Miss Dotty

Imo noticed the woman staring at her cane, and she smiled. “It’s alright. You can ask about it. I won’t be offended.” She said softly. “I’d love some company. You’re an author? Maybe you can tell me about your books.” Tightening her grip on the cane, she took the girl’s hand and shook it. “Nice to meet you, Dot. I’m Imogene. But everyone calls me Imo.”

“Imogene is a beautiful name. But Imo it is. I get it, after all, my real name is Dorothy.” She nodded, laughing a bit. “But yes, I’m an author, I write children’s books. My first was called ‘Wally Rocket’. Not the most clever of titles, but it’s about a little boy who lives on the moon as part of an experiment to colonize space.” She shifted a bit on her feet, biting her lip. She always felt uncomfortable talking about herself. “I am sorry for staring, though. What happened? You’re alright, right? Well, I mean... Sorry.” She motioned toward the cane a bit, reaching up with her other hand to tug at the ring around her neck. 

“How about ‘big guy’? Or ‘rockstar’? I can’t just call you by you name, that would be boring. Guess I’ll stick with handsome for now.” She laughed a little, watching him with an eyebrow lifted, smile still on her lips. “Well, isn’t that nice. Wanna make sure you remember me.” Her hand moved up to tug on the ring around her neck again, a nervous tick. “So, what do you do with your time besides trying to convince pretty girls to get in your plane?” 

“You probably don’t feel like fighting for anything right now, cowboy.” Laughing a little, Dot took another small sip of her wine before resting her glass on the bar next to her. Head tilting a bit at him, she crossed her legs, leaning in a bit with a conspiratorial grin, deciding to tease him a little. “Perhaps you’ll remember you offered the flight, but will you remember my name? Or my phone number? I mean, I gave it to you an hour ago, after all.”

“You know, I could take you up in the air sometime.” The offer extended wasn’t one that he usually gifted. Jack was particular about people he let on his plane. The alcohol in his system probably didn’t harden that disposition either.

“Last time someone made me that offer, my husband punched him in the face.” Dot crossed her legs, taking a small sip of her wine as her hand reached up to fiddle with the ring around her neck. “Lucky for you, he and I have divorced. But perhaps you could take me for a fly sometime. If you remember when you’re sober that you even made the offer.” 

“Decided to go out to drink last night after work and conned a bar dude into thinking that my photographic memory wasn’t as good as it is. All I had to do was tell him I wouldn’t be able to draw something from memory after only staring at it for 30 seconds - ha, easiest 100 bucks I’ve ever made. I’m such a joy to try and pick up at a bar.”

“So you can draw something from memory after 30 seconds?” Dot laughed a little, joking a bit with the girl as she leaned back in her chair. Taking a small sip of her drink, she gave a little shrug. “Remind me to find you when I need illustrations for my next book. So was the guy mad that you hustled him?” 

she’s been arguing with the owner outside the club for going on twenty minutes now. there’s been yelling, shouting, cursing - and now the woman is storming away, heels in one hand and middle finger up on the other. french curses muttered under her breath, she fumbles in the pockets of her jeans for her phone only to find it’s dead. ‘ well, it’s just my fuckin’ night, isn’t it. ’ no phone means no cab, and no cab means she walks the few miles to her apartment alone in the dark, with these fucking RIDICULOUS shoes.

Dot was just getting into her car as she heard the argument, and saw the other blonde walking away. Quickly, she made the decision to offer help, and ran to catch up with her, calling out as she went and freezing when she got next to the girl. “Hey, are you alright? I can drive you wherever you need to go, my car is right over there.” She motioned vaguely behind her, biting her lip for a minute. “Please, I wouldn’t feel right about you having to walk.” 

Dot felt her eyebrows knit together head shaking slightly as the man when on his little speech, teeth clamping around bottom lip. She wasn’t quite sure how to react, she’d never had a waiter quite like this, and she had to wonder if he was having a bad day, or perhaps another customer had upset him. She simply sat back in her seat a bit, hands resting in her lap as she gave him a small smile. “It’s not a problem at all. I don’t mind. Honestly, take your time.” Perhaps he just needed a small act of kindness. every once in a while it helped people get out of slumps. 

Should I give up, or should I just keep on chasing pavements?

