Page 83 of Suddenly Dating
Across from Lola was Andy Carson, seated next to a surprisingly sullen Mallory. Birta sat in the middle of the table, across from Mrs.Rosenthal, so that she could join conversations at both ends.
Lola couldn’t keep her mind on the conversation around her. Her thoughts were spinning, and she kept stealing glimpses of Harry, watching him swivel between Everett Alden and Melissa. What were they talking about? What were they saying to each other? More importantly, where did she and Harry stand? Was it over now? Melissa was smiling at him, a soft, intimate smile, and Lola damn sure noticed the way Harry looked at Melissa. It was heart-wrenching.
“I love your dress.”
It took Lola a moment to realize Mia was speaking to her. “Oh,mine,” she said. “Thank you. Yours is really gorgeous.”
“Mia is a designer,” Mallory said.
“An aspiring designer, anyway,” Mia said with a smile. “I haven’t seen you around East Beach, Lola. Are you visiting?”
“No, I’m, ah... I’m here for a few weeks.”
“Visiting friends?”
“Actually, I’m writing a book.”
Mia’s face lit with delight. “Really? Have you written any books before?”
“This is my first. And it might be my last,” she said, stealing another glimpse of Harry. “If I can’t get it published, I’ll have to get a job.”
“I think that’s really cool,” Mia said. “I love to read.”
“Read what?” Birta said loudly, commanding the attention of everyone. The table quieted, and Birta laughed it off. “I beg your pardon, but I hear a mention of books and I can’t help but go there.”
“I was saying I love to read books,” Mia said politely. “I just finishedTheGoldfinch.”
“I will not take offense that the book was not mine,” Birta said, inclining her head to more polite laughter. “But you do have good taste in books. That was a masterful novel. Did you read it, Lola?”
Lola blinked, startled to be asked. “I did.”
“And what did our aspiring writer think?” Birta asked, her smile terribly patronizing.
Everyone was looking at her. This felt like a setup, but Lola couldn’t imagine why. She didn’t thinkThe Goldfinchwas masterful. She glanced at Harry, who gave her a small smile of encouragement. “I thought Boris—the Russian friend?—I thought he was more interesting than the protagonist. And the end was unsatisfying for me.”
Birta chuckled with amusement and glanced around the table. “I think you missed the point of the book then.”
Yep. A setup all right, and now, Lola looked like an idiot.
“Really,” Mia said, as if pondering Birta’s point. “Well I guess I missed the point, too, because I thought the very same thing.”
With that statement, Mia had cemented her place at the top of Lola’s adoration list. She could kiss her right now, plant a big smacker right on the lips.
But Birta waved her hand. “I admit that I tend to read with a very technical eye,” she said, shrugging it off. “Now then,” she said, turning toward Harry. “What are you speaking of so intimately in this corner?”
“Just my idea to give up music and take up fishing,” Everett said.
“Oh, God,” Mia groaned. “That can’t happen, sweetie. You’re ahorriblefisherman.” She regaled the table with a story of a fishing excursion they took together when Everett had spent most of the day below deck, green to the gills.
The talk turned to his music and a soundtrack he was creating for a film, which gave Lola the opportunity to sink back in her chair while her mind did gymnastics, trying to understand what was happening between Harry and Melissa, and Harry and her. She needed a bottle of wine, a box of Godivas, and some deep covers to slide under as she made sense of this horrible jolt to her heart.
It was maddening—the company was excellent, and the meal divine, all things Lola would have studied with keen interest under normal circumstances. But her appetite was nonexistent. She couldn’t stop glancing down the table at Harry and Melissa, at the way they talked, their heads together, as if they were sharing a secret.
The dessert was served; Lola scarcely noticed it until Mallory said, “Look,” and pointed at it. “That’s candy from my store,” she said, indicating the candies embedded in the icing.
“I thought you closed it!” Mia said. “I went by there Wednesday, and it wasn’t open.”
“Yeah,” Mallory said, and looked at Lola forlornly. “I need an assistant.”
