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“They’re almost too pretty to eat.”
“Said nobody ever,” Ruby shoves one in her mouth and moans loudly. “Better than sex.”
“Ruby! And after church.” Mrs. B shakes her head. “I taught you good Asian manners. You don’t even use chopsticks.”
“We’re south Korean.” Ruby shoves another dumpling into her mouth. “Much more relaxed.”
The last time I tried to use chopsticks, I ended up with a dumpling in my lap. Still, I feel bad using my fork. “Sorry, Mrs. B.”
“You enjoy your lunch, Andrea. You have every excuse. Unlike my ungrateful daughter.”
“Oh, boy.” Ruby groans. “Here we go again.”
“You should be married and have three babies.” Her mother easily uses her chopsticks to lift a dumpling to her stern mouth. “Not working all day with those crazy people, making no money.”
“I’m building my practice!” She cries, biting into another dumpling she holds with two fingers. “And we don’t call them crazy. I’ve told you this!”
“Ruby is really doing great building her practice. You should be proud.” I try to defend my wacky friend. “Her clients love her, and she’ll make more money eventually.”
“She needs to help herself.” Her mother shakes her head. “Not use her phone to find men. What kind of men, I ask? Men who forget their wallets and make her pay.”
Years of practice as a therapist helps me keep my face neutral… instead of busting out laughing. “Bumble?” I look at her.
“I’m losing faith.” Ruby sighs. “Still, I’m not dating any of the guys in this town. How else am I going to meet somebody?”
“If your father were alive, he would fix you up with a nice doctor from his work.”
Mr. Banks had been a surgeon in Charleston. “It’s kind of true, Mrs. B. Oakville is such a small town. We don’t have a lot of options.”
She pats my hand. “Now Grayson Cole is back. You don’t need options.” My jaw drops, but she continues. “I should have invited him to lunch. Ruby, why didn’t you remind me?”
I’m sputtering, trying to cover, and my best friend doesn’t even pause.
“I’ll invite him next time.” Ruby shoves another dumpling into her mouth. “In the meantime, more for me.”
“Maybe it’s good you have a purpose in your life. If you’re never going to be a wife.” Mrs. Banks, shakes her head, delicately eating half her second dumpling.
I’m on my third as well. “She’s kind of following in her father’s footsteps, don’t you think?”
Mrs. B charges on, ignoring me. “Still, I don’t know how you’re going to help Darlene Holt. She sleeps with every man she knows. And that Riley Sturgiss is the biggest liar in St. Stephen county. Possibly the whole state. Her family needs to go back to wherever they’re from.” She shakes her helmet of dark hair. “How do you help people like this?”
“It’s called compulsive behavior, Ma. We teach them techniques to manage stressors and we talk them through their feelings. It does help.” Ruby is unfazed, but I’m horrified her mother knows so much about our clients.
Damn small-town gossip.
“And that Hunter McFee has been afraid of Richard Nixon since he was a little boy. He thought the Watergate burglars were behind September 11. As if Nixon could order it from his grave.”
“I have an idea…” My brain is racing, and I can’t eat another dumpling.
I don’t really have an idea, but I’ve got to get us off this topic. Ruby and her mother look at me expectantly.
“Yes?” Mrs. Banks nods.
“Remember that time you showed me your fortune sticks and predicted our future? I’d love to do it again.”
“No.” Mrs. Banks looks down, her cheeks bloom pink. “I cannot do that again. Pastor Stemple said astrology and fortune-telling are divination. The work of the devil.”
“Oh.”
