Charlie was still playing around with his camera, not looking in my direction. “He did. We had a most illuminating conversation.”
“The best kind,” I sighed, stars in my eyes. I could just imagine the scene, their hands joined on the table, Charlie smiling quietly, Robert telling some story that was inconsequential to anyone but them. My heart ached sweetly at the thought. I wanted to write love poetry and shout it from the rooftops and—
“You came up.”
I paused the stunning rendition of “Old Love / New Love” that was running through my head. It was a masterpiece. Or it would have been, had I not been startled out of it. “I did? Why?”
“This and that,” Charlie said. “I talk about you kids a lot, you know.”
I didn’t trust him in the slightest. The old man was up to something. I was onto him. “Uh-huh.”
What happened next happened on purpose, though I’d never be able to prove it. But I knew he was waiting for the exact moment when I lifted my drink and took a sip to say, “Just so happened that his son was asking about you. You remember Jeremy?”
Which, of course, caused my throat to lock up, forcing me to cough. And when one coughs with a mouthful of liquid, one tends to spray it out in a most unflattering manner.
So there I was, sitting next to my old friend turned traitor when I managed to hack up half a lung, vodka tonic exploding from my mouth, the liquid glittering prettily in the overhead lights of the club.
And then, from below, came cries of disgust as it rained down on those waiting for the drag show to begin.
Charlie jerked his head up to look at me, eyes wide. “Do you realize what this means?” he asked, voice barely above a whisper.
I glared angrily at him as I wiped my chin. “No, Charlie, I don’t know what it—”
He was solemn when he said, “You spit your drink over the balcony. It landed on someone. That means you have to marry them. It’s tradition.”
“What the fuck! That’s not a thing! That’s never been—”
“Paul and Vince,” he reminded me, and I was going to end him. “And while Darren and Sandy might not have started the same way, they certainly….” His smile faded. “Well, they did have sex up here. So I suppose that counts.”
I stood immediately from the stool. “Ack! No! Gross! Why! Why are you like this? You’re telling me I could have been sitting in Homo Jock King spooge? Do you have any idea how much this skirt cost?” I frowned. “It didn’t cost that much, now that I think about it. I’m poor, and Sandy showed me the art of thrifting, but still!”
Charlie cackled as he leaned over the balcony. “Let’s see who you have to marry now. Okay, he certainly looks capable of manhandling—wait. No. Sorry. That’s a lesbian. Oh, now there’s someone who could be perfect for you—nope. Never mind. He’s shaking his fist angrily up at me, and I have half a mind to go down there and tell him to watch his mouth.” Charlie turned two fingers toward his eyes and then pointed them down at whoever I’d spit on.
“J’accuse!” I gasped. “I trusted you.”
Charlie snorted as he sat back on his stool. “All I did was say that my date’s son was asking about you. You were the one that overreacted like a drama queen. And believe me when I say I know drama queens.”
“Whatever,” I muttered, wiping droplets off my top. “You did that on purpose.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,?
? he said mildly.
“Riiiiight. You keep trying, Daddy. See where it gets you.”
He laughed again and went back to his camera.
I waited.
He said nothing more.
That was fine. I absolutely didn’t need to know what Jeremy Olsen had asked about me. I hadn’t seen him since the wedding either, at least not face-to-face. Glimpses from across campus, sure, and if he just happened to be in the Health Sciences Library when I was and I hadn’t been able to work up the nerve to go over and say hello and instead hid in the stacks, spying on him through the shelves, that was my business. He was in a position of power. That intimidated me. Nothing else.
So, no. I didn’t need to know what he said to his dad. In fact, it was probably nothing. Just a simple “How is Corey (or Kori) doing?” He was being polite, and even if there’d been a weird moment after the wedding when I walked him back to his car when we’d stood there staring at each other awkwardly, it was nothing.
Charlie was an evil man, and I knew he was waiting for me to ask.
Well, the joke was on him, because two could play at that game.