22
“OH, LOOK WHO’S HERE,” Matt cheers. “What a small world it is.”
I look up to see a small Asian woman walk up to Nicole and hand her her phone. Nicole is friendly and takes the woman’s phone. Mark looks extremely annoyed.
Mom looks up, and spots him. “Oh my, Mark,” she blurts out. “What in the heavens is he doing here?”
We quickly scurry over to them, and when Mark spots us, he’s clearly shaken, but sure enough, like the player he is, he quickly recovers his composure. “Darling,” he says sweetly as he walks over to my mother and embraces her. “Look who I’ve run into,” he says. “Nicole. What a small world.”
Mom is both speechless and stunned, and seems very confused.
“Uh… yes,” Nicole chimes in. “I just love this place. I always come here. It is such a nice place to walk and think.”
“What are you doing here?” Mom asks Mark. “I thought you had a lunch meeting with a colleague.”
“I did,” he says. “It was here. My colleague lives in the area. When I left him, I decided to go for a stroll and ran into Nicole.”
I can’t help but roll my eyes like a teenager.What a bunch of crock.
She inches closer and gives him a kiss on the cheek. “Well, I’m glad to see you.”
A tight smile stretches across his face as he kisses her back. Nicole looks completely discouraged — we were so close.
I wonder if Mark will be suspicious now. It’s pretty odd that we should run into him like this. There are millions of people in this city and thousands of locations. The whole plan is probably shot.
“So nice to run into you again,” I say to Nicole, keeping up the ruse. “We didn’t get to spend enough time together last night. Why don’t you come to dinner with us tonight? It’s the rehearsal dinner.”
Mark chimes in. “Uh… I don’t think—”
“Nicole is a good friend, and now I never get to see her,” I tell them, and shoot my mom one of those surefire looks I used to when I was a kid — it pretty much got me anything I wanted.
“One more… I don’t see the problem,” she says to Mark.
Mark is in a tricky spot. If he objects too much, he’ll seem cranky, and he’ll also look suspicious. I can practically see the gears turn in his little devious perverted slime ball brain.
He smiles widely. “The more the merrier.”
“Well, I’d love to stick around,” Mom says, “but we were just heading to go eat the most delicious crêpes in Paris, and I’m absolutely starving.”
Mark smiles and kisses her goodbye. I bet he can’t wait to get back to his cheating ways.
I shake my head. “Let’s go eat.”
I’m not hungry anymore.The strawberry and custard crêpes are good, but not as good as they should be. Matt passes me his phone under the table. Nicole has sent him a text.
I got away from him after you left. I told him I had a meeting for work. He still wants to meet with me tonight at the dinner. He is one horny bastard. : )
“These are delicious,” Mom says as she enjoys her last bite of crêpe. She wipes her mouth with the linen napkin. “I need to head to the little girl’s room. I’ve been needing to pee forever.”
As soon as she walks away, I ask Matt, “So, do you think it could still work?”
“It better. We’re running out of time.”
“What’s the deal with Nicole?” I ask. “Why is she helping us?”
“She’s divorced. Her husband was a cheating bastard. And ever since, she loves to hook married men and destroy their lives.”
“Oh my God,” I blurt out. “That’s so messed up.”
