Saturday morning at the Gallery was like rush hour at Grand Central Station.
Lucy might need a spyglass to spot her friend among the throng of hungover coeds getting their java jolts, gym rats indulging in a post-workout carb fest, and grumpy old men hiding behind copies of the New York Times. Eyes peeled, Lucy picked her way around a slapdash cushion fort constructed by a pair of bored but highly sugared middle school boys. Ugh. This whole week had been one long obstacle course.
Ravi had asked Lucy several times to give him new calculations for the Voltaic pile and to schedule another trial run, but she’d managed to put him off. Meanwhile, she and Cole had only exchanged furtive glances across hallways and classrooms since she’d seen his Megan slideshow.
She didn’t know if that meant they were officially broken up or what, but she was also too afraid to ask. Afraid for Cole. Lucy didn’t want to hotwire her boyfriend.
Much.
She was more angry than sad when she thought about the ambiguous state of their relationship, and she didn’t know what that meant. Or how she felt about it.
Plus, she had bigger problems.
Lucy’s gaze skidded to a halt as she took in the new exhibition lining the walls of the café. Huge black-and-white flowers taken with a macro lens loomed in front of her. Hauntingly beautiful. Especially the ones flecked with crystalline raindrops.
Message received, universe.
Hard as she tried, Lucy couldn’t ignore the fact that her mom was decoding an almost two-thousand-year-old manuscript whose illuminations resembled Lucy’s dreams. Which would be strange enough if Lucy hadn’t also become a human Taser.
Not that she truly believed the universe was taking an interest in her. Tesla would have, though. Lucy had stayed up into the wee hours of the night finishing the Current Wars book. Later in life, Tesla became obsessed with the notion that everyone and everything on the planet had its own unique frequency, like radio waves. If you could tune yourself to the same frequency, he believed you could receive psychic messages.
It was sad that such a genius had clearly gone senile.
A Mommy & Me group had laid siege to Lucy’s preferred velvet sofa, forcing her to shimmy her way through a barricade of strollers. She rubbed her temples. Lucy suspected the alchemists would also have believed in Tesla’s strange frequencies.
She’d done a little Googling on Kleopatra’s manuscript herself and, by falling down the black holes of New Age websites, she’d discovered the Enigma code breakers had taken a stab at it and that Leonardo da Vinci explored the Flower of Life in his work.
How much of it did Ravi actually believe?
Lucy patted her pocket, ensuring the Tesla Egg was still there. As long as it didn’t make direct contact with her skin, it seemed harmless, and she’d started carrying it around like a security blanket. Maybe because it was the only tangible proof that, unlike Tesla, Lucy hadn’t lost her grip on reality. Yet.
She couldn’t be late for Dr. Rosen.
Elbowing her way to the counter, she deflected death glares from other customers.
“Claudia?” she asked when she finally caught the eye of a harried barista wearing a paint-speckled baseball cap. His answer was a gruff, “Out back,” glancing at the caffeine-starved horde with true fear. The café was about to be overrun. It wasn’t like Claudia to abandon ship.
Lucy thanked him and edged away slowly toward the side exit. Yes, she could have simply texted her friend to cover her but, truth be told, Lucy was more nervous about her visit to Dr. Rosen than she wanted to admit. What she wanted was a best-friend hug.
As the door opened into the parking lot, Lucy saw that Claudia hadn’t abandoned ship. Not quite. Pressed against the Mystery Minivan, fingers tangled in Jess’s vaguely porcupine-esque hair, Claudia had a blissfully content smile on her face.
Lucy hated to interrupt, but … Cough, cough.
It took a few moments to penetrate their love bubble.
Finally focusing, Claudia’s eyes lit behind heavy lids. “Minnie Mouse! What’s my favorite person doing here?” Then she squeezed Jess’s waist. “Second favorite.” She dropped her voice, pretending it was a secret, and Lucy dismissed a prick of jealousy.
Jess pivoted to face her, taking Claudia’s hand. Possessive much?
“Hey,” she said. “I’m Jess.” Today she was dressed in a 1950s-style cocktail frock accessorized with strands of chunky green beads. Claudia sported the Ceci n’est pas une pipe T-shirt that Jess had been wearing the day they met. Oh my. Things were moving fast.
“Best friend, meet girlfriend,” Claudia said with a giggle. “Girlfriend, best friend.”
Girlfriend? Already?
Without thinking, Lucy whipped out the egg and started flipping it over in her hand. “Hey,” she said back, smiling as big as she could. “Lucy. No mouse ears or anything.” She cast a fake glare at her friend.
“You here for a Frosty or a Rudolph?”
Jess arched an eyebrow and Claudia explained about Lucy’s Christmas coffee predilections. “Never fear, I’ll make you a Mrs. Claus,” Claudia assured her with a smooch.
“What’s that?”
Claudia whispered something in her ear and Jess grinned a mile wide.
Lucy had been on the outside looking in plenty of times in her life. Just never with Claudia. She clutched the egg tighter.
“Anyway,” Lucy interjected. “I’m headed to the city. Could you cover with my mom if she calls? I should be back by dinnertime.”
“No problemo. Whatcha up to?”
She cut a glance at Jess. No reason to divulge all her secrets in front of a stranger.
“There’s a new exhibition at the Natural History Museum.”
“I hope you’ve got a membership card.” Claudia wrinkled her nose, observing Lucy shrewdly enough to make her fidget. “Fine, fine,” her friend said, backing off. “I just hope you’ve had time to work on your lighting designs.”
Oh. Crap. Lucy had totally blanked.
“I’m sure I’ll be inspired at the planetarium.”
“Meeting’s next Thursday.”
“I hadn’t forgotten,” Lucy lied smoothly.
“Cutest dictator ever,” Jess said with affection, dashing Claudia a kiss. Claudia gazed back adoringly. Despite herself, Lucy appreciated the save.
“Hey, you don’t survive with three older brothers by being demure.”
“You could never be demure, Clauds.”
“Amen,” Jess agreed, and winked at Lucy.
“I didn’t introduce you two so you could gang up on me.”
“Too late,” Lucy said. She relaxed her grip on the egg and tucked it away. “Well, I’m going to miss my train.”
“Have fun,” Jess told her. This time her smile was genuinely friendly. She pressed a warm hand to Lucy’s shoulder, gracing her with European-style kisses on either cheek, and a wave of guilt swept over Lucy. Her initial claws-out approach had been unwarranted. Jess seemed nice, even if Lucy was intimidated by her stylish, artsy ways.
“You too.” Lucy would give her the benefit of the doubt. If she hurt Claudia, however, she’d make her pay. The Best Friend Code mandated no less.
“Oh, we will.”
The lovebirds exchanged a from-here-to-eternity glance and Lucy’s goodbyes were lost as they disappeared back into their bubble. Maybe Tesla hadn’t been entirely wrong. Those two were definitely on the same wavelength. And the upside to Claudia walking on air was that she wouldn’t be wondering too hard about where in Manhattan Lucy was really going.
Or why.