Evan pocketed his phone and smiled. Paige reflected on how much she valued these friendships. She’d met Lauren shortly after moving back to the city after her time working overseas. As a way to meet people, Paige joined a book club that met at a bar in the Village once a month, which was where she’d met Lauren and Evan. The book club was run by a woman named Eileen who had a literature degree and a lot of pretention, but the books they read were, if not always Paige’s favorite things to read, good for discussion. The three of them, and sometimes Lauren’s friend Lindsay from college, got in the habit of sticking around after the discussion ended to have another drink or three, and that had cemented their friendship.
She did one annual meeting for the bank in New York and finally decided she’d had enough. She had squirreled away enough money to coast for a bit while she figured out what to do next, but as soon as she mentioned this to Lauren, Lauren had insisted Paige come work at the Café.
Paige hadn’t had a single regret—until now. Although Paige’s salary was now a small fraction of what it had been at the bank, Paige had more creative freedom at her job than she’d ever had. Plus, the work wasfun. She loved working with her friends and loved the challenge of putting on events that attracted people to the Café. It was a joy to get up and go to work each day.
But now she started to wonder if working for her friend was really one of the smarter decisions she’d made in her life. Working alongside people she loved and respected was great, but once that all seeped into her personal life, things had the potential to get messy.
Evan didn’t work at the Café; he was a freelance graphic designer. He did the odd design job for the Café sometimes, like designs for T-shirts or the logo on the website. And their other friend Lindsay was a food writer, although even she had helped out the Café by connecting Lauren with some of their human food vendors. So it really was a family affair. And Paige did consider this group of people her family, but sleeping with Lauren’s brother put this into some other strange territory. Her mind was still reeling from it.
“Actually,” Paige said to Evan, “before Lauren gets here, I…have a problem.”
Evan leaned forward. “That sounds promising. Something you can’t tell Lauren about? Did something happen at the Café?”
“No, nothing like that. Far worse.”
“Tell me.”
“Do you know Lauren’s brother Josh?”
“Not well. We’ve met a couple of times.”
“So, I had never met him until two nights ago.”
“Oh, did you meet at that feral cat thing? Lauren mentioned you might both be there and wondered if you’d run into each other.”
“Well, wedidmeet.”
“That sounds ominous. Is he a dick?”
“No. He’s a pretty great guy, actually. But, uh, we had a one-night stand.”
“You…oh.” Evan frowned. “Wow. Normally I’d be allget it, girl, but I don’t know what to do with that. I mean, he’s cute. But he’s Lauren’s brother.”
“Iknow. Thing is, I didn’t know he was Lauren’s brother until the next morning. I just thought he was a cute guy named Josh who was fun and flirty and easy to get along with. I reallylikedhim. I was kind of looking for his flaws the morning after because he almost seemed too perfect. And of course, he was.”
Evan tilted his head. “Hmm, okay. It’s not like he lied, because he didn’t know you knew Lauren, did he?”
“No, I don’t see how.”
“You could also just…not tell Lauren.”
Paige sighed. “That’s what Josh said.”
“And it might not be a big deal. Lauren might not even care.”
“Well, I wondered about that, but then… Do you remember what happened at the wedding?”
Evan frowned. “A lot of things happened at the wedding.”
“Lauren and the other bridesmaids and I got ready at Lauren’s apartment, so we were all there when she got a call from Josh saying he couldn’t make it. He was supposed to land at LaGuardia that morning because he was coming back from somewhere, but his flight had gotten delayed so much that he wasn’t going to make it back in time for the wedding. And Lauren was devastated at first. Josh was supposed to be a groomsman.”
“Yes, I remember that.”
“But then she got pissed. I totally forgot about her being upset about that until after I left Josh’s apartment, but Lauren went on this huge rant about Josh’s girlfriend and how she was stomping on his heart and how the only reason he went to Chicago at all was a futile last-ditch effort to save the relationship.”
“Sure, okay. It’s coming back to me. What’s your point?”
“Lauren is protective of her brother. She was furious with his ex. I don’t want to be on the other side of that wrath.”
