This week's
Sweet Saturday Sample is a scene from
The P-town Queen. The first time Marco sees Nikki, he is sitting on a bench near the pier. He meets her not long after:
I went through the door and there, in
the corner of the room, was a metal desk and sitting on the desk was the redhead
from the pier. I couldn’t have been more surprised if it had been Fat Phil
sitting there. My stomach did a loop-di-loop, like I was in the sixth grade and
just found out the popular girl had the locker next to mine. I told myself to
quit being a dumb ass. I had exactly two cents rubbing together in the pocket
of my only pair of pants.
She was talking to the guy from the pier. The younger
one that looked like her. She caught me in her gorgeous brown eyes, blinked a
few times, and asked if she could help me. “Yeah, yes,” I said. “I’m here about
the research. The assistant. Job. Research assistant.”
“Find
me an office and they will come,” said the guy.
To
which the redhead gave him a look that might have killed him. “And how is it
that job applicants magically appear?”
“The
flyer,” I said. “At Ella’s Place.”
“Flyer
at Ella’s Place?” The redhead had turned the killer stare at me.
“They
weren’t. She didn’t. They were under the counter. I saw. I was. I really need
the job.” I took a deep breath. “So if
you tell Dr. Silva. I’m available. For an interview.” Jesus, Mary and Joe, it
was lucky that drool didn’t come running out of my mouth.
The
guy put a hand to my shoulder and said, real quiet, “She is Dr. Silva,” which
really made me feel like the friggin idiot I’d turned into.
“Nick
Silva? She’s Nick Silva?”
“Nik
as in Nicola,” said the guy.
“It’s
a mistake. My mistake. I’m mistaken. Sorry.”
“She
makes people nervous. But she’s not so tough. I’m her brother, I ought to know.
Billy.” He held out his hand.
“I
do not make people nervous,” said Nik Silva.
“Ask
her about Rusty’s boat.”
Nik
sighed. “There is no job. Mr.…?”
And
here’s where thing got dicey. In giving myself a new identity I forgot to give
me a new name. Any self-respecting witness protection program will give you a
new name and I sure as hell didn’t want to use the old one. Nik Silva was
kind of staring at me again and my pulse rate was up around two hundred, so I
spit out the first thing came into my head.
“Parker.
Parker Bench.” I wished, right after I said it, that I could have taken it
back. I wished I’d have come up with something, anything, else: Jerry Lewis or
Phillip Morris or Captain Crunch. Just about anything would have been better
than Parker Bench.
The P-town Queen is coming to Champagne Books in June of next year.
Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to to to
Sweet Saturday Samples to read more great excerpts.
