Page 77 of Book Club Confidential

Eventually, Vera politely excused herself to mingle, and Sam stepped impossibly close to Kate.

He lowered his head to her ear. “I wanted to call you,” he said. “I set the napkin with your number on the bar, and it got drenched in the downpour. The ink bled. I called six different versions of the number I guessed had been there before giving up and letting fate handle the rest.”

Tessa listened closely, trying not to react to his words.

Kate shivered. “Fate, huh?”

“Destiny,” he said. He offered her his phone.

She added herself to his contacts.

A few minutes after he returned to work, a server appeared with a tray full of drinks and placed it on their table. “From Sam,” the server said, then walked away.

“Holy grail,” Hallie said, leaning in to evaluate the options. Several were marked as soda.

Tessa bumped her shoulder against Kate’s. “Sam seems nice.”

Kate laughed. “Yeah. I was overconfident when I thought he was a bartender. Now, suddenly, he owns this place? And has an advanced degree in engineering?”

Hallie sipped from a purple drink. “I like how he talks.”

Kate bit her lip. “I like our clandestine rooftop meetings.”

A pair of women in Tweedledee and Tweedledum costumes approached with microphones and cameras. “Excuse us, are you Mick Kate?”

Hallie laughed. “MC Kate.”

“Just Kate is perfect,” Kate said, turning on her charm. She shot a scolding look at Hallie, then laughed and raised a finger to let her friends know she needed a minute.

Hallie slid a blue drink in Tessa’s direction. “This one is called a Mad Hatter. Tell me if it’s blue curacao or some kind of blue raspberry flavoring. If there’s tea in it, that might be butterfly pea flower powder. Aesthetics are important, but flavor is too.”

Kate returned, cheeks pink and eyes wild. She downed the drink, then gasped lightly.

Tessa frowned. “Everything okay?”

Kate shook her head. “Nope. They just went live and asked why I’m posting content so obviously opposite my brand. I choked and blurted something about growing and changing and wanting a simpler, softer life. Then I said I wanted to finally live up to my handle, MC Kate—Main Character Kate. And for me, that involved a garden and yard chickens.”

Hallie wrinkled her nose and shot Tessa a cringing look.

“Well,” Tessa said, wondering how to spin this quickly. “It’s amazing that you found a way to announce your new content from this big event. Now everyone will understand and be excited about it, instead of wondering what’s going on. You took the opportunity to set the story straight in a really fun way.”

Kate swallowed the contents of an orange shot glass. “Quick, tell me something to distract me.”

Hallie raised her shoulders to her ears.

Kate looked at Tessa. “Anything. Please.”

“I quit my job today,” Tessa said. The words left her mouth before she’d considered saying them. Her eyes widened with the shock.

“What!” Hallie waved her hands wildly between them. “When did you plan on telling us? That is huge, enormous, very big news.”

“After the party,” Tessa said. “I don’t want to be a rain cloud on Kate’s night.”

Kate passed Tessa a shot glass. “Try it. It tastes like citrus.”

Tessa delivered the wiki version of her day and her feelings about it, then swallowed the shot. “I didn’t want to quit,” Tessa said. Her bottom lip quivered, and her voice cracked. “I felt like I had to.”

“Silver lining,” Hallie said. “You can date the hot client now.”