Crime & Counterpoint by M.S. Daniel

ago.” Going against his nature, Zach greeted Ashleigh with uncanny charm as he took the designated seat.
    “And I think you already know everyone else,” Carrie continued, settling herself next to her fiancé.
    Jared reached around Carrie to grip Zach’s hand. “You clean up pretty good, man. Never would’ve recognized you.”
    Zach gave him a perfunctory smile. “That’s the idea.”
    Bill, the quintessential plastic surgeon, graciously extended a warm palm. “It’s been a long time, son.”
    Zach forced a smile. “Yes, sir. It has.”
    “Amazing how people can live in the same city and go for years without seeing each other,” Bill commented without hidden malice.
    “Yeah. It’s – it’s tough,” Zach replied somewhat guiltily.
    Barbara Greene, a lemon shark in lime waters, arched her brows coldly. “Isn’t it just.” She appraised him. “My, my but you’ve changed. Abigail,” she said across the table, “you didn’t tell me he’d turned into such a divine catch.”
    Abigail beamed with pleasure and pride but countered, “Oh, don’t even go there, Barb. I’ve long since abandoned matchmaking with him. He’s committed to his job.”
    “About that. Jared’s been keeping me up to date,” Bill said to Zach. “Heard you run into a lot of trouble.”
    “Well, he doesn’t run from it,” Jared input. To his mom: “He comes in with something major every month or so. I can count on it like flu season. What was it this time?” He queried Zach. “A nine-mil or a three-fifty-seven?”
    Zach grudgingly replied, “Point forty-five.”
    “That’s right. A gaping hole. And it was this close to collapsing his left lung,” Jared said, demonstrating with his thumb and forefinger for the benefit of his dad.
    Carrie backhanded her groom-to-be. “Stop being so disgusting.”
    Ignoring her: “Plus, he had one in his shoulder. Had to get a specialist to put it back together. But check this.” He looked at Zach wryly. “How’s it feel now?”
    Zach made a slight rolling motion with his previously injured joint and nodded. “Just fine.”
    Jared shook his head. “See? Three weeks. He’s unbelievable.”
    Barb reappraised Zach. “Is that so?”
    The senior Dr. Greene frowned. “I hate to sound morbid, but aren’t you the least worried about dying?”
    Zach’s face shadowed, and he felt his grandmother’s gaze on him. He refused to look her way.
    “Okay, moving on,” Carrie said brightly. “I can’t believe Grandma lives right across from Ashleigh now.”
    “Mm hm. And Shelley especially loves having her,” Ashleigh bubbled, tossing her sunshine curls and giving Zach a shimmery, lip gloss smile. “We’ve been there about two years. Did you know that?”
    “You know we bought that place originally to rent it out,” Bill said, “but when Ashleigh decided to transfer to NYU, we thought let her stay there. And right around the same time, Shelley was looking for–”
    “An asylum,” Barbara intoned.
    Bill gave her a silencing look which could have wilted cactus – if only she was. “A place to stay in the city. Couldn’t have worked out better.” He directed a smile towards his daughter. “We essentially got a free chaperone for our baby.”
    Ashleigh beamed. “Love you, Daddy,” she said with too much sugar and reached out to peck his cheek, still clutching her new iPhone.
    Zach had to refrain from any eye-rolling.
    Jared directed his attention to the stage and thereby the pianist. He pointed at Shelley. “I can’t believe she’s even playing again. You should have said something, Ash.”
    “I didn’t remember it was here!” Ashleigh defended. “And anyway, she made me promise not to say anything. It’s only been like a couple weeks.”
    Barb, who’d been watching Zach closely, said without altering her x-ray vision. “Just wait ‘til her mother finds out,” she crooned, swirling her cabernet. “Playing at a club and not telling her family. Or us. And we practically