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The server called my order number. “Thirty-six?”
“That’s my order,” I said to Evan. “I’ll drop you on the guest list, Evan Crawford, but I can guarantee you’ll find something better to do between now and finishing your meal.”
“I’ll see you later, Kelly. Wait, Kelly what?”
I shrugged as I grabbed my food and slipped past him. “Just Kelly, for now.”
* * *
Beth devoured the burrito in about five bites and was wiping refried beans off her chin before I’d even finished half of mine. “Sure, you weren’t hungry,” I said. “You swooped on that like a seagull on a fry at the beach.”
“Squawk. That wasdelicious.” She took a deep breath and crumpled the wax paper into a ball. “What is up with you? You look terrible.”
“I don’t look terrible. The lighting in here is bad—people always look worse at the beginning of a party, before they turn the lights down. Come to think of it, it’s almost as bad as people look at the end, when they turn the lights up.”
“You’re dancing pretty hard there, Kelly.”
“I know.” I took another bite. “I don’t want to confess. It’s all too awful.”
“We’re going to get pretty busy in about fifteen minutes, so you had better spill now.”
“I got engaged. On Christmas Eve, in front of Rob’s parents when he gave me an antique ring worth more than my postsecondary education. Oh, and then his mother gave me this watch that’s also so far above my pay grade that I’m not even comfortable looking at it, let alone wearing it. The dinner party was a complete disaster; I got drunk and hit on Garrett in front of his girlfriend; Rob exploded, rightfully; I told him he was pretty much pathetic for even staying with me; then I drunk dialed my mother and sister, who performed an intervention the next day, basically locking me up in Etobicoke, with very little booze and alotof lecturing, until today.”
Beth looked at me for a long moment. “Wow.” Pause. “Sounds about right for you.”
“I’d have been surprised if it had turned out any other way.”
“The minute Marianne misunderstood her invitation,” Beth said, “I had a feeling something might go wrong—but wrong like you finally telling her off for doing aerobics at work, not like, oh, I don’t know, yougetting engagedandfreaking out.” She reached across the table and grabbed my hands. “Seriously, you hit on Garrett in front of hisgirlfriend?”
She continued, “Kelly, the rules about work boyfriends are terrifically clear—they are not and never will berealboyfriends.”
I nodded, mouth full. Another assistant wandered up to us and asked where the coat racks should go. Someone had called to say the racks were on their way up. I looked up at the assistant and pointed to theCOAT CHECKsign that Beth had put up in the cubby-slash-hallway one flight of stairs down to the left of the elevator. “Over there.”
“That makes sense,” she said and wandered away.
“If only they would use their eyes before their mouths,” I said. “They just like wearing the walkie-talkies.”
“You’re changing the subject.”
“I know, but it was utterly rotten. I don’t know what happened. No, I’m lying, I know exactly what happened. Rob made a perfectly reasonable request that I consider getting married. We’ve been together for years, it makes sense. Only it doesn’t make sense to me—at least, I don’t think it’s what I want. And I love him, so much, but now I think I’ve ruined the best thing that ever happened in my life. I’ll never have my two-weddings wedding like you.”
“You’re changing the subject again. We aren’t talking about me. Are you sure you’re okay? I can manage tonight if you need to go.”
“I’m not okay, no. But there are bigger things to worry about. I’m not abandoning you at this party. I’ll find a way to have a serious conversation with Rob that may or may not end our relationship. And on that note—it’s time I got changed.”
Beth looked at her watch, which was giant on her thin, pale arm. “We still have a few minutes.”
“There’s not a lot more to say. I haven’t talked to Rob since my mother took me home, and I’m not sure what’s going to happen tomorrow. I might end up on your couch for the next month until I can find a new place to live.”
“It’s not going to come to that,” Beth said.
I shrugged. “It might.”
The coat-check assistant was back now, wondering if Beth had a schedule for all the guests arriving so she could make sure there was enough room for their coats on the rack.
Beth had a perfect look of disdain, and stood up. “If we run out of coat racks, we can call downstairs for more. There are always more coat racks. Counting coats before they arrive might not be the best use of your time. Have you checked to see if you have enough change? It’s two dollars a coat, and all the money is going to the talent’s inner-city charity for sustainable housing, so we need to be careful collecting the change. Do you even have the cash box?”
The intern looked shell-shocked. “Um, no?”
