. And I’d lucked out. Yes, I had the perfect excuse to bid on the adorable peacoat! The current bid was only twenty-one dollars, but eBay bids always rose toward the very end of an auction, so I entered a maximum bid of eighty dollars, in other words, an awful lot of money for a used peacoat and more, I hoped, than any ordinary eBay shopper would be willing to offer. I really didn’t want to have to buy Ade an eighty-dollar coat right now, but anything in the name of justice! I would look very cute in it, too, so until Ade lost her pregnancy weight, I could wear it through next fall...
    “Chloe? Are you done yet? Come in here and eat with me.”
    Adrianna had put together a plate of marinated artichoke hearts and mushrooms, the special Italian salami called sopressatta, sliced Fontina cheese, Brie, ripe plum tomatoes, fresh basil leaves, olive oil, and French bread. No wonder she had bad indigestion!
    “Who has this much food in the house a few days before moving?” I asked.
    “Pregnant people who don’t want to cook anything. Want some water?”
    I nodded, and Ade pulled out two bottles of Poland Spring.
    “I could drink about thirty of these a day. I’ve never been so thirsty in my life. I figure that I pee all the time anyway, so what’s the difference? So, what's going on with you? How are you and Josh?”
    “Good. Except that I hardly ever see him because he works all the time. I knew it would be like this when the restaurant first opened, but it’s been since New Year’s. Shouldn’t things ease up soon? Seriously, Ade, he is so tired he can barely stand half the time, and he’s a little snippy and cranky because he’s beyond exhausted.” I piled a bread slice high with Fontina, tomato, and basil, drizzled some high-end olive oil on top, and took a bite.
    “The restaurant is still very young, though. To you, it might seem like it’s been ages, but four or five months is a short time in that business. Chloe, you know how many restaurants close in the first six months. So, they have to do everything they can to stay open this first year.” She swilled more water and then popped a mushroom in her mouth. “Gavin dug himself a big hole by the time he opened Simmer. That’s one of the reasons they have to pay Owen COD. It’ll take a while for them to start making money. Or just to start breaking even.”
    “So what do I do until then? Until Josh’s schedule eases up?”
    “Nothing. You enjoy the time that you do get with him. You’re just about done with school for the year, summer is coming, and you’ll have some free time to go hang out down at the restaurant with Josh when he gets a break. You two just have to make the most of the time you do have together.”
    “You’re right. I wouldn’t trade him for anyone else in the world. 1 just hope we can get through this okay.” I cut off a thick slice of the gooey Brie, smeared it on the bread, and topped it with a marinated artichoke heart. Perfect.
    “Are you two having problems?” She looked concerned. “No, no.