ACHTUNG BABY!!!!!
Sylvie has left the chat
“You ready, Wolf?”
Buck and a guy twice his size were staring him down. Avi zippered his phone inside his rucksack, wondering if there was a way to zip his mixed emotions up just as neatly.
“I’ll carry that for you, sir.”
The oversized pack looked like a doll’s purse on the security guard’s shoulder. The men did an awkward shuffle between seats and aisle so that Buck was positioned in front of Avi and the big guy behind him. As promised, two others were stationed shoulder-to-shoulder at the bus door. No one was getting through them; they were like the Hoover Dam of bodyguards.
Avi knew the drill to hunch down and use Buck as his seeing-eye dog – he’d been doing it ever since Vegas, after the news had somehow leaked.
SINGER SINGLE!
No…for now.
Painted Doors frontman’s proposal goes awry!
He took a deep breath, steeled himself, and stepped into the fray.
“I’m never going to remember all this. Are you sure you can’t come with?”
Leah Gellman willed herself not to have a panic attack, not with trays of steaming latkes in both oven-mitted hands.
Jasmine leaned against her kitchen counter and rubbed her baby bump, frowning. “No dice, babes. This littlekreplachis wreaking havoc. I would puke in the car,andI would most certainly puke on the boat.”
“She’d puke in a bar, and she’d puke in a moat.” Leah’s brother sat at the kitchen island, tapping his pencil against the unruly mustache he had been cultivating since Movember. “Keep going, hon’. This might be it!”
“There are no moats in Manhattan, Seuss.” Leah set down the pans to cool and turned to her best friend. “You sure you want to create little humans with this moron?”
Lucas, in between projects as a children’s book illustrator, had been trying to come up with a story idea of his own for their firstborn-to-be. Pencil hit sketchbook again.
“She’d puke in town, she’d puke in a gown.”
Jaz bit back a grimace at her husband’s prompt. Her normally flawless, golden complexion did have a hint of patina, Leah noticed. “I’m so sad to miss the Matzo Baller cruise. And all that networking.”
“But you’re supposed to be the suit! I was just supposed to be the cute.” Leah pouted. Then scowled, realizing she was now talking in rhyme like her brother. “There to be artsy and aloof. And to scarf down all the legendary food on board.”
“Letty, you’ll befine. It’sfine.” Jasmine fanned herself with herBaby Names for Jewish Childrenbook. “Is it hot in here? Let’s practice the pitch again.”
Leah took a deep breath. “An American Jew and an Asian Canadian walk into a bar. No, this is not the start of a bad joke, it’s the start of an amazing friendship. And it wasn’t really a bar; it was a dorm room in Chicago, freshman year of college. On paper, the girls couldn’t have been more different. Country mouse, city mouse. Art major, Business major.”
Jaz grinned, prompting with the baby name book for more.
“Night owl, early bird. They didn’t say much more than hello to each other that first week of school. Until…”
“…Mahjong!” Lucas boomed.
“…until they both realized they had each brought Mahjong sets, inherited from their respective grandmothers, with them to school.”
“Goosebumps!” Jasmine trilled, dropping her book. “So fast forward four years!” Lost in the moment, she continued the pitch where Leah had left off, a mile a minute.
“The girls had not only found something to talk to each other about, they haven’t shut up since. They started Kibbitz & Kong, a program connecting older Asian and Jewish adults to combat senior isolation. They also founded the school’s Mahjong social club, a hundred students strong. The Art major realized she had a head for numbers, and the Business major unleashed her innerart goddess and began to paint beautifully intricate designs for modern Mahj. Bespoke tiles, mats, bags, sets, and even a clothing line! After raising eighteen grand in a friends and family seed round, the two best friends are ready to launch – ”
With one hand to her mouth and the other pointing her index finger up, she ran to the bathroom.
“Still no name?” Lucas asked, scrubbing his eraser back and forth.