Hearing the voice of the man behind the counter, Dot jumped a little again, and she twisted to look at him, looking quite sheepish as she stepped up to the counter, teeth curling around her bottom lip. After an awkward little chuckle, she shook her head and pulled out a twenty, handing it to him. “Just a black coffee, please, and if you could leave a little room for cream?” She paused for a minute before moving to step out of the line. She really, really didn’t want to cause this poor guy any trouble at work, after all. “I don’t need any change, by the way, feel free to keep it.” She moved away from the register to lean against the counter, picking idly at her fingernails and trying to fight off her embarrassment. She hadn’t meant to cause a scene. 

Dot listened to the woman’s question and couldn’t help but chuckle a little, shaking her head as she turned back to the counter to order her coffee. Turning back to the other blonde, she motioned to the counter. “Whatever you’d like, on me.” She made the offer before finally answering her question. “I wouldn’t call myself famous, not really. I wrote a couple of children’s books, so I’m popular with kids. But I’m definitely no J.K. Rowling.” She gave a little half shrug, feeling her cheeks heating up a bit as she rested her hip lightly against the counter. “I’m Dorothy. But you can call me Dot.” 

Elizabeth must have looked like a complete fool as she stood there gawking at the blonde woman from across the coffee shop. She could have sworn she’d seen the woman somewhere before. Something about her seemed so familiar and as if on cue a little girl went running towards her. Letting out a gasp, Elizabeth fumbled through her purse for her phone as she watched the scene unfolding before her. Quickly dialing a number into her phone, she tapped the toe of her pumps against the tiled floor as she waited for an answer. “Hey! So you will never guess who I’m looking at.” She smiled a little to herself. “You know that author that Gabe loves? Yeah, her. I’m looking dead at her. She’s in the same coffee shop as me… Yeah.” Pausing, she nodded her head. “Put him on the phone, I’ll see if I can get her to talk to him.” Braving forward, the redhead reached out and tapped the woman on the shoulder. “Oh, I’m sorry!” She smiled sheepishly as the woman jumped. “I’m so sorry to bother you, I know you’re probably busy.. But my friends son adores you. He has all your books and you’re like the world to him.” She slowly lifted up her phone. “If it’s not too much trouble, I was wondering if you could say hello to him?” 

Dot gave the woman a small smile, nodding her head before turning back to the barista. “Just a black coffee.” She quickly handed over her cash and stepped out of line, waving off the change as she took the phone from the woman and pressed her ear to it. “Hello? Yes, hi!” She paused as she listened to the little boy speak, nodding along with whatever he was saying, letting out a little chuckle. “You can call me Dot. It’s nice to hear your voice, Gabe.” She listened to him for another moment, as he told her all about her story, about what she had written, how he liked it. She couldn’t keep the smile from her face as she listened to him speak, biting her bottom lip as she accepted her coffee from behind the counter with a mouthed ‘thank you’ before laughing again. “Yes, I would love to meet you, too. Tell you what, you do all your chores for a week and I’ll find a way to make it happen, alright?” She listened to the promises of the boy before nodding again. “Alright, yes. Bye bye, sweety.” She handed the phone back to the woman, her smile turning a little sheepish as she lingered about, waiting for her to end her call. If she was going to keep the promise she’d just made, she’d definitely need this woman’s help, she should probably properly introduce herself.

Imo stepped out from behind a shelf, smiling at the woman. Her knee was acting up, and she was using her cane today to keep pressure off of it. “It’s pouring out there. But feel free to wait the storm out in here. Not many people are out today, so I could use the company.”

Dot gave the girl a warm smile, though her eyes did dart to the cane for a moment. It would be rude of her to ask the girl what was wrong, but she couldn’t help her concern. “Of course, I’d love to keep you company while we wait out the storm. And besides, it’s a bookstore, I’m an author, it’s like apples and cinnamon.” She smiled warmly, taking a step closer to the other blonde and extending her hand. “I’m Dorothy, but everyone calls me Dot.” 

“Sorry. I know I’m a little off today…I’m just nervous for this interview I have later this afternoon. They’ll either pity me and give me the job or they’ll see me as a risk and not even bother. Fuck cancer, man. I mean nobody cares about my resume anymore when they see me and their judgments are immediately tainted. I know…rambling. Any tips? Do I look alright?”

“First of all, smile. It’ll brighten up your face tremendously.” Dot smiled herself, leaning over to brush a strand of Paige’s hair behind her ear, lightly patting her cheek before pulling back again. “And breathe. At the end of the day, the worst they can do is say no, and if they do, there’s something else out there for you, and you’ll find it, alright? You’re going to be fine, everything will work out how it should.”