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Chapter 16. Busybodies
Unfortunately Helen heard about the car incident at the mall. Steph suspected that Mrs. Lebowski's granddaughter Kate, married to one of the fire fighters, had told her grandma. Who had told the Burg. And suddenly the old Helen was back. She had phoned Stephanie, berating her, saying 'why me' every other sentence, and had demanded that Steph would come over for dinner. Steph had declined, saying that she was busy working. It was mostly true, Les Sebring had taken Bruce on a week long vacation, and Steph had manned the bonds office, with backup from Sebring's mother Nellie. Helen continued to phone her and demanding Steph's presence at the dinner table, but so far Steph had managed to steer clear.
Steph had also adamantly refused to bail out the hunter, Benning. She heard that he had turned to Plum's. Obviously Vinnie had gotten an earful about family and family values from both his father and father-in-law, and had refused the bond as well. Benning had finally managed to get bailed out by a bonds office from Newark. He didn't seem to be a total scumbag, and had sent her flowers and a written apology, promising that he would be in touch after talking with his insurance company. She had been a bit leery when she got the flowers delivered, since her experience of flower deliveries were mostly associated with stalkers. She had also been on a trip to two car dealers with Zero, but hadn't found anything she liked. And she was still waiting for the money from Benning. In the meantime she drove the black car from Rangeman.
x
Tomorrow Les would be back from his vacation, and Mary Lou had planned their night out for the day after, a Saturday. Lennie, Mary Lou's husband, had taken one look at Mary Lou in her new dress and declared that any girl's night with dancing would be accompanied by him. Steph had laughed at the smitten looks on both her best friend and Lennie, and had acquiesced, but had also said that if Mary Lou got to bring Lennie, then she voted for a bigger party, and had invited Valerie and Albert, and told Zero of the night out, and asked him to tell the rest of the Rangemen, and also that they of course could bring eventual significant others. She had also asked Val to not tell Helen about the planned night out, or at least that Stephanie would be there.
Les came back with a tan and looked a lot more relaxed.
"You could be a commercial for the benefits of vacations," Steph said. "You look ten years younger."
"Thank you for stepping in, I haven't had a vacation in years. And I could relax, knowing you would handle everything perfectly. But for now I'll take the bonds again, and you can have more of a social life."
Stephanie gave him the facts from the office, and then signed out after lunch. She drove over to Rangeman and checked if anyone would come to the club the next day. She was a bit overwhelmed when almost all men who would be off duty said that they would be there. Even Tank said that he would come, if she could guarantee that Lula wouldn't show.
"I've not seen Lula since I quit at Vinnie's," Steph said. "And I assure you I wouldn't invite either her or Connie."
x
She spent the next day getting a new haircut and manicure. She looked good when she put on the makeup and her new dress, if she did say so herself. Tank said he would be the designated driver, since he needed to work the next day, even though it was a Sunday, and had promised to pick her up. Mary Lou and Valerie said that they would meet up at the club.
Tank was punctual, and they drove over to the club talking about her job at Sebring's. Tank also told her that Ranger hadn't been in contact.
"I know you can count, and yes, he's been away more than three months already. All I can do is repeat the same thing, no news is good news right now. I hope he will be back soon."
Stephanie looked at him.
"I hear you, Tank. But I really miss him. Just before he left I thought we were heading towards a relationship, now I don't know…"
"Keep the faith, Little girl."
They had a fun night at the club, even Val seemed relaxed, and Albert surprised everyone with his dancing. Surprised in a good way, the man had moves! And the Merry Men had come through, there were a lot of them besides Tank, and they all made sure that Steph only sat down when she needed to rest her feet.
Tank drove her home, and she looked at her phone. Two missed calls, one from her mother, one from an unknown number. Her nightly calls had continued, and she still suspected Morelli. Helen had continued to call her a lot after the incident with the car, and Val had hinted that she was hitting the 'ice tea' hard again. Since the money from Edna's will would be paid out in installments Steph supposed she should tell Mrs. Clifford about her mum, but she hesitated. If Helen wouldn't back down, she supposed she'd have to tell.
"Everything all right?" Tank asked.
Steph hesitated, and went with a half truth.
"Mum's been calling a lot after the car was destroyed in the fire. Somehow she seems to think it was my fault, even though the only thing I did was park it at the mall's parking lot. I suppose that was enough to embarrass her."
She sighed.
