Lex and Lu(66)
“We both should have.” Stopping to fortify herself with a sip of wine before bringing this up with Willa, she finally bit the bullet. “I can see now why you wanted me to fight.”
Willa, not used to anyone conceding anything to her when it wasn’t in a court of law, didn’t quite know what to do. Her opinions were often so resolute that people couldn’t even share the tones of gray in her black-and-white world.
“Look, I should have stood up for Nina and I. I should have fought him. Maybe if I had fought him she wouldn’t be peddling his memorabilia for cash.”
“Is he worth that much?” Sky asked, doubtful.
“Over there he is. It’s like a different planet.”
“You did what you thought was right,” Sky said, supporting Lu again tonight with her sister.
“You should have fought him,” Willa concurred, “but it’s too late now. At this point, you have to find a way to make it work. Over there.”
“Yeah. I’m kind of locked in right now. Tentatively, if things don’t improve or she fails to thrive, we’ll move back here for the start of middle school. That will be two years which I think is an honest attempt.”
“Have you discussed that with Lex?” Sky asked.
“Well, are you Miss Sympathetic tonight,” Willa said snidely.
Sky merely smiled at her and rubbed Lu’s arm, sarcastically bestowing her support.
“No. Our one and only conversation with each other happened on Thursday, during the Nina brouhaha.”
“That must have been fun.”
“Oh my Jesus,” Willa erupted. “Will you can it?”
Lu laughed, Sky feigned innocence, and Willa continued to stew.
“You really need to get laid,” Sky said to Willa. “You are severely uptight.”
“Good segue. What are you going to do when Pete arrives this weekend?” Lu asked sweetly.
“Ignore him like the plague,” Willa said.
Lu, who thought she had gotten through to Willa during Thanksgiving, felt her face fall. “Really?” she asked.
“I don’t know, Lu. I’m going to keep an open mind.”
“Really?” Lu said again, happy that Willa might let Pete make headway with her.
“I’m not promising anything, but I heard you last time we talked. I’m mulling it all over.” Annoyed that she felt she needed to let Lu know that she wasn’t completely anti-Pete, she stood up to get another bottle of wine.
“Drink up, ladies. We have some celebrating to do.”
They should have stayed home. There was little doubt, as they paid the cab fare and made their way into the bar, that they were doing the big-girl responsible thing. But their voice of reason, Lu, had pulled on her big-girl panties this evening and allowed the three drunken girls to make their way to the strip. In Lu’s mind—her drunken haze, really—Pete and Willa loomed large. If she could just get them together, drunk or sober, she felt certain that they could find their way to each other. Making their way into the bar, Lu spotted Pete waiting for them.
Flinging herself into his arms, she hugged him hard. “It’s so good to see you,” she said. “Did Lex tell you what Nina did? She’s on her way to being a criminal mastermind.” She rambled all of this into his ear as he hugged her back.
Laughing, Pete said, “It’s good to see you too. How drunk are you?”
“I’ve got the big-girl panties on tonight, Petey. We’re celebrating.”
Meeting Sky’s gaze over Lu’s head, she shrugged. Willa wasn’t ready to make eye contact yet, so she sat at the table and asked, “What are we drinking?”
Pete, who had been hanging out with a friend of his, stole a chair from another table to accommodate the new arrivals. After he introduced everyone to Andy, he left to get a pitcher of beer. Lu watched him go and noted Willa’s eyes following him across the bar. All inhibitions drowned at this point, Lu kicked her under the table. When Willa looked up, Lu said, “He’s by himself.”
Willa wanted to roll her eyes at Lu’s antics, but she was just drunk enough that the edge on her mad was dull. Standing up from the table, Willa made her way to Pete.
Lu, smiling stupidly, pumped her fist. Shit, she thought, I’m drunk.
Sky took the empty seat next to her and said, “Don’t think we’ll see much of Pete and Willa tonight.”
“Hopefully not,” Lu said. Feeling bad for excluding Andy, she leaned toward him and asked him how he knew Pete. Engaging him in conversation, Lu lost track of Pete and Willa, which, she decided, was probably best. Andy and Sky started talking business and Lu, suddenly bored, took out her phone. Without thinking about it, she pulled up Lex’s contact.