Wait. He said what now?” Dawn couldn’t keep the disbelief from her voice. “Since when did Doctor Economics become the type to ‘know a guy’?”
“I know, I was kind of surprised too. But he seems serious.” I took a bite of my chicken wing, the best part of trekking downtown. “True says he tutored this guy in physics and now he works in film doing something. I don’t know. But True wouldn’t lie.”
“No, he wouldn’t do that. But still. This is really not like him. Why would he go along with something so outlandish?”
“Outlandish?” I was shocked. Dawn was usually my all-in ride or die. I couldn’t keep the disappointment from my voice. “This is coming from the woman who used coming to Koreatown for beauty products as an excuse to stock up on K-pop merch. What all do you have in that shopping bag? Three hydrating masks and four CDs of the same album.”
She opened her mouth and I held up a hand. “I know, I know. There are different versions.”
Dawn twisted her lips, extra shiny from her YSL lip gloss with sticky chicken glaze on top.
We were currently having Korean BBQ chicken and some sides on 32nd Street. My win for the trip downtown.
I continued on a bit of a self-righteous roll. “Oh, and there’s a poster you won’t hang in your perfectly decorated apartment and two sets of sticker cards.”
“Those I’ll use for my planner. But whatever,” she said, sounding more like back-in-high-school Dawn than art-agent Dawn. She gave me a glare. “Your point is?”
I gave her a cold smile. “I don’t have one really.”
“Good.” She bit into her wing.
“Except.”
“Great,” she mumbled out over the wing. “Here it comes. I know I went overboard today. But I was a little down, and I sold an old purse on eBay to cover for it.”
“Poor baby. I know that was hard.”
“Don’t patronize me, Lu.”
I swallowed, but my throat was dry. She was right; that wasn’t fair. We all had our shit. “But my point was that I was not judging you. When have we ever done that? I just thought you, more than anyone, would be behind me on this.”
Dawn was quiet and stared at her wing. When her head came back up, she looked suitably guilty.
“Why did you choose this year to jump into some ridiculous state of reality?” I asked. “Do I have to give both you and Keanu an intervention?”
She laughed. “Is that what you’re calling what you want to give Keanu? An intervention?” She raised her arm high, chicken wing in hand, and mimicked a stripper-like gyration, then snorted, sending chicken spittle flying.
I threw my hand over my food. “Seriously? In front of my salad!”
Dawn burst out laughing, sending more spittle flying, and eyes in the crowded eatery turned our way.
I looked around. “Don’t mind her. She always dances with her wings. Side effect of her pole days.”
“Hush, you said you’d never bring that up again once we got out of Atlanta, Miss Lucille!” Dawn yelled.
I rubbed my head and went back to my food. Pretty much the same as everyone else. Seemed our little theater was de rigueur for the likes of this busy midtown bunch. “Had your fun deflecting?”
“I wish. And I’m not the one deflecting.”
“Neither am I. I’m the one facing reality and life head-on. At least True sees that.”
She gave me a hard and skeptical look. “Is that what True sees? I’m sure.” She drawled the last word out.
“Don’t start, Dawn.”
“Who’s starting? I didn’t say a thing. That’s your mind going all sorts of ways.”
“My mind’s going nowhere.”
She snorted. “Your mind’s always going somewhere. Just like True’s.”
“Oh, really? And where could True’s mind be going? It’s always on numbers.”
“Sure, you go on telling yourself that if it keeps your head firmly attached and your panties in place.” She shrugged and went back to concentrating on her food, though I knew she wasn’t concentrating on her food at all. She was practically salivating waiting for my reaction. I shouldn’t say a thing and just let her stew.
Yeah, that would’ve happened if I had an inch of willpower. I didn’t.
“My panties are perfectly secure,” I said.
“Not if you and True go flouncing around on a quest for Keanu.”
I grinned. “Quest for Keanu? I like the sound of that.”
Dawn sighed. “You really have a one-track mind. How did you focus on that when I was talking about True getting into them drawers?” She waved her chicken-free hand toward my bottom half.
“You’re being ridiculous. You know True has zero interest in me and same the other way around. He’s like a little brother.”
She gave me that “yeah sure” skeptical look.
“Or cousin,” I said.
Her eyebrows raised.
“You are reaching so far now, my friend, you might just dislocate something.” Dawn sighed.
“How about older cousin’s sister’s friend?” I said.
Dawn shook her head. “Yeah. That one she brings to the cookout who you only see once a year and you’ve been looking forward to seeing because you’ve had the biggest crush on her and you can’t wait for her to see how much you’ve grown since last summer. That one? The one you’re not even related to but since their kin lived next door to each other, somehow it turned into ‘cousins’? Okay then.”
My chicken turned to sawdust in my mouth. “Sometimes I can’t stand you, you know.”
“I know. But I want to see you happy. And now that I’ve said it and it’s off my chest, I can happily tell you to go with God and live free.” She looked so proud and full of herself after her little bomb drop that if she wasn’t my best friend, I’d hate her. “Please,” she continued, “find Keanu and at the very least, True will ensure you stay the hell out of jail. I’m just giving you the warning that if you do find our dream boyfriend, please be careful with our little boy True’s heart. It’s fragile.”
I held up my hand. “All right, all right. I get the picture. You act like True’s been a saint, pining for me all these years. Which we both know he hasn’t. Not with the number of women who have thrown themselves at him. Hell, we’ve even helped him get ready for dates.”
Dawn frowned. “That we did. But so what? Everything needs its right time.”
I sighed. “Well, there is no right time for us. Besides, very helpful TA Aimee is bouncing to pounce if she hasn’t already.”
“Trust and believe for all my ball busting she hasn’t…yet.”
I nodded, my focus on the heavily loaded yet in Dawn’s sentence. There was no reason for me to care about True’s TA. Her T or her A. But I did. Either way, I should be happy for him. I wanted him to be happy. He supported me for so long. Both my friends had. I owed them the same support.
I poked at my salad, wondering if taking True’s help was asking too much.
“Don’t look like that.”
I looked up at Dawn. “Like what?”
“Like I just kicked your puppy.”
“Those are fighting words. True is nobody’s puppy.”
Her lip quirked. “But he is your special companion. Sort of your energy. It’s very John Wick of you.”
I sighed and swore I felt my eyes roll back. “Oh, come on. I’ve got Morphie, and you are going a bit far in your analyzation today. You’re lucky I’m distracted, or I’d be all up in your shit.”
She shrugged. “Lucky me. But it’s not like I’ve got shit to get in. I’m as clear as glass. But seriously, you’re fine. Do you.”
“I don’t know. Maybe you were right from the start. I should just do my thing. Focus on these last pieces for the show. See what’s up or not up with Daniel Lim and maybe do a few commissions. If growing up is good enough for Keanu, then maybe it’s worth a try. Besides, I don’t want to put True out.”
Dawn frowned. “Put him out or bring him in?”
“Whatever. I don’t know why I’m getting all up in arms. He probably doesn’t know a guy anyway.” I laughed, not convinced but trying to get there, when my phone buzzed with a text.
I continued eating my salad.
“Well, aren’t you going to look?” she said.
“I’m eating.”
“Girl, you know it’s the pup. We talked him up. Just look.”
I gave her a glare. Then wiped my hands and flipped over my phone. Of course it was the pup, um, True.
My guy came thru. First stop: Coney Island. Cyclone.
Cyclone?? My stomach dropped, like I was already riding the infamous roller coaster, and I swallowed before looking back up at Dawn.
“He knows a guy?”
I nodded. “He freaking knows a guy.”