vice president, remember?” she said, sounding impatient with their teasing. “I had a meeting with the city council to try to nail down the details for the monthly Art in the Park event. The last thing they needed was another hippy-dippy artist type who says things like, ‘It all depends on if Mercury is in Retrograde’ or ‘Don’t worry about the details. They always work themselves out.’ Remember when Cynder was in charge? Ads ran days after events. Artists were setting up in two different parks. And she even let that erotica-on-demand writer have a booth next to the bouncy house they set up for the kids. Oh, remember when she—”
“Whoa,” Grace said, waving her hands in the air. “Slow down there, feisty. We were just teasing you. Everyone knows you’re going to whip that co-op into shape. No need to defend your outfit, especially when you’ve got that sexy-librarian thing going on.”
Hope nodded and took a long sip of her tropical drink the waiter had delivered during Joy’s monologue.
“I’m glad you two think so. Paul wouldn’t notice if I was butt-naked except for my flashing tassels on my tatas.”
Grace, who’d been sampling her drink, choked and spit out the red liquid. “You have flashing tassels?”
Hope chuckled. “You didn’t hear about the tassels?”
“No.” Grace peered at Joy. “How come I’m lacking this vital information?”
Joy winced. “Sorry, Grace. It was right after you learned about Bill and Shondra. I didn’t want to burden you with my nonsense.”
Grace felt the sting of tears hit the backs of her eyes and angrily blinked them back. It wasn’t that she was upset that she hadn’t been looped in on the story. She didn’t need to know every tiny detail of her friends’ lives. She was angry that once again, no matter how minor the incident, Bill had robbed her of sharing this with her girlfriends. Who knew how many other things they’d kept from her in an effort to be sensitive? She appreciated them with all her heart, but she hated that anyone had felt it necessary to shield her from their everyday lives.
“Spill it,” Grace demanded. “I need to know if I should overnight some before my next date.”
“Do it,” Hope urged, pumping her eyebrows as if she were in some comedy skit. “No need to hear a story about them before deciding. Besides, the faster you introduce the toys, the sooner you know what you’re in for in the bedroom.”
“No shit,” Joy muttered. “Don’t wait twenty-five years to start experimenting. Bad things happen.”
“Okay, that’s it. Start talking, Joy.” Grace propped her elbows on the table and leaned forward. “Did Paul have a stroke when you waltzed in with your girls flashing like strobe lights?”
“That would imply he’s paying attention, Grace,” Joy said dryly.
“Okay, so no stroke. What happened?”
She sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “You know things in the bedroom have been… lacking a bit the past few years.”
“I think the term you’re looking for is non-existent,” Hope said, patting her arm sympathetically.
“Guh! Don’t remind me.” Joy grabbed Hope’s drink and drank a quarter of it before she continued. “Anyway, in an effort to reignite the spark, I ordered a few things as a surprise for Paul’s birthday. We were supposed to go out of town for the weekend, so I thought, what better way to spice things up than to call Pam and get some of those adult toys to try out?”
Grace didn’t like where this was going. According to Joy, Paul wasn’t the most adventurous man. If he’d rejected her or humiliated her in any way, it was going to take an act of God to stop her from verbally castrating him. “What did you get besides light up tata tassels?”
Her face blushed a bright shade of pink as she stared at the table.
“Joy. Come on. No judgement here,” Grace said, eyeing Hope. Of the two of them, she was the one more likely to crack a joke and end up saying something uncalled for. “Right, Hope?”
“Hey, what are you looking at me for?” Hope asked, acting offended. “I’m the one who suggested she go out of her comfort zone a little to see if that would kickstart things.”
“She did,” Joy confirmed. “I just wish she’d told me that in the wrong hands tata tassels might be mistaken for streamers.”
“Um, what?” Grace asked. “Tell me they weren’t used as decorations for Paul’s birthday party.”
“You know how Paul’s mother came to town for a few days right