Cheeks red from the cold, she nudged Rohan with an easy familiarity. "Introduce us, dummy. Maya taught you better." Old family friend, perhaps? Family friends were good.
Rohan slung an arm over her shoulder. Well, he couldn't be rude to her if his mom might hear about it. "This is Dr. Lily Prasad. Lils, this is … " Rohan shifted from side-to-side, his voice flat. "Lolita."
"Doctor?" I did up a button on my shirt.
"Almost doctor," Lily corrected with a laugh. "I'm doing my doctoral dissertation right now. Finishing this summer." She held up her crossed fingers.
Rohan looked at her fondly. "Lily is a geophysicist studying electrostatics." He grinned at her, his even white teeth flashing. "Did I get it right?"
"Yeah. Only took you how many years? It's a pleasure," she said to me.
"Likewise." A geophysicist? Beauty and brains. A smart old family friend then? Like the nerdy girl Rohan had grown up feeling sorry for? I looked at her again. Who was I kidding? This girl had been born a swan.
Still, I couldn't believe how nice she was being to me, especially as it looked like my sole area of study was oral fixations. Now I really tried to get away but Rohan removed his arm from Lily to catch my wrist, keeping me trapped here in punishment.
I stood there as they got caught up, with Lily excited to hear that he was singing again, trying to free myself from his grip, but it was like trying to pry loose the safety bar on the roller coaster. No one was getting off this ride until it was finished.
Rohan asked Lily what she was doing here.
She pushed her glasses up her nose. "The hotel I wanted to stay at was overbooked."
He shook his head, chuckling. "Always with the literal, Lils. I meant in Prague."
She blushed. "Shut up."
Was my smile still on my face? Reasonable facsimile. Close enough.
"I'm attending an environmental physics conference," she said.
"What?" Oy vey! It was bad enough meeting this super smart woman under these conditions. If I ran into her at the conference while looking for Dr. Gelman, she might wonder what someone like me could possibly be doing there.
Rohan and Lily turned identical looks of confusion on me.
"I mean, what are you doing there? Giving a speech?"
"I wish. No, I'm attending on behalf of my advisor." Lily's phone beeped. She pulled it out of her jacket. "I swear he's the devil. I mention his name and there's yet another email from him with more work for me."
I cut a sideways glance at Rohan. "I know how you feel."
He smiled sarcastically back at me.
Lily checked the email, rolling her eyes at its contents. "Okay, like the dude is staggeringly brilliant." I smothered a smile at how valley girl she sounded. "But he's also either incredibly passive-aggressive or seriously losing it because he keeps sending me messages in his native French, which he knows I don't speak." She stabbed at the phone. "I had to bookmark Google translate."
"Don't use that. It's lingual soup," I said.
"It totally is, but it's easily accessible."
I held out my free hand. "I can translate it for you."
Rohan released me to cross his arms. "You speak French." He made it sound like the only phrase I could possibly know was "Voulez-vous couchez avec moi."
"I didn't just hatch a pretty blank slate," I snapped. "I was edumacated and everything."
Lily shot me an odd look, her phone held up but not yet handed over. Whoops. Maybe groupies didn't mouth off to their idols? I couldn't think of any way to salvage the moment so I smiled and took her phone. Translating the email was a piece of cake, just some follow up about a panel he wanted her to attend.
I read the translation out to Lily, then handed her phone back.
"You are a superstar, Lolita," she said, already typing her response.
I savored Rohan's dumbfounded look. But it hurt too. "Twelve years of French Immersion, Snowflake," I murmured. "Don't stress yourself."
I'm still outclassed here.
I made my excuses and left, beelining for the lounge and narrowly avoiding Samson and his gang leaving. Drio stood at the bar, paying.
Draping myself over the smooth white bar top, I helped myself to a drinks menu.
"A lemon radler." I smiled at the scruffy bartender. Anyone about to serve me booze or poke me with a needle was deserving of smiles. Them being cute didn't hurt either.
Winking, he acknowledged my order.
Drio scrunched up his face in disgust. "Way to ruin beer," he said in his normal voice.