“Deal. Thank you for today,” she said. “I didn’t expect any of this. There’s an expression that people use about ‘being caught on the back foot,’ and I really get it now.”
“You’re welcome,” he said, squeezing her finger with his. “But as someone who has danced with you, I can confidently say you’re great on either foot.”
Andrea hugged her tight after they exchanged numbers, and he watched her walk up the steps back to the hotel untilshe turned around and waved for the last time. He waited until he couldn’t stand it any longer before pulling his phone out of his pocket and couldn’t help smiling as he typed.
Andrea:
Testing… testing…
I’m on my commute back
Lora:
I barely opened the door
Are you lost?
Andrea:
Directionally or spiritually?
Lora:
Are you always this fun on text?
Andrea:
I guess we will find out
Chapter 14
“When I die,” Lora spoke into her laptop, “I want them to serve this at my funeral. That’s how good it was.” Lora sat against the headboard at the hotel with a pillow on her lap supporting her computer. She couldn’t wait to have a desk or a table to sit at again and was hoping she could rig up some kind of workspace at Andrea’s.
“But you’ll be dead,” said Vilmari, still in her pajamas.
“Yeah, but everyone else will remember me for sharing dessert pizza with them. What could be better?”
“Not being dead? You realize that when you said ‘Nutella,’ it didn’t really matter what came after that.” Vilmari turned away from the camera and poured herself a cup of coffee. “Although I can’t believe the beginning part of the story. Did your mother really not know that Ivo was sending money to you all that time? Why didn’t the bank try to find you?”
“I have no idea, but there’s no way my mom knew. I don’t think she would have ignored thousands of dollars sitting inthe bank because she really loved being a hostess at Captain Barb’s Oceanside Grill, home of the Ooh-La-Lobster Dip.”
“I’m sure you’re right. She wouldn’t have stuck around. I didn’t know her, but you can tell from those old movies that she had something special—too special for Captain Barb anyway.”
“Shewasspecial. She never complained about her life, but I swear she breathed different air than other people. She still had that Hollywood vibe even though Vero Beach was about as far from it as you could get.” Lora laughed. “And you’re right. Even in those tiny little parts she had, you could see she was really something.”
Lora looked down, feeling the tears come again. She hadn’t cried about her mom in ages.
“Ahh, don’t cry, Mami! What’s making you sad?”
“It’s that we didn’t talk about Ivo, you know? And I was OK with that. Now I’m out here practically asking the man who never was for help even though I never wanted her to think I was missing anything. I wanted her to know I was always OK with just us,” Lora sobbed. “She gave up everything for me. Am I betraying her now just to get what I want? Without me, she would have given Julia Roberts some serious competition. Or who else was famous back then? Uma Thurman? My mother would have been so good inPulp Fiction!”
“You’re not betraying her! You can’t think that way. Besides, she loved you! Do you think she would have given that up for anything in the world?”
“I dunno, Mar,Kill Bill?” she wept.
“Mmm, that yellow jumpsuit was dope,” Vilmari said, suppressing a laugh.
“I don’t know what to think. And then—well, and then there’s Andrea.” Lora got up to get a tissue.
