65. Zane
65
ZANE
“I feel like I’m in a hostage situation.”
Mira elbows me in the side. “You’re telling me. We’ve only been sitting down for ten minutes and you and Daniel are halfway through the breadbasket. Save some for the rest of us!”
I smirk and slide my hand along Mira’s thigh, widening the slit in her blood red dress. The second she walked out of the bathroom, I knew this dress would be in a puddle on my bedroom floor before the day was out.
I use my breadstick to point to the circular metal door to our private room. It has to be four-feet thick, at least. “I was actually talking about having a double date inside an old bank vault.”
Taylor booked a private room in some Italian restaurant her dad has a stake in. They gave her their nicest room, which, in a refurbished bank, means we're in the vault.
Daniel eyes the doorway nervously. “If that doorstop gives out, do you think the waitstaff has the combination to free us? There are no windows in here. How long would the oxygen last?”
“We’d have plenty of time to get rescued,” Taylor says dismissively. “Especially after I murder you two oxygen-sucking hockey goons to save the air for me and Mimi.”
Daniel grins at the death threat. “Absolutely vicious.”
I agreed to come on the double date because I could see how much Mira wanted it. She seemed nervous to ask me. I figured it was because the weekend had been a shitstorm. Not exactly the kind of thing you rush out to celebrate.
Then, an hour later, she finally told me about Peter Morris dropping in. The glaze I’d been noticing in her eyes made a lot more sense. She was worried she made things worse for me with CPS, but Peter’s mind was made up about me the moment we met. Nothing she could do would change that.
All of that aside, I'm still glad I came out.
If only so I can see what it looks like when my best friend is deeply, stupidly in love.
“That’s why Mira and I make such a good pair,” Taylor says. “Mira looks like she would kill you?—”
Mira almost chokes on her wine.
“—but she’s a teddy bear with a soft, gooey center.”
“Not true,” Mira mutters half-heartedly.
Taylor carries on. “Whereas I look like a doll, but I’d actually kill you. It’s called ‘balance.’”
“Z and I have that, too,” Daniel says. “I’m the brains and the brawn and the charm and the sexual prowess and the?—”
“What the fuck is left for me?” I snap.
“The looks, obviously.” Daniel reaches over the table to pat my cheek. “The fact you couldn't figure that out is why I’m the brains, sweetheart.”
I slap his hand away. “You two make a beautiful, unbearable couple.”
Taylor raises her glass in a toast. “To us!”
The bank vault might be windowless, but it’s nice. Flickering candles line the long table and a heavy crystal chandelier hangs threateningly over our heads.
“This double date is going a lot better than our last one, Mimi,” Taylor muses.
Mira’s eyes go wide. “No. Not this story, Tay.”
Daniel shakes Taylor’s shoulders. “Out with it. You have no choice now.”
“You totally have a choice,” Mira retorts. “Don’t give into peer pressure. Chicks before dicks.”
Taylor waves off Daniel’s protests. “Easy, boys. Mira is just lashing out because she doesn’t want you both to know her sordid dating history.”
I lean in, my nose brushing the shell of her ear. “What secrets are you hiding, Mira?”
I mean it to sound teasing, but her face pales. She pastes on a smile, but it’s thin. “Taylor is drawing it out, but it wasn’t a big deal. I set up a double date with a guy I met in a dark —I’d like to highlight that point again: it was very dark —club. And when we met up the next night, he was?—”
“Fifty-eight years old!” Taylor explodes, already cackling. “And the friend he brought for me was sixty-one!”
“But they were really fit!” Mira counters. “With soft lighting, he didn't look old. He just looked leathery, like he tanned a lot or something.”
Daniel’s eyes are as wide as I’ve ever seen them. “Did you finish the date?”
“Of course we did.” Taylor pshaws him away like it wasn’t even a question. “They got the senior discount, so we ate like queens.”
“Even though they were old enough to be your fathers! How old is your dad, Mira?” Daniel asks.
I don’t even have time to register that Daniel is asking about Mira’s abusive father at what’s supposed to be a casual dinner before Mira blurts out, “I don’t have a dad. I was raised by a single mom.”
I frown. That’s not at all what she told me.
It’s not like I expect her to lay her childhood trauma on the table for us all to pick through over dinner, but outright lying seems like a weird move.
