“Hey, Liv is having trouble telling the difference between a date and a business meeting and even more trouble deciding which she wants.”
“You’re kidding me.”
“’Fraid not,” she said, sighing deeply.“My sister has lost her mind.”
“Tell me something new,” he said.“You’re proud of her, yes?”
“For discovering she needs a life?Yes.I am very proud of her.And if it means she needs to attend an event held in Abe Neumann’s backyard, which is absolutely a date disguised as some kind of business meeting, then…”
“Livvy is possibly going on a date with someone who knows Abe Neumann?”
She nodded.“Yep.My sister, the politician, is on her way to dating someone who is apparently Abe Neumann’s best friend.”
“Interesting,” he said.
Which opened up a door of opportunity.Liv had asked her to come along for moral support, which was fine.As an event planner, new potential contacts in that particular circle were always good.
But…
Liv was going to need advice from someone who wasn’t her sister.“Listen,” she said.“I have a favor to ask you.”
“You want me to come?”
“Yeah.Can you?”she asked.
“Most likely.It’s something I can move things around for if I need to; email me the date when you have it, okay?”
“Thank you,” she said.“I wonder if you can meet me at my sister’s that night, and then drive us over?”
“That can be arranged,” he said.And she could hear the smile in his voice.“And I’ll bring my ‘how to date as an adult’ instruction guide.”
She laughed.“How does it work?”
“First lesson is get a job that doesn’t take all of your time.”
She laughed, somehow relieved at the confirmation in ways that concerned her; the last thing she needed, or wanted, was inconvenient feelings destroying a good and tight friendship.
Part Two
Chapter Three
The First Few Drops
Four months before the wedding of Judith Nachman and Asher Mendel
January 1st
It was onea.m.and cold in Manhattan; Naomi Nachman was pacing the sidewalk outside the bar where her friend had held the party.
Crying.
About the caterer who’d pulled out of her cousin Judith’s wedding.Her sister was…busy, clearly, and as she ended that call, she felt like she’d destroyed a moment between her sister, Liv, and Liv’s boyfriend.
Instead, Naomi continued to pace the streets of the city, with a party just on the other side of the door, alcohol turned to acid down her throat and in her stomach, the cold no longer her bitter enemy.
She needed…someone.Something.
And because she was a chicken who didn’t want to stay by herself, she called Jason.