"I am looking for a replacement," she said. "Benning promised me that the money from his insurance company would get here in a couple of weeks. And Zero and I looked at cars last week, but I didn't like anything. I promise you'll get the Range-car back soon, though."
"There's no hurry. Who knows, maybe you can find something unique, like the Rollswagon, something to fit your personality…"
"Are you saying that my front is like a Rolls Royce and my ass like a Volkswagen?"
Tank just laughed.
"I'm not saying anything about your ass, Ranger would be upset if he thought I'd been looking."
He shot her a look.
"And you'd probably be upset if I haven't noticed it, so I'm keeping quiet."
He followed her up to the apartment, and checked that everything was safe.
"Thanks for the lift, Tank. It was really nice just to have a fun night out."
"I totally agree. Hopefully next time Ranger will be here as well."
He looked at her.
"I'm leaving tomorrow afternoon. We've got a big job in Miami, and I'll be there for a week, at least. If you need anything just call Rangeman. Bobby will be here, and a lot of others."
"Thanks, Tank."
Stephanie kissed his cheek, and locked up after him. It was late, and she was soon asleep.
x
The next day she finally answered her mother's call, and got an earful about being seen out with a lot of men.
"I was out with my friends," Steph said. "Female ones as well. Stop harping, mum, or I'll have to call Mrs. Clifford."
Helen obviously wasn't totally sloshed, and managed to finish the call without anymore digs at Stephanie. She also told her to come over for dinner, but Steph said she was busy. She called her dad and talked for a while, and explained that she didn't want to come over for dinner when her mother was in her nagging mode.
On Monday Steph looked up some online courses. She had decided to take a Psychology course, and began to read and look at some online lectures. Helen called, and she started harping about Steph not getting any younger, and how many of Helen's friends now had multiple grandchildren.
"So do you, mum. Val's got four, double the amount you did, so you have multiple grandchildren. Grandma had one child, you two, and Val four. I don't know if I'll ever have any children, but this nagging stops now."
She was upset enough to hang up on her mother. The phone started ringing almost immediately, but she didn't answer. She was thankful she had a separate job phone. The next days she didn't answer the calls from her mother. She had called her dad and explained, and said that she would only answer his calls if he sent an sms before, otherwise she would assume it was Helen. Probably a wise precaution, because she soon got calls from her fathers cell phone as well, mostly during the time he usually watched the telly.
The next week Les worked the nights. Steph had also talked to Rangeman. Tank was in Miami, and Bobby had his hands full, since it seemed they had gotten a virus doing the rounds in the building, leaving half of the men unable to work, and they had had a boom in business, and were drowned in work. Steph wished them a quick recovery, and was happy she didn't seem to have caught the bug.
Steph worked daytime, and with Les' blessing could do some of the work on her courses when she had some time over from the bond's business. On Thursday he told her to go home early, and she drove by the Tasty Pastry to see if they had any unclaimed birthday cakes. She was out of luck, and obviously took too long deciding what to buy instead, because Helen managed to corner her. Probably because some Burg busybody had called her. Helen was loudly berating her for not visiting. A lot of people was listening in, and Steph even thought she saw someone using their cell phone to catch it all. Mortified she agreed to visit for dinner. Fearing that Helen would invite an 'eligible bachelor' she also told her that she wanted it to be just family, which Helen agreed to.
That evening she drove the black car over to her parents. She had dressed in a pair of dark washed jeans, a navy blue jacket over an off white knitted sweater and boots. When she parked the car at the curb she saw that the family car wasn't there. For a moment she thought that something had happened to her parents, but the house was well lit, and her mother just opened the door.
Steph left the car and walked to the house.
"Hi, mum."
"Hello, Stephanie. Come in."
Inside she saw that her dad wasn't sitting in front of the telly.
"Where's dad?"
"Oh, there was something special tonight at the club. A 'Boy's night' I believe they called it, with BBQ and some sports thing. I thought that we could have a nice dinner just you and me."
Steph decided to give her mother a chance, but nagging or harping, she would be out of there! To her surprise they had a civil meal, Helen mostly talking about Val's children, and also some about her parents. After the baked chicken, Helen brought a pineapple upside down cake to the table, and gave Steph a generous serving, with some whipped cream on the side. Steph took a bite, and thought it tasted off. She didn't have any cream with the next bite, but it still tasted funny. She looked at her mum.
"The cake tastes off, mum," she meant to say, but the words came out slurred. And then she couldn't talk or remember anything at all, and blacked out.