Chapter 34: Corrine
“Knock, knock!” Emily’s smile and voice are so over bright, they practically glare off the golden brass vase on my desk. “I haven’t eaten yet. Want to get lunch?”
I don’t. Not really. The salad I prepared earlier sits untouched at the side of my desk, wilting and soggy. My mood isn’t conducive to socializing. But Emily has helped me so much, without question. My secret is an elbow digging into the side of our friendship. The only thing is, now I want to tell Emily more than ever. Wesley called me hisgirlfriendtoday and I’m not sure which I hate more: how much I liked it or how much it can’t be true.
I check the time on my computer screen. “Sure.”
“So,” she says, dragging out the word as I collect my purse and sunglasses. “Is everything okay with Wes?”
I put my sunglasses on even though we’re still inside. “I think so,” I say, feigning indifference. “He’s running some errands for me this afternoon.”
“Oh...” She pauses while we make our way out of the building. “Just because it seemed like there was a bit of a confrontation between him and Mark in the kitchen today.”
I make a speculative sound so that I don’t have to reply with actual words.
“Is everything okay between you two?” she asks. “Are you getting along better?”
“We’re professionals, Emily,” I say as we step into the large, bright foyer on the ground floor. Never has that sounded so much like a lie. “Where do you want to go for lunch?”
“Oh, there’s this new place on Franklin. They haven’t officially launched yet but they’re open for lunch during the week. I wanted to give it a try.”
“Great.” My smile feels like a lie because right now, everything between us feels like a lie. “Lead the way.”
The restaurant, Amy and May’s, has a bit of a hipster vibe with a lot of air plants and a coffee bar beside the regular bar. But it’s also bright, with lots of green, fresh, wild-looking flowers in small vases on every table. The front wall is an open window with a bar so diners get to feel like they’re eating outside. People sit at antique-y tables, eating off mismatched fine bone china and drinking out of mismatched glasses. Everything seems like it was sourced from local garage sales but somehow it all comes together to create a homey, happy aesthetic.
“I was thinking of organizing a happy hour event next week,” Emily says as a hostess takes us to our seats, placing a short menu in front of us. The restaurant has made the smart decision of choosing to do a few things (hopefully) well, rather than impressing with a large menu.
“Do you want to come?”
“Ummm...” I scan the menu. “I’ll certainly try.”
“Welcome to Amy and May’s,” a familiar female voice says from beside our table. “Do you know what you’d like to drink?”
I blink slowly at the face in front of me. The eyes are a familiar dark brown but it’s the smile that stabs the memory back into my brain. The same smile as Wesley’s.
“Oh...” Amy blinks at me for a long moment. “Corrine. Hi.” She smiles between Emily and me. “Nice to see you again. Did Wes tell you to come here?”
Emily’s gaze is heavy against the side of my face while my mouth hangs open and my brain screams for me to say something,anythingto help explain how or why I know my intern’s sister.
“No,” is all I can come up with. “No, he never mentioned this place.”
Amy’s face falls. Immediately, I realize how wrong of a thing this was to say.
“Not because, umm...” My hands flutter over the table. “He’s just been so busy, you know?”
Amy’s face changes from the friendly, familiar customer-facing one to something a little cooler. “Yeah,” she says. “He’s been quite busy lately.”
Shit.That is also probably my fault. From the very little I know about Amy I think I wouldlikeher. She seems like she doesn’t take any shit and she protects her brother, which is saying a lot because he’s already a jump-in-front-of-a-bullet kind of guy. But this thing between us, the secrecy of it, means I haven’t gotten the chance to get to know her and now we’re stuck with this: misunderstandings and misconnections, when what I really want is for Amy Chambers to like me.
I want her approval for her brother.
“So how do you two know each other?” Emily interjects. My heart feels a moment of relief and gratitude that Emily has saved me from this awkward encounter with my lover’s sister. Then it moves right back into a pounding panic at having to try to explain all this.
I widen my eyes in Amy’s direction, a flush moving up my face in a wave, but she blinks calmly. “I’m Wesley’s sister. We met when I was dropping dinner off for Wes a few weeks ago,” she says, her career-saving lie rolling off her tongue like a smooth whiskey.
I close my eyes.Thank you thank you, Amy.
“So do you know what you want or...?”
