door. Grudgingly I stood, and she draped my sweater around my shoulders and handed me my purse.
“Come on, dearie. You’re buying me lunch.” She winked and pul ed me down the hal way.
Twenty minutes later she had me ensconced in an ornate red booth hidden partial y behind two gold curtains. She’d brought me to her favorite
restaurant in Chinatown, ordered me chamomile tea, and waited in silence for me to explain my semi breakdown. Actual y, it was not entirely silent;
we’d ordered the sizzling rice soup.
“So, you must’ve had a hel uva weekend in Tahoe, huh?” she final y asked.
I laughed into my sizzle. “You could say that.”
“What happened?”
“Wel , Sophia and Neil final y got together and—”
“Wait a minute, Sophia and Neil? I thought Sophia was with Ryan?”
“She was, she was, but truthful y she was always meant to be with Neil, so it al worked out in the end.”
“Poor Mimi and Ryan. That must’ve been weird for them.”
“Ha! Oh yes, poor Mimi and Ryan. They got it on in the pool house, for God’s sake.” I snorted.
Jil ian’s eyes grew wide. “In the pool house…wow,” she breathed, and I nodded.
We sizzled.
“So, Simon went to Tahoe, right?” she asked a few minutes later, looking everywhere but at me. I cracked a smal smile at her imagined
stealth. Jil ian was many, many things, but subtle was not one.
“Yep, Simon was there.”
“And how was that?”
“It was great, and then it wasn’t, and now it’s weird,” I admitted, setting aside my soup to drink my tea. It was soothing and non-caffeinated,
which Jil ian had insisted on.
“So, no pool house for you two?” she asked, stil glancing around the restaurant as though she weren’t asking me anything of importance.
“No, Jil ian, no pool house. We hot tubbed, but we did not pool house,” I said emphatical y, and then I spil ed my guts and told her the entire
ridiculous story.
She listened, she hmm’d and groaned in the right places, and she got indignant in the right places too. By the time I was finished, I was in tears
again, which was real y pissing me off.
“And the stink of it al , I shouldn’t have been doing it, but he is the one who stopped it, and I don’t real y think he wanted to!” I huffed, angrily
wiping tears away with my napkin.
“So why do you think he did?”
“He’s gay?” I offered, and she smiled. I took a deep breath and got control.
Jil ian looked at me thoughtful y and then final y leaned in. “You realize we are two smart women who are not acting very smart right now,” she
said.
“Huh?”
“We know better than to try to figure out what a man is up to. This’l get worked out when it’s supposed to. And your tears? These are tension
tears, frustration tears—nothing more. I’l tel you one thing, though.”
“What’s that?”
“As long as I’ve known Simon, I’ve never heard of him inviting someone on a shoot with him, ever. I mean, inviting you to Spain? That’s very
unlike Simon.”
“Wel , who knows if I’m even invited anymore.” I sighed dramatical y.
“You’re stil friends, right?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at me. “Why don’t you just ask him?” When I didn’t respond she added, “Stick that in
your pipe and suck it.”
“I think it’s smoke it, Jil ian. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.”
“Ah, smoke it, suck it, whatever. Eat your fortune cookie, sweetie.” She smiled, nudging the cookie across the table. I cracked it open and
removed the fortune.
“What does yours say?” I asked.
“Fire al employees who have more than one pencil in their hair,” she stated seriously. We laughed together, and I could feel some of the
tension final y leaving my body.
“What does yours say?” she asked.
I opened it up, read the words, and rol ed my eyes to the ceiling. “Stupid fortune cookie,” I sighed, and handed it to her.
She read it and her eyes went wide again. “Oh, man, are you in for it! Come in, let’s go back to work.”
She laughed, tugging my hand and leading me from the restaurant. She gave the fortune back to me, and I started to throw it away, but then
slipped it into my purse:
Be aware of the walls you build
and what could be on the other side
Confucius, you kill me.
Text from James to Caroline:
Hey there.
Hey to you.
We stil on for Friday night?
Yep, I’m in. Where are we going for dinner?
There’s a great new Vietnamese restaurant I