“One of everything!” my grandfather shouted. “My grandson is paying.” He patted me on the shoulder. I wanted to sink into my seat.
“We’re on a double date,” he said to the waitress.
Behind her mask, the waitress blinked.
“They don’t talk here,” Ida explained. “It’s called the Dollhouse. This is the hottest new restaurant in town.” Ida snapped a few selfies. “All the girls on the ’gram come here.”
The server brought more alcohol then set out little bowls of dips and a large tray of sushi.
“I can see if they have ice cream sushi for you,” I whispered to Brea.
“Har har. And they say Wall Street bros have a terrible sense of humor.”
Despite the fact that the sushi was served on a severed plastic leg, it was delicious.
I looked to Brea. She seemed slightly in shock at Ida and my grandfather. I grimaced. They were a lot. My whole family was a lot. That was why I had held off on telling them about Brea.
Ida turned to Brea, waving a piece of sushi around as she talked.
“I’ve seen your Instagram,” she said. “You definitely have the goods. That’s probably why your grandson is so besotted with her, Harris. I wish I had tatas like yours. I could do some real damage with those things!”
Never again, I silently chanted.Never again will I let any of my family members talk me into a double date or have any minute influence on my dating life.
“I especially like that latest corset you made,” Ida continued, scrolling through her phone. “The one that makes you look like an Amazonian priestess. Did you see that, Mark? Pretty spicy, eh!”
She showed me an image of Brea in a black-and-bronze corset that dipped deep almost at nipple level. I shifted in my seat.
Brea patted me on the shoulder. “Mark’s already seen all of that. That’s how we met! I flashed him!”
Ida fist bumped Brea. “Girl after my own heart.”
“In fact,” Brea said, lifting her shirt, “I have one on right now!”
She giggled, and I had to fight off the urge to cut the dinner short and take her back to my condo and fuck her into the bed.
“I bet I know what Mark wants for dessert!” Ida said with a laugh.
30
Brea
My cocktail arrived in a Victorian dollhouse bathtub. I wasn’t sure how to drink it, so I just picked it up and went for it. While Harris grilled Mark on what his company was doing and Mark tried to deflect the questions as much as possible, I looked out over the restaurant. The Dollhouse sure lived up to its name. Various doll parts were stapled to the walls, dollhouses had been nailed to the ceiling to form lamps, and the whole place was packed with pretty doll-like Instagrammers taking shots of the hot new restaurant.
One woman in particular seemed sickeningly familiar. My bathtub cocktail sloshed over my chin as I realized who it was. My twin sister met my eyes then smiled and blew me a kiss.
Stay away. Stay away.
But Memphis Eve sauntered up, the tall Svensson on her arm.
“Well well well, if it isn’t my favorite—”
“Did you like the shrimp roll?” I squawked desperately.Crap, I thought she was in Boston.I couldn’t let Mark find out that I had, well, not lied but withheld the truth from him. It would devastate him. And I should have broken it off.And I will after this.
“Hey, you’re that other gal Mark brought to the fundraiser,” Mark’s grandfather slurred, half leaning over the table.
I stuffed a California roll into my mouth, hoping I didn’t look guilty.
“I was going to see if you would pimp out some of my sex toys, since you’re dating one of the Svensson brothers now,” Ida said, taking her phone out of her purse. She had probably drunk twice as much as the rest of us and still seemed only slightly tipsy, whereas I really needed a nap and something fried to soak up the alcohol.
