Tipping The Scales: Knox (Mate Craze)(4)

When this trip came up, Rhi was sure he was why. Goodness, I didn’t even know his name; the last thing I would do was plan a trip around him. Although, to be honest, seeing him again had crossed my mind… a few thousand times. Imagine how much she’d hound me if she had half an inkling as to how much he still filled my fantasies.

No, I was coming back to the place my mother had spread my grandmother's ashes, not for my family history, not for some wilderness fun, heck, not even for the hottie. No, I was there to investigate the death of my grandfather with the hopes of cranking out the best future defense attorney’s thesis ever and getting a full ride to law school.

If I was going to work in the public sector as a lawyer, school loans weren’t an albatross I wanted. I wanted to be able to say yes to working in a small town, or even in an overcrowded city office, without money being the deciding factor. The more loans I took out, the greater the chance I’d have to sell out to the more lucrative side of attorney work.

“Maybe I want to take him for a spin,” Rhi continued.

“A spin?” Only Rhi would talk about men the way men talk about women. She’d claim equal rights and all, but I knew it was more for the shock value and I fed into her game every time. Because let’s face it, that’s what friends are for. “Really? He’s a person you know.”

“And I’m a girl. With needs.” We pulled into the driveway, at last. The gas station was far from the “you can buy all things” kind we had near the school, but it looked like it would at the very least house some bad coffee and a semi-clean bathroom. “Besides, if you wanted him, you could’ve had him last summer. I officially call dibs.”

“Whatever.” I found a spot near the door, parked the car, and took out my keys. “And Rhiamon?”

“Yeah?” We were both unbuckling, grateful to be there. It wasn’t the time for me to bring asshat up, but it never was. She needed to know, and now seemed like the time to offer once again. Who knew, maybe it would be the time it actually stuck.

“I know you’re only here to get away from he–who-shall-not-be-named, so if you ever need to talk—”

“You’re my gal.” She cracked open the door. “Got it. See ya inside.” She popped out of the car and ran into the store before I even got out of the car. I crossed my fingers that meant she’d be done before I got inside.

I wasn’t so lucky and started to do the little kid gotta-go dance outside the bathroom door. I had no shame and would’ve been in the men’s room in a heartbeat if the station housed more than one unisex room. Three knocks and a “please hurry” later, I found my relief and was ready to hit the road.

“Ready?” I tapped Rhi on the shoulder at the coffee station.

“Almost. Grabbing some snacks and coffee.” Her hands were full of chips, candy, canned coffee, and nuts.

“You do know we are only an hour away?”

“And you do know snacks will be helpful for more than just the trip?” She snatched a bag of snack mix from the shelf behind me. I kept waiting for the pile in her arms to topple over, but they stayed put. Impressive.

She was probably right. I planned to stop at the local grocery store when we arrived to save money. I decided to grab a couple of things in case the drive had me too tired to do anything but sleep before my marathon of academic prowess. “I’m going to look around and see if anything catches my fancy.”

And catch my fancy something did, but it wasn’t the coffee, the snacks, or even the very odd assortment of “souvenirs,” it was a small display of statues. No, that wasn’t the word. They were more like recycled sculptures in the form of animals, for the most part. Well, animals and a dragon, but mostly animals. Birds seemed to be the muse of choice and was the predominant theme of more than half of the items on display.

I stood mesmerized. Someone had taken old kitchen utensils, tools, and from my best guess, used car parts and turned them into magnificent pieces. The ones on display were not much larger than a house cat or a small dog, but the flier beside them showed pieces much larger. And if the pictures were any indication, they were just as beautiful as the pieces in front of me. How someone could look at this random junk unassembled and see it as the birds, foxes, and dogs before me fascinated me to no end.

I picked up the dragon and tried to identify all of the components. Scissors, some bolts, and a couple of spoons was as far as I got before Rhi caught up to me.

“Ohh, that’s pretty stinking awesome.” She reached out, touching the nose which was made of some sort of glass, probably an old florist’s marble melted with a torch, given the other items used in construction. “Are you going to buy it?”

Was I? I hadn’t even thought about it, but the idea of putting it down didn’t feel right. Somehow it felt like it was mine.

“I doubt I can afford it.” That was a perpetual problem of mine, one Rhi failed to understand and one that led to more of our fights than anything else. She always wanted to do things that cost money. Lots of money. I wanted to do things that were fun and didn’t cause financial stress. The first year she roomed with me, she thought I was trying to thwart our friendship because I wanted my old roomie back. Truth be told, my old roomie was less than ideal so that hadn’t crossed my mind once. Eventually she figured out it was just me being frugal and she let it go.