Free Marooned in Manhattan by Sheila Agnew Page A

too tall for it now, and sauntered into the kitchen.
    Scott and I had planned to go the beach on Fire Island today. We were going to drive to the ferry, taking Ben and some pastrami on rye sandwiches from Zabars. I hoped fervently that Leela did not plan to join us. She hates sand, I reminded myself.
    As I drizzled syrup over my French toast, Scott’s cell phone rang. It was his best friend, Jake, suggesting a spontaneous game of golf.
    ‘Can’t do it,’ said Scott, ‘Evie and I are heading to the beach.’
    Leela intervened.
    ‘Why don’t you go play golf with Jake, sweetheart?’ she said. ‘You haven’t seen him in ages. I want to treat Evie to a girl’s day, a manicure and a nice lunch.’
    I nearly yakked up a piece of my French toast.
    Scott said, ‘Thanks, Leela, but I think Evie has her heart set on the beach.’
    Leela looked meaningfully at me. I hated her but she was right. Scott hardly ever got time to hang out with Jake.
    ‘No, that’s ok,’ I said. ‘We can go the beach another time. I’ll go with Leela.’
    ‘Are you sure?’ asked Scott.
    ‘Totally,’ I said.
    ‘I’ll see you in fifteen minutes,’ he told Jake.
    After hanging up, he said, ‘Thanks, Leela, very sweet of you,’ and he gave her a long, lingering kiss on the mouth. I had no French toast left or I definitely would have choked.
    I never had a manicure before and I was embarrassed to hold out my rather grubby little nails. I don’t bite them but they don’t appear to be interested in growing. But Jordan, the Filipino guy who filed my nails, was very easy to talk to. He told me that he wants to be a comedian on a TV show called
Saturday Night Live
and he is taking improvisation classes at night. He suggested that I choose a pale pink colour for my nails called ‘Ballet Slippers’, but I picked a blueish colour called ‘Midnight Destiny’. Then I just flipped through magazines, waiting for Leela to finish. She went into the waxing room for a very long time. I heard her say she wanted her lip done and it made me giggle on the inside tothink of her with a moustache.
    After leaving the nail salon, Leela took me to a boring restaurant in midtown where they only served salads, but they did have more than a hundred different kinds. We looked at our menus and I put my napkin in my lap as Mum had taught me. Leela put her BlackBerry in her handbag and I felt a little alarmed because I never saw Leela without her BlackBerry close to hand before.
    She swirled the ice in her iced coffee.
    ‘Are you enjoying your little vacation in New York?’ she asked.
    ‘Yes,’ I said.
    ‘Good!’ she replied. ‘You must be so excited now about going back to Ireland?’
    I didn’t answer, busy poking at my salad, trying to identify some of the mysterious looking beans.
    ‘Great!’ she said, even though I hadn’t said anything. ‘And maybe, when you are grown up and have finished college, you will come back to New York for a visit. I’m sure Scott would like that.’
    I shivered. The air conditioning was way too cold.
    ‘Here,’ she said. ‘Have my scarf.’
    ‘No thanks,’ I said.
    ‘How is your cookbook going?’ I asked in an innocent voice.
    Her eyes narrowed and she pursed her lips together.
    ‘I haven’t dated the right connections,’ she answered, ‘but I will get there.’
    Then she smiled breezily.
    ‘Isn’t this fun?’ she said, ‘having a girls’ lunch.’
    I didn’t answer.
    She continued, ‘I know how important it is to you to be in Ireland, back with all your friends and your godmother, Lainey is it?’
    ‘Do you mean Janet?’ I said.
    ‘Yes, Janet, that’s the one. I need you to give me her phone number and her email address.’
    ‘What for?’ I asked.
    ‘So I can get the paperwork moving.’
    ‘What paperwork?’ I wondered.
    ‘To transfer full custody of you to Janet.’
    My jaw dropped.
    ‘That’s got nothing to do with you,’ I told her.
    ‘Oh, of course not, I’m just trying to save poor