“A figure of speech,” Mason said in his best Professor Cole voice, “is a non-literal word or phrase used for rhetorical effect.”
“Is that what it is?” Beck asked in his best smartass voice.
“Does Pia know about this?” Mason asked.
“Speak of the devil,” I said as Pia walked in.
“Know about what?” she asked.
“You didn’t talk to Delaney yet?” I asked.
“I just did.”
“So she didn’t tell you?”
“About lunch?”
“About my father.”
Mason and Beck watched the two of us as if it were a tennis match. Pia shook her head.
When I told Pia what happened, her eyes widened.
“She would never tell me.” Pia stifled a smile. “Delaney takes confidentiality with her patients very seriously.”
“Obviously it doesn’t leave this room.”
“Your dad’s dick is not typically a topic of conversation at the bar,” Beck said. “But if it comes up, I’ll be sure not to mention it to anyone.”
“Are you working tonight?” Pia asked him.
“Is the sky blue?”
“At the moment.” She peeked out the kitchen window, Heritage Hill’s lakeside view one of its best features. At the moment, Pia was apparently noticing the very gray skies typical of late January in the Finger Lakes. “No. It’s not.”
That Mason’s fiancée so easily fit into our group was just one of the many reasons we all liked her so much.
“Delaney is off at six,” Pia said to Mason. “It’s still weird for her to be around on the weekend, so Jules and I were thinking to re-acclimate her to Saturday night in Cedar Falls. Maybe The Grapevine for dinner, Big Easy for a drink and then meet you at O’Malley’s later?”
“Works for me,” he said. Mason looked at me.
“I could go for some wings. Any interest in?—”
“I’m on at seven,” Beck cut in. “Come to O’Malley’s to eat.”
“Your wings are crap.”
“I’ll tell them extra crispy.”
Mason sighed. He didn’t want to eat at O’Malley’s, but Beck was feeling left out. Always the mediator, I said, “We’ll hit Taylor’s for a wing appetizer and come over for dinner.”
“I swear to God,” Mason said. “You have more FOMO than?—”
“If you say a girl, I’m coming after you,” Pia intervened.
“Yeah? Coming after me how?” Mason got to her first, putting Pia in a bearhug which there was no escaping from. The former Army Ranger had skills that all of us, myself included, gave a wide berth around.
“So I guess you’ll be seeing Delaney for the second time in a day,” Pia said after Mason let her go.
