“Like their money had babies.” No one could accuse Keoki of not having a one-track mind. He bent forward at the waist, like he had a stomach cramp. Or wanted to bang his head on the steering wheel. “What am I going to tell Cici?”
Keoki’s restaurant.Another gallon of shame, in Libby’s already overflowing cup. “You won’t lose your job, will you? Jacques isn’t going to fire you over this?”
“If he does, I’ll tell everyone the secret ingredient in hisvelouté de champignons sauvagesis Campbell’s cream of mushroom.” He winced. “I wouldn’t really. That would be mean.”
“We know, gentle giant.” Jean punched him in the shoulder.
“Even though he’s a pain in the booty.”
“We know that, too,” Libby said, more softly and without the violence.
“I thought this was my out. Me and Cici had a whole plan. She was going to run the front of house and Pohai would be a server. When she’s not in school.”
“Pohai?” Jean asked.
Keoki rubbed his belly. “The baby.”
“So, like… in sixteen years she could wait tables?” Jean clarified.
“I might have had a second location by then. ‘Just Desserts.’ Because we would only serve desserts.”
“That sounds nice.” In a different world, Libby would have gone there every day. Most likely at closing time, to beg for scraps.
“It would have been. And I could have given Cici and P everything they want.”
“I don’t know that a waitressing job is every girl’s dream,” Jean pointed out. “A new phone, maybe. Or a car.”
“I’d let her have one of those smashed-face cats,” Keoki said, as if it were the ultimate concession. “And now what am I going to do?”
Not get a cat,Libby thought. Her brain was still fuzzy, though the numbness was wearing off fast.
“I feel you.” Jean angled her body to make it clear she was only talking to Keoki. “You were ready to go big, take a leap, put it all on the line. And then somebody couldn’t take the heat, so she decided to punt. As usual.”
The problem with a best friend was that they knew all your fault lines—and how to slip under your guard and stab you right at your weakest point. It wasn’t the first time Libby had considered the possibility she might be a fuckup by nature, too lazy or disorganized or just plain untalented to get ahead.
“I love how you’re blaming this whole thing on me,” Libby said, fear giving way to resentment.
“It was your gig,Lillibet.”
“Yeah, but it was your idea. I told you it was going to blow up in our faces, but noooo. We had to do it your way. All convoluted and borderline-criminal.”
“At least I had an idea. An idea that wasworking,until you threw in the towel. And for what?”
Libby turned her face to the window so they wouldn’t see her eyes well with tears. “Sorry I’m such a disaster you have to tell me how to live. What should I have done differently, Jean? Marry a random stranger so he could get a green card? Because lying has worked out so well for us, let’s try defrauding the government!”
“I never said that.”
“No, you told me to figure out what I really wanted. Which I did. And it turned out so well. Thank you for that helpful advice.”
“I didn’t think you’d choose the guy! That’s like your whole deal. Not turning into your mom.”
Keoki shot Libby a panicked glance. He knew her mother was a loaded subject, which was why they generally avoided it like a boarded-up factory filled with radioactive waste. “Hey.” He reached across the seat to pat Libby’s knee. “Let’s not fight. At least we still have each other.”
Jean snorted under her breath. “Lucky us.”
“This is one of those times when I can’t tell if you’re messing with me,” Keoki admitted.
“She’s messing with you.” By which Libby meant,She’s always messing with us.It was easy to be Team Anarchy when you didn’t care about the aftermath.
