Unheeding, she walked straight up to the store.
“One fourth kilo of brown sugar, please, a small refill pack of powdered milk, a small refill pack of Nescafe, and a can of sardines. Mike says please charge it and he'll come by on Saturday.” Her voice was sweet and beautiful, but very cool and reserved. Ice queen! I thought.
“How is your mother, Ciara?” the girl at the window asked brightly as she bagged the groceries and made an entry in a ledger.
“Nanay is fine, thank you for asking, Mely.” She took the groceries and turned away, but by then I had already realized who she was. Really beautiful, but proud and snooty, Myra had said. Ciara Flores, Michael's youngest sister.
As she turned, Ciara bumped right into Ian and dropped the plastic bag. Groceries scattered; blessedly the sugar did not burst open. Ian immediately began to gather them up and put them back into the bag. Then he stood up and gave the bag back to Ciara.
“I'm sorry,” he said.
She nodded, backing away.
“By the way, Miss Beautiful, what's your name?”
She didn't take the time to answer, just walked away, leaving Ian to stare after her with his mouth open.
“I don't believe this. She snubbed you!” I said to Ian as we watched Ciara walk back up the lane. “And here I was thinking you had always had better luck than Allain. Anyway, your style was a little bit common. Did you by any chance remember to put on Axe this morning?”
Ian groaned as he got my drift.
“Maybe Axe has no effect on Ciara,” I continued.
“You know her?” Ian asked.
“Not precisely. Remember Mr. Disagreeable from yesterday?”
Ian's mouth opened.
“You don't mean…”
“His sister,” I affirmed.
Ian struck his forehead with the palm of his hand.
“How can I ever get to know her better?” he complained. “I can't even get past her brother!” He glared at Allain and me when we began laughing, but joined us in the end.
“Hi, Lovelove,” said Buddy from behind me. “You look beautiful this morning.”
I turned to face him. He wore a green shirt and black shorts, and he was twirling a basketball on his forefinger, but less expertly than Michael had done. Unlike Michael, though, he was smiling.
“Does that mean I wasn't beautiful yesterday?” I asked point-blank.
He looked taken aback, then he laughed.
“No, of course not. You are always beautiful.”
Behind me, I heard Allain tell Ian in an aside, “She must've used Axe this morning.” He and Ian chuckled. I decided to include them in the conversation.
“These are my brothers, Allain and Ian. This is Buddy,” I said by way of introduction.
Buddy's face cleared when I said brothers, but he didn't shake hands with Allain and Ian. He simply nodded. Allain had been about to extend his hand but thought better of it and kept his hand at his side. Ian moved up beside me and draped an arm around my shoulders as if to emphasize that we were twins, two halves of one whole. In one of those thought-sharing moments twins have, I realized he didn't much like Buddy, although I didn't know why.
“I see you've met your new neighbors,” Buddy said to me as if we were alone. I raised an eyebrow.
“Ciara Flores?” he clarified.
“Oh, Ciara,” I said. “Why?”
“Did she act as stuck-up as usual?”
I gave him a long look. Much as I had felt insulted by Ciara's behavior, somehow I found myself defending her.
“Oh, not really, I think she's just shy,” I said, and while I was saying it I realized it was true! Ciara was painfully shy. She covered it up by acting proud and distant, sort of like rejecting us before we could reject her. As a result others disliked her.
“Shy? That'll be the day!”
Beside me, I felt Ian stiffen.
“Love, it's eleven thirty. We better make tracks for home before Mom sends Averill to come get us,” Ian hinted.
Buddy looked at him with a frown.
“Well, see you later, Buddy,” I said. Allain, who had been negotiating something at the store window, hefted the plastic bag of purchases off the window ledge and gave Ian and me a 1.5-liter bottle of Coke each to carry.
“Is my hair mussed?” Ian asked Allain as we began climbing back up the hill. Allain frowned at him uncomprehendingly.
“It was a bit windy down there,” Ian explained. This time both Allain and I groaned.
Ciara was standing at the window of their house when we passed by. Ian slowed down to give her his sweetest, most admiring smile. She promptly disappeared from the window.
