The Sinner

42

"Wow," A voice says as I come down the stairs. I lift my head up to see Maggie cleaning, as always. "You look beautiful honey, where are you going?" 

"Rafe's taking me on a date," I say, a smile starting to show. It was hard to hide that I was excited about this, even though I know it was totally normal to be. This was our first official date. 

"That'll be nice," She says, a smile of her own popping up. "Do you know where he's taking you?" 

I shake my head, "No idea." She finishes wiping off the counter. "I didn't know how fancy to dress which was the issue, do you think this is fine?" I look down at my typical summer dress, it was a light blue shade with white flowers. 

"I think anything you wear will be fine Corrine," She says, sending me another kind smile as she throws away the wipe. "Are you worried you're too dressed up?" 

"Not dressed up enough," I clarify. "I don't really go out to dinner besides going to the country club." 

"If you want you could wear some jewelry to make it a bit fancier," She suggests. I begin to think, I don't wear a lot of jewelry. I think the last thing I got was an ugly necklace from my dad many years ago. 

"I wouldn't know what to style it with, I don't wear a lot of. jewelry." She looks like she's thinking for a second. 

"I'll be right back." 

I go over to the closet next to the door and take out a pair of white sandals. Maggie walks around the corner by the time I finish the last latch. As she approaches me, she grins and opens the fist she was clenching.

"I usually keep things simple, it's best to always keep your styling classy," She says. I walk over to her, my shoes clicking on the floor as I do. My lips part a bit as I see the piece of expensive jewelry lying in her hand. 

"It's beautiful," I say. 

"My mother gave it to me when she passed, they don't sell it in stores anymore." The two C's had diamonds lining the middle, it hung on a small silver chain. I watch her unclasp it. "Move your hair for me." 

"Maggie," I say and stop her. "I couldn't."

"I've worn this thing for too many years now," She chuckles. "It's time for it to look nicely on someone else's neck." I give her a look to tell her how unsure I was. "Just try it on." 

She spins me around, and I look in the round black mirror that hangs on the wall just next to the doorway. She reaches in front of me and sets the cool piece of metal on my chest, and I move my curly hair out of the way.

"And look at that," She says with a smile. She pulls my hair to where it was before and stares at me. I can't help but smile again. 

"It looks like it doesn't belong with me," I say. I was never one for designer things. 

"You make that old thing look beautiful." I spin around so I face her again, and her brown eyes look into mine.

"Are you sure?" I ask, just as I hear a knock on the door. Rafe decided he wanted to pick me up instead, I don't know why. "I feel like it's too much for me to wear tonight." 

"I'm positive," She says as she goes to answer the door. "I forgot to tell you, there's something on the counter for you." I walk over to the island and see there's an envelope with my name on it.

Just as I open the envelope, I hear Maggie answer the door and greet Rafe. I take out the paper and notice that it's from Chapel Hill. It was a reminder of the orientation date I chose a while back, I guess I scheduled it for two weekends from now.