“What happened?” Dinah said as I told her about Taylor’s visit to the bookstore and having to deal with the wrath of Adele when she thought I was encroaching on her department. Dinah and I were sitting in my car outside Pet World. The menagerie was getting low on supplies and I had needed a reason to get out.
I’d come home to a circus. Peter was waiting to grill me. The She La Las were practicing their new dance number while Marlowe watched from her playpen. Samuel’s friend Beth was sitting on the couch watching the baby and the dancing as she continued to audition for the babysitter job. Samuel and my father were in the kitchen unloading white containers of Thai food to feed everybody. They had brought far more than was needed. It was a family trait to be generous with food.
Peter was disappointed in how little I had found out and was practically hysterical when he heard I had to host one of the mommy group meetups and was thinking of doing it at the bookstore and involving Adele.
It was all too much and I had called Dinah about going with me on an errand. She was glad to get out as well. Commander was already in going-to-sleep mode and she was still ready to do something—even if it was only a trip to the pet store to replenish the food supply for my animals.
“So . . .” Dinah said, gesturing for me to tell her the outcome of the confrontation with Adele.
“I couldn’t stop her from calling me Pink,” I said, remembering the moment. “I had to do something to cover it up.” I laughed, thinking of the absurd thing I had come up with. “I looked at Adele and quickly added Ballet Slippers in an excited voice. And then added that The Pink Ballet Slippers was the book I’d been referring to, implying it was from some past conversation. Adele looked confused by it all and as if she was about to say something, and I got ready to do damage control, but I was saved by the bell. Well, not really a bell, more like the arrival of Eric Humphries and Mother Humphries. Adele got all unhinged about them and forgot all about me. She muttered something about they wanted to talk to her about something.”
“Nothing is going to get better until she stops calling her Mother Humphries,” Dinah said. I nodded in agreement. Everyone who knew about the situation had tried to tell her the same, but she never listened. But then Adele never listened to anybody.
“But that wasn’t the end of things. Leslie Bittner came in.” I explained that she was Daisy Cochran’s assistant and podcast producer. Dinah knew about the hassle I was having putting the event together with Mrs. Shedd’s demand that I mix in National Crochet Month with all the Hollywood stuff and Daisy’s demands. “She dropped off another box of books so we’d be sure to have enough for Daisy to sign. She went over Daisy’s demands and went over that the juice place where I’m to get the smoothie has two kinds of strawberry smoothies and I had to be sure to get the right one. She insisted it had to be the strawberry splash.”
“What a prima donna,” Dinah said. “Sorry I’m going to miss the event, but I’m helping Commander with a happy hour thing he’s hosting at the Mail It store. Since so many of his customers work out of their homes, he likes to give them a chance to socialize.” She smiled at the thought. “He is such a sweetheart in so many ways it makes up for what’s hard to deal with.” She looked ahead at the pet superstore and chuckled. “We better go in before they close.”
We got out of the car and went into Pet World. Since we were making an outing out of the errand, we took time to look at the small animals they had for sale in the front of the store. We bypassed the snakes and salamanders and glanced at the hamsters before stopping when we got to the guinea pigs. They had bright eyes and I made eye contact with them. I had started talking to them when Dinah knocked against my arm to get my attention and pointed to the automatic door that had slid open. I froze as Mason Fields came in holding his toy fox terrier Spike.
I ducked down and waddled toward the end of the row of enclosures, thinking I could escape into the aisle of cat trees and carriers. But Mason had moved into the store and was standing in the aisle I’d have to cross, blocking my way. I stayed put and bent down as if I was looking for something, hoping he’d keep going without noticing me. All I could see were his shoes, soft brown leather slip-ons, and they weren’t moving. I heard him greet Dinah and knew my cover was blown, and I stood up feeling foolish.
He was wearing jeans and a Hawaiian shirt, which I thought of as his casual, fun look, but there was no affable smile or light in his dark eyes. His expression was stone-faced. He looked so cold, I expected icy fog to come out of his mouth. Spike had no idea of what had happened between Mason and me. All he knew was that I was the person who’d played fetch with him. He wiggled with joy at seeing me. Mason set him on the ground and the little short-haired dog rushed up and put his paws on my leg.
“You won’t get any peace until you pick him up,” Mason said, keeping an even tone. He was a high-powered attorney who spent a lot of time in court defending his naughty and entitled celebrity clients and obviously knew how to modulate his voice to hide what he was feeling, which I assumed was anger and more. And I deserved it all. I cringed, reliving the phone call I’d made to him canceling our plans. I was sure Mason was having a good laugh knowing how badly things had turned out—that is, if he knew.
I wanted to ask him if he was still doing the pro bono work, helping innocent people get new trials. But I couldn’t even look at his face after the first glance. I gave all my attention to Spike. As soon as I picked him up, he wiggled with excitement and covered my face with doggie kisses. I gave him a few cuddles before setting him back on the floor. He ran back to Mason and danced in circles, yipping.
Mason scooped the dog up. “Well, I’ll leave you to it.” His tone was flat. “We’re shopping for his favorite chicken treats.”
Just before he walked away, I muttered “I’m sorry.” It was under my breath and I didn’t know if he’d even heard me.
“Now you understand why I didn’t consider calling him,” I said to Dinah, feeling all the starch go out of me. I knew I was bound to see him somewhere eventually, but it was even worse than I had imagined.
We got the pet supplies I needed, and Dinah talked me into going to her place. I accepted, thinking there was no way I was ready to go back to the commotion going on at my house.
Her house was in the heart of Tarzana and a short walk from Shedd & Royal. Commander had gone to bed and turned off all the lights in the house, and it was like walking into a tomb. She walked through, flicking them all back on as she led the way to the added-on den, which she had made into her she-cave. The sliding glass doors that separated her space from the rest of the house had been the end of the house originally and were quite soundproof. She turned on all the lights in the large room and invited me to flop on the chartreuse couch that had been in her living room prior to the marriage. It was a little too much for Commander and had been replaced with one covered in a neutral sort of tweed.
“After that you need the heavy-duty stuff,” Dinah said. She pulled off her long golden yellow scarf and dropped it on the couch, then went to the counter and filled the electric kettle from the bar sink. A few minutes later the fragrance of Earl Grey crème tea filled the air.
What would I do without my best friend.