Free Borrowing Trouble by Mae Wood Page A

change of topics I’ve ever witnessed. But I’ll forgive you anything.” I filled Erica in on the hours spent in a sumptuous dressing room at Joseph, surrounded by four-figure dresses, as we sipped the unoaked French chardonnay Bert had set in front of us.
    “So, you’re like her very own Barbie doll to play dress up with?”
    “Hardly. I won’t deny that she was clearly having a good time picking out dresses with me and lunch wasn’t terrible. She mainly talked about Trip, so it was easy to stay interested. Apparently, he loves to ski so much that they spend Christmas week at their place in Telluride. Started doing it when Trip was a teenager in order to get to see him over the holiday break. He’d mentioned once he got in a little trouble playing too hard in Telluride but either his mom doesn’t know about it or she isn’t sharing his deep dark secrets yet.”
    “Think that was a hint about the holidays?”
    “No,” I replied, brushing off the implication. “That’s pretty much a lifetime from now anyway.”
    “Don’t kid yourself. Thanksgiving is a little over a month away.”
    “Want to see if our table is ready?”
    “Not particularly. I wasn’t kidding about enjoying the view from here.” She nodded her head toward Bert whose back was to us as he tapped orders into an iPad. It didn’t escape me that her gaze lingered.
    “Okay, you need to spill. You’re three drinks into the evening and we haven’t had a bite to eat. Did a gallery drop you?”
    “No. That’s fine. In fact the show in Chicago went really well. Amazingly well. I’ve sold six pieces so far and am doing a commissioned piece for an accounting firm’s lobby that I got out of the show. It’s Josh and I can’t talk about it.”
    “He’s okay, right? Like not going to die on us or anything?” I asked lightly, not expecting anything to be truly seriously wrong.
    “As long as he stays in New York and gets his shit together, I’d say he’s going to stay alive. I’m certainly not going to collect him.”
    “What? What do you mean ‘get his shit together’? Please tell me it isn’t what it sounds like. You guys are my role models.” The worry I’d initially brushed off as her having a bad day roared to life.
    Erica snorted. “Hell, I don’t know what’s going on with him. He’s just MIA. He Skype’s with me and the kids every night after dinnertime, but otherwise it’s like he’s avoiding me. Outside of that for the past two weeks, it’s been an occasional text message.”
    “You think things are bad at work?”
    “I think things may be bad all over. And that’s all I can say about it. So, fancy dress, fancy shoes, fancy party?”
    “Yes. It’s a fundraiser for St. Jude at the art museum. Trip’s parents invited me to sit at their table. In fact, Bitsy says I’m to come and sit with them regardless of whether Trip is in town for it or not. But based upon the way Trip said that we are to do whatever his mother wants for this fundraiser, I can’t imagine he won’t be there if she wants him there.”
    “And he’s being nice to you?”
    “Let’s just say he’s being really nice. Not to touch on a sore subject, but have you and Josh tried, well, you know, to work things out over the phone so that you can stop imagining yourself licking Bert?”
    Erica’s eyebrows shot up. “Excuse me!”
    “Come on. You’ve been eyeing him and you’re in a foul mood. Someone needs to get la-aid,” I sang.
    “This is coming from you, my friend whose boyfriend spends half of his time out of state?”
    “Like I said, we’re working it out.”
    “Please, please tell me that you’re not sexting and sending him nudie pics.”
    “I’m not twenty. And the good ol’ fashioned phone works just fine.”
    “Ah ha, so that’s why you were ten minutes late and are full of vim and vigor.”
    “A lady never tells,” I replied with a sly smile, refilling my glass of wine.
    “Well, talk to me about phone sex in five years