When he was done, still chuckling, he replied, “Bella’s the Queen of Comfort Food. She used to cook all the time when she, Annie and I shared an apartment at Northwestern. Annie and I both gained fifteen pounds, each year.”
That wasn’t true. Mikey had gained twenty pounds.
“Did you meet her at uni?” Prentice asked.
“Sure did,” Mikey replied. “I saw her walking on campus our freshman year and I said to myself, ‘Who is that gorgeous girl with those sad eyes? She needs a little bit of Mikey in her life.’”
Isabella’s hands stilled but only for a moment.
Then she whispered in Sally’s ear, “I have to get the peas. Keep scooping.”
“Sad eyes?” Prentice asked, his voice had grown quiet.
“Yep,” Mikey answered shortly and also quietly.
“Why were you sad, Miss Bella?” Jason called.
Isabella dumped the peas in a colander, put them under a cold tap and turned to Jason.
“If memory serves, I stubbed my toe,” she lied, Jason’s head tilted to the side, Isabella felt Prentice’s eyes on her as well as Mikey’s and she ignored that too. “Badly. And everyone knows it hurts to stub your toe.”
“I hate stubbing my toe,” Sally declared, smushing the tuna and soup together. “It does hurt. That would make me sad.”
Thank goodness for Sally.
“You shared an apartment?” Prentice asked, unfortunately deciding this once to ignore his daughter.
And he asked even though he knew the answer. Or, maybe, he didn’t remember.
Isabella shook the water off the peas as Mikey answered, “Yep, sophomore and junior year.”
“Not your last year?” Prentice sounded surprised and she knew why.
Because he remembered.
And suddenly Isabella found it most irritating that Prentice had a good memory.
She knew that he knew, because she told him, that she shared an apartment with Annie and Mikey and that they’d be going back to it their senior year.
Except they didn’t.
Well, Mikey did, but Annie and Isabella didn’t.
Annie was in hospital then in rehab. Isabella was on house arrest after her father found out about her “tryst” with Prentice.
However, she was allowed to go to class and also to help Annie.
“Nope,” Mikey answered.
“Why not?” Prentice queried.
Isabella turned from draining the peas, placed a tea towel under them and walked back to Sally, sending Mikey a pleading look.
Mikey ignored her altogether and kept right on talking.
“Because Bella was closer to Annie at home.” He waved his whisky glass around and went on, “Would take forever for her to drive from Northwestern to Clarissa’s every day.” Mikey looked at Jason and announced, “Florence Nightingale is making you tuna casserole, bucko. Count yourself lucky.”
“Who’s Florence Nightingale?” Sally asked.