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Nara
The second I was back in the office, a blur of red hair rushed me.
“On my gosh! How was it? You stayed longer than I thought you would!” Mimi yapped, out of breath.
“God, girl, calm down. Were you on the edge of your chair the whole time I was gone?”
She trotted after me as I headed to my cubeand sat across from me once I’d settled in.
“So here’s what you missed while you were gone.” She ran down a list of all we had to do that night before we could call it quits.
I buried my head in my hands, ever so slightly buzzed by the alcohol.
“Don’t worry,” she chirped. “We’ll get everything taken care of. When our beta test mommies come in tomorrow, they’ll never know we were scrambling at the last moment in preparation for their kids’ dirty diapers.”
Just as she was wrapping up, Joi barged in, staring at Mimi until she took the hint and split.
With the chair vacant, Joi plopped down across from my desk and pulled her long, blond hair over her shoulder to twist the ends like she always did when she was about to be dramatic.
She plopped her feet up on my desk and took a deep breath. “These wedding preparations are killing me.”
“I thought things were under control.”
She threw her hands up and rolled her eyes. “My mom and Jack’s mom are feuding over seating assignments. My shrink says weddings can bring out bad behavior in people, but I never expected this. I should have just handled everything myself, but I wanted to throw them a bone, make them feel important. Involved.”
While she jabbered on about the wedding, I scrolled through my email. Damn, there was already one from Brodie.
He didn’t waste any time. I flagged it for later.
“Nara? Nara? Hey, anybody home?” Joi asked, snapping her fingers.
I looked up from my laptop. “Oh, sorry. What were you asking?”
“I was asking if you picked up your bridesmaid dress yet.”
“Oh, right. I had the final alterations done, so it’s probably ready.” I scribbled a note to call the shop tomorrow and returned to my email.
Joi went back to her wedding talk.
“Shit.” I sighed. “Another email from Simon.” My husband-not-husband.
“That asshole is still coming around?” she asked.
I peered around the wall of my cube to see who was in hearing distance. “Do you want to get some dinner in a half hour or so? I really want to talk but not here.”
I felt a flash of guilt for not having gone to eat with Brodie. But what would be the point?
Joi, too, peeked around the corner at the office. At eight p.m., it was still full of people preparing for tomorrow. I was tight with my crew, but I was the boss, and they didn’t need to know everything about my private life.
“I’ll swing by in half an hour. You’d better be ready. No last minute emails or calls,” she said.
I held my hands up in surrender. “Calm down. I’ll be ready.”
* * *
Twenty-five minutes later, Joi poked her head into my cube.
“I came early, knowing you’d need that much prodding to get out the door.” She raised her eyebrows, waiting for my resistance.
And she was right. If she didn’t drag me out the door, I’d never leave.
Sighing, I stuffed my laptop into my tote so I could do some work at home later, and on the way out told Mimi not to stay too late. She would stay late though, god love her, and everything would be ready for tomorrow.
Joi and I walked to Fettoosh, a Lebanese place not far from the office. In true New York fashion, diners were still streaming into the place even though it was nearly nine p.m. I hadn’t eaten since my street vendor hotdog of about eight hours ago.
I ordered my usual shish tawook chicken kabobs, and she ordered the same thing she always did, which was something I could never pronounce. The owner brought us some nice, light Lebanese wine, and we got down to business.
“Okay,” Joi said. “What did you want to talk about?”
“Okay. First of all, I met the guy I won at the Avenue A fundraiser auction thing. We had a drink just a few hours ago.”
Her eyes widened. Already, she was missing the single girl life. Such as it was.
“Tell me…was he a total douche? You know those guys are always douches...” She was clearly hoping for a horror story.
I dug into the hummus the waiter had brought over.
“Honestly…he wasn’t bad.”
It kind of was disappointing that he wasn’t a jerk. It was always fun to have a juicy bad date story.
Joi frowned. “Wait. What? They’re always douches. Who else besides a conceited jackass would think they’re hot enough to have people bid on them in public?”
“I know, right? But he was pretty cool, asked me some questions about myself, seemed smart and hardworking…”
She gave me her best exasperated look. I knew it well.
