Page 81 of Puck Drop
"Come on," I beg. "Tell me."
"I signed up for a new app,"she mumbles. "It’s different than the other ones. It’s supposed to match people with others who only need a date for a certain event, but there are no expectations beyond that."
"That sounds pretty interesting,"I smile at her. "It should make things easier, too, since all you need a date for is one event, right?"
"Yeah…"
We are interrupted by the ringtone of my cell phone when it goes off. I get so startled that I drop it to the floor. When I pick it up and look at the screen, I see that it’s Leyla, and not Logan, like I was hoping. Better than nothing, though.
"I hear you’re in my neck of the woods,"Leyla teases as soon as I answer the phone. "Welcome home, chickie."
I chuckle when she says that. I’ve never heard the more playful side of her, and it throws me off a bit. She is always so serious, a true ball buster, that it’s hard to picture her in a more relaxed setting despite the fact that I think she’s only in her thirties. She sure acts like a grouchy grandma sometimes.
"Yes, I am in New York. I came here with Logan."
"That’s interesting," Leyla says. "I just spoke with Logan, who told me that you were at your father‘s. But while talkingto your father, he didn’t show any signs that his daughter was home."
When I was little, my great grandma used to make me watch an old TV show with her. It had a detective in it, whose name was Colombo. When he was working on a case, he always pretended to be clueless while asking questions, when in fact, he knew all the answers already. Leyla is Colombo, just a much prettier version.
"Logan insisted I would go to my father‘s house," I tell her. "But he never asked me if I wanted to do that. So I took it upon myself not to go."
"Good for you," Leyla praises me. "I always knew you had a backbone, a very strong one."
Her compliment throws me off, especially since we don’t know each other very well on a personal level, in fact, not much at all.
“I do need your help, Leyla,” I tell her. “Logan is so upset about what’s going on with Sebastian that he thinks I’m making a mistake by being with him. My father got into his head, and now he thinks he’s not good enough for me. He also said…”
I hesitate for a second, wondering how serious Logan was when he mentioned this, or if I should even share the information with anyone, especially someone who is not a friend of Logan’s. But I do need to help him, and this is the only way that I know how.
“Logan says he might want to quit playing for the Aces.”
Once the wordsare out of my mouth, I can’t bring them back, but I sure want to when I hear her small gasp of surprise. She tries to cover it with indifference.
“Players move around a lot, Elizabeth,” she tells me, and I am beginning to think that the slightly condescending tone happens only when she tries to play it cool.
“I know that…” My voice comes out barely audible.
Leyla’s sigh echoes over the line. She clears her throat a couple of times, sounding like she is about to say something, but then she changes her mind each time. We remain in awkward silence, neither one of us willing to continue this particular line of conversation.
Mona, who is still sitting on the couch next to me, turns sideways so she can stare at me better. Her eyes look big and round as she tries to guess what’s going on. At some point, she moves closer and puts her ear by the phone, but when there’s no sound coming out of it, she leans back and gives me a funny look that almost makes me burst into laughter.
“Are you with your girlfriend?” Leyla asks right then, like she can see through the damn phone.
“Yes,” I confirm. “This is a good time for us to catch up.”
Leyla hums in approval but doesn’t say anything else about it. Then she sighs. She takes a deep breath in, lets it all out. Repeats it a couple of times.
“I was hoping you could help me with a little more than just breathing exercises, Leyla,” I tease her.
When she doesn’t laugh, I worry that I might have offended her, but then she starts laughing, and it is the cutest thing.
“I really regret not getting to know you better when you lived here,” she tells me. “Such a missed opportunity…”
“Yeah,” I say, but I have no idea what she even means. This call is very confusing.
“I really think you need to talk to your father, Elizabeth,” she encourages me after she lets out another long puff of air. “He is willing to talk to you.Calmly,” she emphasizes when she senses that I am about to interrupt her. “I understand that he was a bitpushy before, and that he couldn’t understand why you wanted to have a life of your own with the man you fell in love with…”
My eyebrows go up in surprise. From the sound of it, Leyla knows a lot more about my relationship with my father than possibly even me.