Even weirder, I look to Taylor—and she doesn’t look surprised at all. She’s nodding sympathetically. “It’s why Mira is so drawn to me. She’s attracted to strong, independent women. I'm a motherly figure to her.”
“Holy shit! What if that guy was your dad?” Daniel chortles. “You didn’t… you know … with him, did you?”
“Ladies don’t bang and babble!” Taylor slaps his arm. Then she concedes, “They also don’t have sex with guys who need their steaks blended for them. So no, those gentlemen did not get the pleasure of our naked company.”
Daniel and Taylor slip into a quieter conversation, but Mira won’t even look at me. She keeps her eyes trained on her wine glass, and I don’t know what I’d say even if she did look at me.
I can’t exactly ask why she’s lying to Taylor with Taylor sitting two feet away.
There’s always a second option, but I can’t even think about it without white-knuckling my knees under the table.
When I left Paige, I said I was done with that lifestyle. The drugs and partying, yeah. But the lies, too.
No matter how I slice it, Mira is lying to someone .
I want to know why.
Between the entrees and dessert, Taylor stands up and clears her throat. “I’m going to the ladies’ room.”
Mira is quietly pushing her food around her plate, and Taylor has to pointedly clear her throat two more times before Mira blinks and looks up.
“Oh,” she mumbles, sliding her chair away from the table. “Yeah, I’ll come, too.”
The women link arms and move towards the back of the restaurant.
Daniel stares after Taylor with obvious longing. “That dress really does look good from every angle.”
“You better be talking about your date,” I warn.
“Obviously.” He lounges back in his chair, arm slung over Taylor’s empty seat. “I don’t really see the point of a double date. Witnesses or not, I’m focused on one thing and one thing only.”
“Sex?”
“I was going to say ‘Taylor.’” His head bobs back and forth in concession. “But you’re not wrong. That is the finish line I’m working towards.”
I toss back my lime and soda, some small part of me wishing it was something stronger. “I’m just ready to go home.”
Daniel sits up quickly. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
He arches an eyebrow. “I’d do the thing where I pretend to believe you and then coax the truth out of you slowly with my charm and unconditional friendship, but we’re a little short on time. So spare me the effort and just spit it out. I’ve known you long enough that I can tell when you’re lying.”
I snort. “I thought I had that ability, too. With everyone.”
“You do. You’re a nightmare to play poker with.”
“Maybe I should play poker with Mira,” I mutter.
Daniel glances over his shoulder and then leans in closer. “You think she’s lying to you about something?”
“She’s lying to someone. Based on what she told you about her parents, it’s either me or Taylor.”
“She wouldn’t lie to Taylor. They’re best friends.”
“ I lied to you ,” I confess. “Plenty of times. Over and over again. It didn’t matter that you were my best friend.”
His forehead creases. “That was different. You weren’t yourself.”
“Yes, I was. I was still me. The difference is I was ashamed and had something to hide.”
“You think Mira has something to hide?” he muses, almost like he’s talking to himself. “Taylor has complained that she’s kind of cagey. And Mira told you she likes her privacy.”
“Yeah, well, lying about your family goes a little beyond privacy,” I say bitterly.
Daniel sits back, eyes wide. “What did she lie about?”
I want to tell Daniel about the phone call and the man looking for Mira, but I don’t know enough about it myself. I trust Daniel, but if Mira is in danger, I’m not going to be the person who puts her even more at risk.
I shrug. “That’s the question. I don’t know. All I know is she told me and Taylor very different versions of her childhood.”
“I can ask Taylor about what she knows?” Daniel offers. “Maybe this is a misunderstanding and she can fill in some gaps.”
I don’t know about that. The gap between having an abusive father and not knowing your dad at all is pretty damn wide.
I wave him off. “Don’t bring Taylor into it. I’ll talk to Mira myself.”
Before Daniel can argue, the women round the corner and Mira drops into her chair looking a bit more chipper than when she left.
Daniel presses his nose to Taylor’s neck and inhales. “You smell amazing. Did you put perfume on or something?”
“What happens in the ladies’ room stays in the ladies’ room,” Taylor chastises. “We are not at liberty to divulge our secrets—right, Mira?”
Mira looks sidelong at me and zips her smirking red lips closed. “I’ll carry them with me to the grave.”