Page 138 of ClickBack

I sit back while she fixes her face. She leaves her knee against mine.

Marla has already decided we’re going across the street to eat. Giselle turns to see whether I want to, but I’m getting up with her bag. I had cleared the afternoon. I’m not about to leave because the movie ended.

The restaurant pushes two tables together near the front window. Yvonne switches chairs so she won’t be beneath the vent. Malcolm puts his glasses on to read the menu, loses his place when Brenda asks him a question, and takes them off to answer her with his full attention.

“I’m saying Frankie could have handled it differently,” he says.

“She followed their procedure and got fired after having a gun in her face,” Brenda says. “Differently how?”

“She didn’t have to rob a bank.”

“Nobody invited us to help rob one, Malcolm. We went to a movie.”

I duck my head over the menu. Giselle sees me and taps my ankle with her shoe.

Yvonne waits for the server to finish taking our drinks before she speaks. “Tisean gets me now. All that girl needed was somebody reliable to keep her baby.”

“The first time I watched it, Rae had an ear infection,” Giselle says. “I rented it and kept stopping to check her temperature. It took me most of the night.”

“How old was she?” I ask.

“Two or three. Old enough to tell me her ear didn’t hurt anymore because she wanted me to stop checking it.” She takes a menu from the empty place beside her and hands it to Marla. “I remember wanting their friendship. All those women who would come get you. Even when coming to get you was a terrible idea.”

“You had Diahann,” Marla says.

“And Di would absolutely have come with an even worse idea.”

“Diahann from your birthday dinner?” Yvonne asks.

“Yes. My friend from school. The reason I know you can get thrown out of a mall without actually stealing anything.”

I turn toward her. “You left that story out.”

“On purpose.”

Marla covers her laugh with the menu. “I remember the security man calling your mother.”

“What did you do?” I ask.

“Diahann kept setting off the singing Christmas display after he told us to stop,” Marla says.

“That was all?”

“She had figured out how to get the whole row going.”

“Why did he call your mother?”

“Because I was the one laughing when he came back,” Giselle says.

I can see it well enough that I start laughing, too. Giselle tries to hold her expression, but Marla begins imitating the guard, and she gives up. She wipes beneath her eyes again and tells her to stop before she has to explain herself to the server.

The conversation gets back to the movie when Brenda mentions Keith.

“Keith was fine,” Giselle says immediately.

I turn my chair a little toward her.

“He was,” she tells me. “You saw him.”