Page 6 of Suddenly Dating
Lola huffed. She folded her arms around the cake pan and looked away, considering it. “I don’t think that’s an entirely accurate representation,” she sniffed.
“Ah, girl.” Sara suddenly linked her arm through Lola’s. “Come on, let’s get a drink.”
“It’s only eleven o’clock.”
“Fine, have it your way!” Sara exclaimed. “Coffee then.” She tugged on Lola to force her to walk with her, dragging her toward the avenue. “Look, I know you don’t want to be pushed. I get it. But we need to talk, and even though I’ve got a million things to do today, and saving you from yourself is not on my agenda, I’m going to be the kind of friend you need.”
Lola wasn’t sure she needed that kind of friend, but as usual, she went along.
At the corner Starbucks, Sara sauntered up to the counter in her skinny jeans and knee-high boots and ordered two lattes without asking Lola what she wanted, then bulldozed her way through the crowded tables to a tiny two-top against a wall. Lola looked down at her jeans and Keds and oversized sweater. Sometimes, she wished she could be like Sara, all sexy and entitled.
“So,” Sara said. “You work in a law office. Paralegal, right?”
“Right.” Her dream of getting a college degree in creative writing had been derailed by the need to send a few siblings to school. Like, all of them.
“And the ex is a lawyer, right? And this Danielle chick is a lawyer too, right?”
“Um... no,” Lola said. “Will met her at a law seminar in Miami. She was the hotel concierge.”
“Jesus,” Sara said. “What, do you just walk up to the concierge and tell her you need dinner reservations and a fuck?”
Lola blanched at that. She didn’t want to know what Will had said to Danielle while he was still married to her.
“So listen, Lola. You need a friend,” Sara said, tapping her finger on the table.
“I have friends, Sara—”
Sara shook her head. “Not those friends. I’m talking afriend.”
Lola blinked. “Like one with benefits?” she asked, slightly shocked.
“No,I don’t mean that,” Sara said, and pointed her spoon at Lola. “But that’s not a bad idea. You should totally consider it.” She put her spoon into her cup and stirred. “The thing is, Lola, you don’t stand up for yourself. I’m going to help you do that.”
Lola groaned and rolled her eyes. “Look, Sara, I’m sure you mean well. But just because I didn’t tell you the nitty-gritty about my divorce doesn’t mean I can’t stand up for myself.”
“Oh yeah? Then why are you still working with your ex?”
“I’m not,” Lola said smartly. “I transferred to another part of the company. To a different building.”
“Even worse!” Sara cried, throwing up both hands. “You changedyourlife to accommodatehisaffair.”
Funny, but Lola’s brother Ben had said the same thing one day when he asked her to pick up his son from basketball practice. Lola hadn’t been able to fill in for Ben that day because she’d started her new job in Manhattan.
“Manhattan!”Ben had shouted into the phone.“Why did you change your job? That asshole knows you have family in Brooklyn!”
Family that needed her to pick up their kids, Lola silently amended. “Actually,” she said to Sara, “I transferred when they gave my promotion to the new guy. It really had nothing to do with Will.” Except that Lola suspected it had everything to do with Will. She suspected that Will had suggested it to his buddy, Frank Perroni, who just happened to be Lola’s boss.
“Tell me something,” Sara said, crossing her long legs and adopting a serious mien. “What do you really want to do? If the world was your oyster, what would you do? Where do you see yourself in five years?”
“What is this, a job interview?” Lola asked with a snort.
“If you will get off your high horse for one minute, I actually have a couple of ideas for you,” Sara said. “Come on, what do you want to do? And I meando,as in, what in your heart of hearts would fulfill you? If you had no responsibilities, and could do anything Lola Dunne wanted to do, what would that be?”
“I like the idea of no responsibilities,” Lola said. “I don’t know—date a lot of different guys,” she said, tossing that out there.
Sara gave her a withering look. “I’m being serious. If you want to date, get on Tinder. I’m asking what you want to do with yourlife. And if you say be there for your five hundred brothers and sisters, I may punch you in the mouth.”
Lola didn’t say that, but there was no avoiding her two brothers and two sisters.
