Lies and Weddings(88)
“You know, this is going to sound crazy, but my mother told me.”
“Your mother? I thought…”
“Yep, she’s been dead for years. I was in Tel Aviv a few summers ago, at the Hotel Montefiore celebrating a girlfriend’s birthday, and Lior was at the bar with his buddies and the second we locked eyes on each other, it was as if I could feel this energy wave sweep over me and I heard a voice that said, Joonam, this is the man for you. Only my mother called me Joonam.”
“So what happened? Did you approach him?”
“Of course not. I proceeded to ignore him all night, he never once approached me, and then he disappeared, so I figured, oh well, maybe I was wrong. Later that evening when I got back to my apartment, who should be standing there in the lobby waiting for the elevator but Lior! That’s when we started chatting, and it turns out his family had a vacation home in the building too, just like us, but our paths had never crossed because we were only there during American school holidays, while he was only there during European school holidays.”
“It was meant to be!” Eden said excitedly.
“Wait, there’s more! Weeks later, after we had begun dating, his mother comes to visit, and guess what? Turns out she knew my mother, and my mom actually met Lior as a little boy, before I was born! So I really feel like she’s somewhere up there watching out for me, making all this happen.”
“How wonderful!” Eden said, suddenly feeling a pang of sadness as she quietly wondered whether her own mother was somewhere watching out for her as well.
“How about you? Have you met ‘the one’?” Daniela asked.
“Well…I’m not sure…”
“Oh come on, spill it! Freddy said there was someone back in England? Some boy-next-door duke that’s in love with you?”
Eden giggled. “He’s a viscount, not a duke. And he’s my best friend.”
“He’s your best friend and he’s in love with you but you’re not into him?”
Eden shook her head vehemently, her cheeks flushing.
“Something’s wrong with this picture here. I can clearly see he inspires feelings in you. Look at you—you’re red as that Negroni on the counter.”
“It’s complicated. Rufus is destined to marry a woman of similar background, who can be his countess.”
“Didn’t you grow up next door to him? If that’s not a similar background I don’t know what is,” Daniela said, shifting in her bar stool as her neighbor kept brushing up against her.
“No, no, Rufus was born into the aristocracy. I was born in Texas, I’m a nobody to his mother. And besides, I have no interest in being the lady of the manor. That’s not the life I want.”
Daniela raised an eyebrow dubiously. “Tell me, when was your last relationship?”
“A couple of years ago during my medical residency. He was Scottish and we were both on the night shift in the critical care unit. We bonded over the long hours and the absolute insanity of our work situation, but the minute the residency was over, things fizzled out.”
“That’s a pity. I bet he looked hot in his scrubs,” Daniela remarked, glancing around in annoyance.
“He did look quite fit in his…are you all right?” Eden asked, noticing Daniela’s mouth was suddenly agape.
Daniela leaned into Eden’s ear. “Don’t look now, but the guy behind me is…”
“Let me guess…Shawn Mendes?”
“No, Shawn left earlier. Do you see what the guy’s doing?”
Eden peered over her shoulder, where a man with his back to Daniela seemed to be chatting up a woman perched on a bar stool. “Uh…he’s talking to his date?”
“Look closer. At the girl.”
Eden looked at the woman’s face and noticed that she was furrowing her brow in a strange, rhythmic manner. Was she having some sort of seizure? A transient ischemic stroke? Eden looked down and noticed that the man’s right arm was halfway up the woman’s skirt, jabbing away.
Eden couldn’t believe her eyes. “My god…is he…?”
“He’s fingering her!” Daniela mouthed.
Eden’s jaw dropped.
“Does he not notice he’s in a restaurant surrounded by two hundred people?” Daniela said purposely loud, but the man paid no attention and was now thrusting his arm frantically, elbowing Daniela in the waist.
“Oww!!” Daniela yelled out.
The woman suddenly blurted out, “Baby, I’m squirting!”
“And I’ve just lost my appetite!” Eden said.
“You and me both. Let’s get some air,” Daniela said as the two of them made a beeline for the door. When they were both finally outside, they looked at each other and burst out in laughter.
“I don’t know why I’m laughing,” Daniela said, doubled over. “That was SO GROSS.”
Eden was laughing so hard she had tears in her eyes.
A woman in her sixties with overly plumped lips stepped out of a Bentley and walked toward the girls. She glanced at Eden, who was leaning against the host stand, and said, “I want my usual table in the garden.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t work here,” Eden said, still laughing.