Speaking of...
“I ordered caviar,” Mark said, pointing to an elaborate setup of various red, black, and olive-colored caviar in crystal bowls on ice, flanked by onions, fresh herbs, sour cream, blinis, hard-boiled eggs, and lemon wedges.
I sucked down half my cocktail. Then I took a celebratory bite of salty, fatty caviar.
I had done it! I had stolen the DNA. But what would I do if Dave really was my father? Why did my life have to be so complicated?
45
Mark
“How’s your girlfriend?” Grant asked me a few days later.
The truth was, I wasn’t sure. Brea had been weird at lunch the other day, but maybe that had been my fault. Maybe I shouldn’t have asked her to move in with me. In hindsight, that had been a little bit weird. I should honestly have been grateful that she wanted to take it slow. Her reaction made it all the more clear that Brea wasn’t after me for my money or a lifestyle upgrade and that she liked me for me—no ulterior motives.
“She’s fine,” I said. “Busy.”
“Uh huh.”
“What?” I glared at him.
Grant held up his hands. “Nothing. I just saw that chick you took to the fundraiser outside Brea’s office the other day. I wasn’t sure…” He pressed his lips together.
“Wasn’t sure what?”
“Well, you seem to attract crazy women,” my cousin said carefully.
“Fuck you.”
“I’m just looking out for you, cuz. Your ex-girlfriend might be crazy.”
“Memphis Eve was never my girlfriend,” I snapped.
“I wasn’t sure if she had turned into a stalker. She and Brea were arguing about something. I only saw it because I was sitting in the front seat. One of the Svensson brothers was there too.”
“The Svenssons?” I frowned. “Maybe they were just dropping something off. Memphis Eve is her twin sister.”
Grant gave me an odd look. “Really? You don’t think that’s weird?”
I remained silent.
“Seriously,” Grant prompted. “Her twin dates you, Brea justhappensto be at the fundraiser, then they’re sneaking around. Did she even tell you her twin was there?”
“No,” I admitted. “But it doesn’t matter. I don’t tell her every time one of you comes to harass me.”
“I’m not accusing her of anything,” Grant insisted. “I’m just looking out for you.”
“Well, don’t,” I said. “I can take care of myself.”
It didn’t mean anything, right?I thought. I turned Grant’s words over in my head as he and I pulled out the dining room table and arranged the chairs for the cake testing. Liz didn’t feel up to a drive out to the Weddings in the City office that day and said her apartment was too messy to have the cake testing there.
If it didn’t mean anything, the rational part of my mind argued,then why didn’t she tell you?
Beowulf and Grant’s corgi, Gus, were racing around my apartment when Brea rang the doorbell. I wanted to ask her about her sister, but then I was afraid of her reaction. But she didn’t quiz me on everything I was doing. I needed to let it go.
Brea smiled up at me and stretched on her toes to kiss me. “You’re so ridiculously tall!” she said.
“Maybe you’re just short.” I kissed her on her nose.
