Page 14 of Push & Pull
Petra snorted. “You would know, huh?”
“I know how to spot a fake. You get a ton of them in my life.”
Were those the magic words to make Petra squirm? “Fine. Do you think I should have told your French girlfriend the truth, though?”
“Daria is not my girlfriend. Never really has been. Besides,” Simone’s finger ran the circumference of her coffee cup, “you’re changing the subject. Who are you? I don’t know the woman driving me around in her rented Volvo.”
The smile fell off Petra’s face. Rather a shame. As nice as her frown was, too, Simone already missed the dazzling dimples that highlighted such a round face.
“I didn’t lie about being in the same neighborhood as Hailey when we were around middle school age. That’s how we met. We lived in the same couple of blocks of Forest Glen.”
“I’m guessing you didn’t go to the same school, though.”
Petra’s smile returned, but only because she was laughing. “No fucking way. She went to Roycemore. My ass went to public school. A huge one with metal detectors.”
“Living in Forest Glen, but going to public school?” Simone didn’t know Chicago intimately, but she knew that Forest Glen was home to many of the area’s rich. Roycemore was vaguely familiar, probably because Hailey had mentioned it more than once.
“It happens.”
“Because…?”
Petra was as incredulous as a public school kid dumped on the grounds of Roycemore. “You’re tenacious.”
“That’s one of those eight-dollar words they teach tweens at Roycemore.”
“You’d know, huh?”
Simone added more cream to her coffee. The buzz had finally arrived, and now her stomach growled. At least she had thought to order a side of eggs with her waffle. “You’re really embarrassed by your background. It’s not only public school. You know most of us don’t care about public school when you’re that young. It’s all about what college you went to by our age.”
Petra hid her words behind her coffee cup.
“So, what’s the big shame?”
Thin lips smacked together. “I was in foster care at the time.”
Simone had not expected that, and it probably showed through her eyes. Yet Petra’s were stuck to the table as if she were too embarrassed to face Simone’s reaction. “I see.”
“Yup. Between fifth grade and high school, I was in foster care. That’s what happens when your dad is nonexistent, and your mom goes away for a few years. So… you know a lot of foster kids in your life, huh?”
“No. You got me there.”
A satisfied chuckle brought some confidence back to Petra’s countenance. “I bet you don’t, but sometimes you’re sent to live with a well-off family in Forest Glen. Me and four other kids I didn’t know. The Whitakers couldn’t have kids of their own and did their best, but when it came to picking out which ones to adopt from the system, I didn’t make the cut. I mean…” Petra sighed. “I shouldn’t put it that way. What happened was my uncle, my mother’s brother, came into the picture when I was fifteen and wanted to take custody of me. So, I went to live with him until I was eighteen. Now I work for him.” Petra didn’t waste a beat before saying, “I graduated high school, by the way. With honors.”
“Wasn’t going to ask.” There was something Simone was now keen to ask, though. “What does your uncle do? And you, by extension?”
“Uh-huh. Now there’s the capitalistic heiress I expect to hear.”
“Why? Because I asked what you do for a living?”
“Yes, which is code for ‘how much money do you make?’ Remember, I grew up around kids like Hailey Lambert. That’s all they cared about. They were friends with us foster kids because our parents were the Whitakers, who were lawyers going back three generations. I think my foster dad actually sued some company on Hailey’s father’s behalf.”
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Simone said. “Just curious about you.”
“Why? Because I’m driving you halfway across the country?”
“It was a bit of a shock to wake up and be in your car, yes.”
“Fair enough!” Petra was all smiles again as the waitress brought them their dinners. Simone had to sit back to let her plate of a waffle and eggs land before her. The coffee shook in its cup. “My uncle is an entrepreneur. That’s all I’ll say for now, since he mostly works withbothupper-crust types like your familyandmore blue-collar clients. I do errands for him. Across the country, but mostly between Chicago and New York. Sometimes it takes me down to Miami, though, and I try to stop by to see Hailey. Her family has done business with my uncle. It really is a small world when you think about it.”
