The Lowest Maintenance Sugar Baby novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Harold Chooses

Harold Rainsford called my grandmother at two in the afternoon, and she picked the place.

It was a diner on Sunset with a cracked vinyl booth, a pie case and a laminated sign that said coffee refills were fifty cents.

Opal sat on one side with her purse in her lap.

Carlton and I sat next to her, and Harold slid into the other side alone, in a golf shirt, looking about as comfortable as a bear in a library.

"Mrs. Pennock," he said.

"Mr. Rainsford. Sit up straight. You're a chairman."

The waitress brought two coffees and a menu the size of a bedsheet.

Harold picked it up.

"I'll buy," he said. "Whatever anyone wants. Pie."

"Don't be silly," said Opal. "Millicent and I split a slice. It's four dollars. The coffee is bottomless if you ask nicely, and a man your size should ask nicely."

"Fifty cents a refill."

"For the first. The second is free if you smile."

Harold looked at her.

Then, very slowly, he smiled at the waitress.

She topped off his cup without a word.

He stared into it.

"Well, I'll be damned," he said.

"Welcome to my world," said Opal.

I'd never watched two people who owned that much money grin at each other over a nickel-and-dime refill.

Then Harold put down his cup and his face went flat.

"I owe you all an apology," he said. "I owe my son one first."

Carlton sat very still.

"I froze your cards in March because Vera said you were throwing money at something. I didn't ask what. I let her audit you." He rubbed his big hand over his mouth. "I let her do the dirty work, because it was easier. That's been my whole marriage. She did it, and I got to be the nice one."

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