Along her walk, she saw the warm glow of the Cocoa and Cabernet restaurant’s candlelit tables. She slowed down to take in the scene. When she tilted her head to look inside, what she saw made her catch her breath in shock.
At a table with a single tall candle sat Danny and a very pretty brunette. She was a woman around his age, and each had half-drunk glasses of wine in front of them. They looked easy in each other’s company. Danny was laughing and she had a hand on his forearm. She was obviously telling him a great story or joke, and he looked comfortable and relaxed.
Dot felt her heart slice in two. She backed away from the restaurant and scrambled for her phone. She texted Harper and Mary.
“Crew up? Meet me on Main.”
Three dots appeared immediately.
“Yes. Where?” Harper said.
“Ummm... I’m near”—she turned around and frantically looked for a place to pop into. Then she saw the place from which they often got delivery—“Thai-tanic.” She winced. The restaurant’s name fit the moment a little too well.
“Order the tom yum. We’re on our way,” Mary said. She added a siren emoji.
Outside of the restaurant, Dot wrapped her arms around herself. There was a chill in the air that matched the one she felt in her heart.
Chapter 64
Dot grabbed a booth in the back of the restaurant.
“You said there will be three of you dining with us tonight?” The waiter started to fill the water glasses.
Dot nodded, still in shock at what she’d seen a few doors down at the wine bar. While it was true she and Danny had not talked about being exclusive, it was obviously exclusive. Wasn’t it? Didn’t it go without saying?
And then there were those townie girls. Dot sat thinking of all the things sheshouldhave said. But she’d choked when she had the chance, and now she was kicking herself.
She looked up as the door to the restaurant burst open.
“Where’s our girl?” Mary said, dressed in black leather pants, heels, a dark gray sweater, and a red puffy vest. Her hair was down and wild.
Dot waved from the booth. She gave Mary a double take.
“Oh no, did I screw up your plans? You look like you were going out.”
“What? In this? No. I was just hanging at the house,” Mary said.
“I thought the same thing,” Harper said. “But Jake’s on duty tonight.” Harper was wearing much more sensible clothing for an emergency meetup on a weeknight at the local Thai restaurant. Jeans, navy suede ballet flats, and her ubiquitous NYU hoodie.
The waiter came by and asked if anyone wanted a drink.
“Yes!” they said in unison.
Mary picked up the plastic drink tent from the table and quickly studied it. “How about a round of Basil Mojitos?”
“Excellent choice,” he said and rushed to get their cocktails.
“Okay. Spill. What happened? Who do we need to murder?” Harper was ready for the drama.
“Yes, tell us everything.” Mary leaned in, her elbows on the table. Dot had their full attention.
They patiently listened to the entire story stopping only to order tom yum soup, green papaya salad, pad Thai with shrimp, mango sticky rice—all to share.
“Okay, first, we take out the townies. They’re horrible,” Harper said.
“I mean, itisself-defense,” Mary said. “We’d probably only be sentenced to twelve years. We’d be paroled in six with good behavior.”
“So, you’d do the full twelve?” Harper asked.