“George invented—” Her mind went blank. Had they said what he invented? What kind of things did people even invent these days? Then an image came to mind. “He invented the fidget spinner.”
“Thewhat?”
“You must not have kids.” Gabby smiled and looked down her nose, mimicking their superior tone.
“I have one, but he’s grown,” Naomi said. A smile flitted across Naomi’s face as she must have been imagining her grown-up son off doing grown-up things.
“Oh, George only came up with this idea a few years ago, but it’s huge,” Gabby said. “It’s like a little propeller you hold between your thumb and forefinger and then spin. It’s weighted so it keeps spinning.”
“So it doesn’t do anything?”
“It spins.” Lucas had a box of them she was always reminding him to pick up, his focus toys scattered all over the house.
“The Japanese would call that a chindogu,” Lana said.
Lana was clearly hoping Gabby’d ask what that meant. When she didn’t take the bait, Naomi said, “A useless invention,something that seems to solve a problem but causes more trouble in the process. Is that what George specializes in?”
Shots fired. Gabby leaned back and assessed Lana. Who did this woman think she was?
“For your information, the fidget spinner is extremely useful. It helps people with ADHD focus,” Gabby said, making it sound like a medical device. Lucas had about a hundred of them, all made of plastic and cheap. They were the kinds of things that would forever pollute the ocean. All the kids in his class were using exercise balls as chairs, spinning fidgets, and… how that was supposed to help them learn was beyond her, but whatever.
“Okay, so anyway,” Jasmine said, “Does anyone need more matcha?”
Gabby saidyesjust to talk about something other than fidget spinners.
While she poured, Jasmine asked, “Did you ever find out if Freddie is sleeping with his assistant, Lana?”
Gabby almost spit out her bone broth. She was out of her league in this group.
Naomi answered for her. “Men are such neanderthals, except for Mr. Fidget Spinner apparently,” and smiled in Gabby’s direction.
Jasmine passed Naomi her tea and said, “Not that you have to worry about it, Naomi.”
“I might be a lesbian, but I have plenty of men to deal with at work.” With amusement, she said, “Your husband, for one.”
Jasmine laughed. “He counts for at least a couple.”
“Did any of you see that story this morning?” Gabby said, doing her best to steer the conversation toward a topic that she was interested in.
“Gia, you’re the only one who had a phone,” Jasmine chided her.
“Oh, that’s right. My bad.” Gabby apologized.
“Now you have to share, though,” Lana said.
“It’s about the Amanda Duvall case,” Gabby said, keeping a close eye on Jasmine’s reaction. As soon as she said Amanda’s name, it was like she’d sucked the air out of the room. All three faces fell.
“What, did you know her?”
“Yeah, we did.”
“All of you?”
That was too weird to be a coincidence. “Was Amanda a member of Inner-G?”
Jasmine smiled, the kind of smile meant to paper over something dark. “Let’s not talk about sad things right now.” She lit some sort of incense and wafted it toward her face.
Wow, this was a hard shutdown of her interview topic. What this told Gabby: Jasmine was hiding something.
