Getting Over Cameron Grey

11 | Legal Boundaries

I left Cody's office twenty minutes later, in some kind of daze. He liked everything that mom made, despite initially claiming that he didn't have much of a sweet tooth. "That's what most of our customers say," I teased, "but my mom changes everyone's minds."

"Maybe I should stop by there sometime. I feel like I hear about it a lot." He flattened the empty paperbag on the desk and rolled it up. I inspected his tattoo covered right arm. I wondered how far it went. "Where is it, again?"

"It's right across the street from the pier. Between a gym and an eye doctor's office. I'm going to assume you know the eye doctor, judging by the glasses."

"These could be for fashion."

"I thought so too, at first. But you wear them every time I see you, so you must just have bad eyesight."

"Very observant. Who's the detective here, anyways?"

"If I keep this up, I might even put you out of business."

"You might. Zoey Hudson, P.I.," he made a gesture like he was talking about a headline, "solving your cases in little overalls like this is some kind 1995 sitcom."

"Overalls are in right now, grandpa. I'm sorry you don't keep up with fashion." I hopped up from my seat and grabbed my bag, seeing that I didn't know when his break was supposed to end. "I know you have some work to do, so I'll leave you be. It'd be really nice to see you sometime, though. If that's okay."

"I'll stop by." He stood up to walk me to the door. He stopped right at the frame to lean against it. 

I turned around so quickly that he seemed a little surprised. "I just wanted to thank you for everything. You worked really, really fast, so..."

"Don't mention it." He smiled. It was a small polite one, and it made me wonder what a genuine one looked like. He leaned back slightly so he could hold the door. "I'll see you later."

See you later. I practically floated into the shop. The excitement I felt at those words was the kind of excitement that I used to feel in elementary school whenever I invited my classmates over to the shop. A boundary was being crossed. All of my best relationships started at the shop, too. I didn't know what it was about Cody, but I wanted us to have a good relationship. I wanted us to be friends, at the very least. Although we'd had good banter up until then, there was a polite distance that was persisting between the two of us, and I didn't want that to be the case anymore.

"Zoey!" Minnie cried as soon as the door opened.

I pulled my mouth down like I was going to wince once I recalled that I told Minnie I'd be back sooner. "I'm sorry, I got caught up at the..."

"What'd the detective say?" My mother seemed to spring out of nowhere.

I glanced between Minnie and my mother, and hoped that mom got the idea that discussing family matters in front of customers wasn't the best idea. But Minnie was a little bit more than a customer. She was playing some kind of card game with my grammy. Mom didn't get it. She reached behind me to shut the door and ushered me into a seat at the front table, where Minnie and grandma sat.

"What detective?" Minnie wrinkled her forehead in confusion.

"It's... it's kind of a long story. But to keep it short: Hannah ran off somewhere, and we don't know where she went. So I hired a detective to look for her, because it's not a case that the police would really take seriously so..."

"That's why she hasn't been in school for so long! Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"I don't know. I guess we just wanted to wait around and see if she was going to come back home at some point, maybe. I don't know."