Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 92474 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92474 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
“Oh my God! Gracen, are you all right? Holy shit! I just kicked my friend in the face. Someone call an ambulance!” Sammy yelled, kneeling beside her.
Shoot. Sammy panicked easily. She was terrible in an emergency. Gracen gasped for breath as she grabbed hold of Sammy’s hand.
“I’m all right, babe.”
“No, you’re not. Oh my God. I’m so sorry! I can’t believe I did that. Jesus, I’m a menace. What can I do? Wait, you want to take a shot at me? Go on! Punch me in the face.”
“Sammy, I’m fine.”
“No, do it. Punch me. It will make me feel better. Unless you don’t want me to feel better. You shouldn’t. You should tell me what a terrible, horrible person I am.”
“Sammy, I’m fine.
“Get away from her! Quick! Quick! Here let me see.” Madame Jeanne appeared in front of her, her face twisted in a frown. “Someone get an ice pack from the freezer, or she won’t be seeing out of her eye tomorrow.” Madame Jeanne peeled back her hand, frowning down at her. “You’re a mess.”
“Thanks for the sympathy,” she said dryly. “I appreciate it.”
“I knew I should have kicked the two of you out of this class the second you walked in.”
Wow. She was so empathic.
And what the heck had happened to her accent?
“I’m calling an ambulance,” Sammy said.
“Sam, I’m fine. Honestly. I just need to go home and keep an ice pack on my eye.”
“I kicked you in the face, there’s no way you can be fine.”
“You should take her home,” Madame Jeanne said, sounding stressed. “And never come back again.”
“Hey, we paid in full for these lessons,” Sammy replied, putting her hands on her hips as she glared at the teacher.
“I’ll refund you. Just go! Please go. I cannot put up with the burning hole in my gut every time you try to do something. You are both walking disasters.”
“Yeah, well, your French accent just conveniently disappeared, didn’t it, Madame Jeanne? Or should that be Jenny McDonald? Isn’t that your real name? And aren’t you from a little town in Ohio? Not Paris.”
“Out! Out!” Madame Jeanne, or Jenny, screeched.
Sammy helped her up, putting her arm around her as they made their way out to the parking lot out the back.
As soon as they left the building, Gracen started to crack up. “Oh my God! I can’t believe you outed Madame Jeanne in front of the whole class.”
“This isn’t funny!” Sammy told her. “How can you laugh? This is terrible! I just kicked you in the face. What if I’ve broken your cheekbone? What if I’ve permanently damaged your eyesight? Oh my God! What are we going to do?”
“Oh jeez, Sammy. I’m fine. Honestly. It’s just a bruise.” It was throbbing and her eye was swelling shut, but she was confident it would be fine by tomorrow.
“It’s not just a bruise. I’ve got very powerful legs. I could have done some real damage. I think you should get checked by a doctor.”
“Very powerful legs? What from? You sit at a desk all day and never exercise.”
“Hey! I would be insulted by that if I didn’t feel so terrible.”
“Sammy, I’ll be fine. I don’t need the hospital.”
They got to her car, and Sammy turned to eye her skeptically. “I don’t think you should drive.”
“I’m fine. But we need to talk about what’s really important . . . did you see Madame Jeanne’s face when you told everyone she was from a small town in Ohio?”
Sammy covered her face with her hands. “Oh, hell. I can’t believe I did that.” Then she started giggling too. “Oh, no. We can never go back there.”
“No great loss. We were only going to it so we could go have a drink afterward. Now, we can skip the embarrassment of trying to move our bodies in ways they don’t want to move and just go straight for a drink instead.”
Sammy sighed as she gently pulled the ice pack away from Gracen’s face, wincing. “Oh, Gracie.”
“I’ll be fine,” Gracen told her. “I promise. If I ice it, I’m sure it won’t be so bad in the morning. Think I better skip the drink tonight, though.”
Sammy nodded. “I’ll drive you home.”
“No. I’ve got it. I need my car to get to work tomorrow.”
“Don’t you think you should take the day off?”
“No days off for me,” Gracen said gently. “There’s no one else who can do my job.”
Sammy frowned with a sigh. “I don’t like how much you work. You’re going to burn yourself out. Is the bakery still not making enough to hire some more help for you?”
“Unfortunately not. One day.”
Luckily, Sammy was a good enough friend not to point out that she’d been saying since her grandpa died and she’d taken over everything herself.
One day still seemed a long way away.
“I’m going to drive behind you to make sure you get home safe, all right?”