“Another hole-in-the-wall bar?”
“A steakhouse,” she says. “It sounds like I’m meeting his family.”
I can’t help my eyes from squinting. “That’s… odd.”
Electra looks hurt. “Why is it odd? We’ve been dating for six months.”
Uh, because he’s been seeing you exclusively away from prying eyes?
I could argue with her more, but I really don’t want to. I miss having friends too much to start fights with them. So I force myself to smile instead. “I guess that’s true.”
“Rain check, though?”
We stand up. I nod and hug her. “Yes. Soon. And!” I point at her. “I want to meet him.”
“Soon enough,” she says as we part ways.
I walk back through the park slowly, enjoying being outside. But as nice as it is, I can’t ignore the sinking feeling in my stomach.
I’m genuinely worried about Electra. Whoever this guy is has her on one hell of a short leash.
And I’m really not okay with that.
40
AMARA
Even though I wasn’t banking much on it, Electra’s rain check comes two days later.
ELECTRA: Feel like Thai tomorrow? My treat.
I can barely hold back a grin.
AMARA: Only if you toss in that virgin marg you owe me.
When I get there the next day, Electra’s already waiting outside.
“Is it just me or am I getting a déjà-vu?” I smirk as I tug my purse off my arm.
“Oh, shut up and sit down,” Electra says, and I laugh, taking a seat in the chair opposite of her on the patio of the Thai restaurant. Yes, it’s the same one we were at for our double date from hell. “It’s a miracle I’m here at all, so you should be grateful.”
That remark would usually be brimmed with a joking tone, but it’s not. Unease twists my gut at that. The fact that Electradoesn’t seem free to go out whenever she wants anymore—it’s way past a red flag now. We’re talking loud, blaring sirens.
Still, I try to keep the mood up. Like she said, it’s a miracle at all that Sean loosened the leash enough that he let her come to lunch with me.
“At least this time Ransome won’t show up and whisk me away into an alley,” I joke, but Electra doesn’t so much as crack a smile. Instead, she browses the menu as if she doesn’t know it by heart. (We both love Thai food, and this place has always been one of our go-tos since forever.)
“I think I’m going to get a salad,” she says.
Okay. Now I’m really concerned.
“A salad?” I echo. “At a Thai place?”
Electra’s eyes flicker up to mine. “Yeah. What’s wrong with that?”
“You never order a salad. You always get the pad Thai or the drunken noodles or?—”
“Well, today I want a salad,” she cuts me off. “God knows I need it.”
