Her eyes darted back to Nadine. “What?”
“George Knightley. I just thought… I mean, aren’t you and him…” She left the sentence hanging, punctuated only by a nod that seemed to imply that Emma knew exactly what she meant.
Emma didn’t. “Aren’t me and Knightley… what?”
“Like, dating or something?”
Emma’s laugh came out like a snort. “No! No. Absolutely not.”
“Oh.” Nadine seemed genuinely surprised. “It’s just that youtwo seem so close…” It was obvious there was more she wanted to say, but she bit it back.
“We’re friends.Justfriends,” Emma continued, ignoring the fact that her heart was now racing. “We’ve been friends my entire life. He definitely doesnotlook at me like that.”
“Right,” Nadine considered for a moment. “But what about you?”
“Oh my God, I definitely look at him like a friend. Just a friend.” Why was her voice so high? Did it sound weird? She tried to hide her discomfort with a laugh, a tittering sound that made the woman two seats down jump again.
“Oh.” Nadine’s forehead creased as if she was trying to work something out in her head.
“Besides,” Emma said, clearing her throat as she struggled for composure. “I think the only way I’d ever get in a relationship again is if it’s a forever relationship.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know, the relationship you’re going to be inforever. Like, theone,” Emma replied.
Nadine nodded, even though confusion still knitted her brow. Emma waited a long moment. “Is Marty your forever relationship?”
Nadine just shrugged.
That told Emma everything she needed to know.
Mateo appeared after a few minutes, stealing Nadine away for a shampoo and conditioning treatment. Then he ushered her back to her seat, flourishing a hair dryer and massive round brush until Nadine’s previously frizzy hair was transformed.
A moment later he swung Nadine’s chair around, revealing a luscious mass of warm brown waves with sweeping honey-colored highlights. Nadine’s mouth fell open and Emma squealed, as much for Mateo’s skill as for the glow it immediately put on Nadine’s face.
“I don’t even recognize myself! This is insane,” her friend exclaimed for the fifth time as they followed Mateo over to the front desk. “Isn’t this insane? Like, a good insane. But insane!”
Nadine was smiling, a gorgeous wide smile, and Emma couldn’t have felt prouder of herself. “You look amazing.”
Nadine was still staring at her reflection in the mirror behind the desk when Mateo began pressing buttons on the computer keyboard, cursing in Spanish under his breath.
“I have no idea how to work this thing,” he grumbled.
Emma frowned. “Where’s Gena?”
“She quit. Got cast in an off-Broadway revival ofXanadu.”
“Well, that’s… nice.”
He sighed. “It’s wonderful, except now I’m out a receptionist and I have no idea what I’m doing. The sooner we can hire someone, the better.” He smashed down the enter key again and groaned.
Hmmm. An idea began to germinate in Emma’s head. She turned to her friend, who was busy running her hand through her newly acquired soft waves. “Nadine, you’re still looking for a job, aren’t you?”
Nadine’s expression blanched. “Oh God, why? Nana sent me forty dollars for a haircut, but I can put the rest on my credit card if—”
Emma waved the words away. “Oh, don’t worry about this. It’s my ‘Welcome to New York’ gift. But Mateo was just saying that they’re looking for a receptionist here.”
Her friend’s eyes lit up. “Really?”
