“Let’s hope so,” she said. “Are you okay?”
“My elbows are a little bruised,” I said, inspecting my arm. “But that’s it.”
I looked up because I sensed David glowering down at me. He took my arm in his hand and turned it over.
“I’ll see you tonight,” I said distractedly to Gretchen and hung up.
“You said he didn’t touch you,” David said.
“He didn’t. I fainted.”
“Youfainted?” he repeated.
“Just for a second. I was nervous.”
David frowned. “What if it’s something serious? Could you be—”
“No, I’m not pregnant,” I said. “I did the math. I simply didn’t eat enough on Thursday, and I forgot to breathe,” I said.
David and I stared at each other until I rose from the edge to fix my makeup.
“The diet or whatever you’re doing stops here,” he said. “I don’t like the idea of you not eating.”
“It’s not a diet,” I said irritably. “I don’t eat when I’m depressed or nervous. Things should even out soon enough.”
He eyed me skeptically but dropped the subject when his phone chimed with a text message. He picked it up from the bathroom counter and cursed.
“What?” I asked, sweeping powder over my nose.
“It’s Maria.”
I dropped the powder brush into my makeup bag and glared at his reflection. “What?” I repeated loudly.
His fingers flew over the screen as he typed. “I forgot to cancel on her tonight.”
Tocancel? But why would Maria even think they were going together in the first place if he’d ended things with her? “You’re kidding, right?” I asked.
“I invited her ages ago, and with everything going on, I just forgot.” David looked up, caught my expression in the mirror, and waved the screen in my direction. “Don’t be upset. I’m telling her now.”
“Telling her what?” I asked.
“That I don’t need her to come.”
I whirled from the counter and gaped at him. “You haven’t broken things off with her?”
“There’s nothing to really break off,” he said as he typed. “I just call her when I need her.”
Disgust roiled through me at the insinuation. “Needher?”
David slowly raised his eyes, as if realizing how that had sounded. At least he had the decency to look sheepish. “For, uh, events and stuff.”
“Tell her that you will not be needing her foranything,everagain.”
He set down his phone. “I will, Olivia. Trust me, this is a non-issue. I’ll tell her next time—”
“Tell hernow.”
“I’m not saying that over a text message.”
