Jada out of her momentary glower. She sent me a secretive smile. “The guy I truly want is more out of reach to me than Dawson ever was to you.”
“You act like he still isn’t out of reach,” I slurred. And then I corrected myself. “You act like I want him.”
She snorted. “I give you a week before you’ve at least kissed.”
I tried not to let hope bloom at her words. I reached for my braid to toss it behind me but found only the long strands that I’d left down for once.
“We need to change the subject,” I told her.
She huffed. “Fine, tell me more about what you’re cooking up in your lab.”
That caused a completely different bubble of excitement to go through me, and I repeated some of the talk I’d had with Dawson just that morning. “I’m working on a natural antimicrobial. Eventually, I want to get it down to the nanoparticle level to make it taste and smell neutral so it can be used in more than just beauty products. Right now, it has quite a scent with the cinnamon, cardamom, clove, and seaweed combination. I’m three days into the testing, and it’s been effective every day against E. coli, Bacillus anthracis, S. aureus, Candida albicans…”
I trailed off as the glazed look in her eyes told me I’d gone too far even though her smile widened.
“Sorry,” I said.
“Don’t apologize for being passionate about what you’re doing. I’m really impressed, Baioretto,” she said, squeezing my hand. “I love it when you geek out on me.”
I couldn’t help the blush that coated my face. I did geek out. There were a handful of people in my life who’d never made me feel abnormal about it. Silas had been one of them. That made my heart twinge even while thoughts of losing him as a boyfriend never had.
“What are you calling it?” Jada asked.
“The antimicrobial?” I asked.
She shook her head. “No, your company.”
I stared at her because I hadn’t even considered naming what I was doing.
She laughed. “Leave it to you to be knee-deep in the science and forget the actual thing you need to do, which is to legitimize the business. I think you should call it Force de la Violette.”
I chuckled. “I’m not a strength, but it sounds good in French.”
“The one and only thing I am good at: finding a language to make things sound better.”
Jada spoke French, Japanese, and some Chinese. She was smarter than anyone ever gave her credit for being. But I knew the truth because I’d seen the ease with which she learned things back when we’d been doing homework together.
Jada’s phone buzzed. She picked it up, read it, and her face went white.
“I gotta go,” she said, standing up.
“What?”
“I have to go, but I can drop you at Leena’s first.”
She left me at the table to go to the bar. She leaned across it to the bartender, handing him her AMEX Galaxy card that only a few of the world’s elite had ever seen. It was even more exclusive than the AMEX Centurion card, reminding me again how far apart our lives were.
I stood, straightening the magenta V-neck sweater I’d worn with my dark-wash jeans, and started toward the bar, only to be halted by a big bear of a man stepping in front of me.
“You’re that Banner girl, aren’t you?”
Which Banner girl did he mean? Jersey and I looked close enough it could be either of us he was talking about, but I had a suspicion he meant Jersey. She was the one who’d taken the brunt of the fallout over our dad’s actions.
“Why do you care?” I asked, lifting my chin.
He lurched toward me, clearly drunk, and shoved a finger against my shoulder.
“I’m glad that no good, son of a bitch died. If only he’d done it before he’d killed Ana.”
I met his gaze. “I couldn’t agree more.”
I waited for him to move. Instead, he came closer before doing the unimaginable and puking. I jumped back, but not before the bile hit my sweater. The nasty smell of stale beer and butyric acid overwhelmed me, making me gag.
Jada returned, eyes widening at the sight.
“What the hell?” She glowered, shoving at the guy who was still blocking me and dialing her phone at the same time. “Kaida, I need you. Bring my bag.”
The guy had hardly moved. He seemed as stunned as I was, but we were drawing looks and murmurs from the crowd. One of the waiters groaned and