first time. “Ah yes. Nice to see you again. Dane, was it?”
“Dean,” Dean corrects with a pained smile.
“I didn’t know you were going to be here tonight,” Nate replies while the two forcefully shake hands before sitting down across from each other.
“Where she goes, I go,” Dean says, taking my hand again to give it a squeeze.
“You’re the ole ball and chain in this relationship, huh?”
Dean presses his lips together and opens his mouth to reply, but a waitress appears just in the nick of time. “I see we have some newcomers here now. Can I get you guys some drinks?” She glances from her notepad, and her eyes go wide. “Dean?”
My head snaps from the waitress to Dean, whose eyes are equally wide. “Lala.”
“What are you doing here?” she asks, rubbing her outlined lips together as she shoves her pad and paper into the black apron around her waist. I take a second to quickly look her up and down. Whoever this girl is, she’s extremely young. I’d be surprised if she was over twenty. She’s gorgeous, though. Petite with a unique super-short buzzed haircut. How does she know Dean?
Dean shifts uncomfortably, dropping my hand to adjust his glasses. “I’m…out to eat, I guess. I didn’t know you worked here.”
“New job,” she says with a lift of her shoulders. “I had to quit my job at the salon after I burned my hair at Lynsey’s tiki bar. They didn’t really want a haircut like this at their front desk.”
“I see.” Dean glances nervously at me. “Well, it was nice to see you again.”
His dismissive tone doesn’t go over very well, and she turns her emerald laser eyes on me. “Who are you?”
“Um…I’m Norah,” I reply stiffly and feel my mouth going dry for some ridiculous reason. “I’m sorry, did you say you burned your hair at Lynsey’s tiki bar? Dean’s friend, Lynsey?”
“Drinks,” Dean says with a forced smile and stands from his seat. “I’ll go to the bar. I feel like going to the bar. What can I get you, pal?”
Nate furrows his brow at Dean and points at the waitress before Dean snaps his finger. “You look like a whiskey guy. Norah, I know what you like. We’ll be right back.”
Dean moves behind me and wraps his arm around Lala before ushering her away from the table. She looks confused and glances back at us over her shoulder as Dean hurries her away from us.
“Does that girl have cancer?” Carol asks Nate.
“I think she said she burned her hair.” Nate looks at me curiously. “Do you know, Norah?”
My mother’s eyes bore in on me so I sit up and smile. “What are you all going to order? I’m starving!”
I open my menu and pretend to study it as I watch Dean stand at the bar with Lala. They’re speaking close together in hushed tones, and the way he places his hand on her shoulder makes me feel like they are more than just acquaintances.
Jealousy spikes hard and fast in my belly, and I hate myself for it. This is all fake. None of what Dean and I have is real. So why would it bother me if this is a girl Dean used to date?
Dean returns to the table and avoids eye contact with me as he opens his menu. A second later, a different waiter comes over with our drinks and sets about taking everyone’s food orders. When he’s gone, I take a sip of my wine and open my mouth to say something to Dean when Nate interrupts.
“Norah, do you remember how I used to sneak into your house all the time when we were teenagers?”
“What?” my mother mock gasps and presses her hand to her chest. “You didn’t! I would have known.”
“It was stupid,” I mutter around my glass and wave my mother off. “We didn’t do anything wild or crazy. We just watched movies and ate way too many cookies.”
Nate laughs freely. “Yes, sneaking into your house was pretty much our only form of entertainment for years. There were a few exciting nights when you would come downstairs, Elaine. We would hear you coming, and I’d hide in the furnace room.”
“I can’t believe this!” my mom chants dramatically. “Jeffrey, did you have any idea this was going on?”
“Not a clue,” Dad says with a laugh and takes a sip of the amber liquid in his rocks glass. “Jim, your son was clearly out of control.”
“Oh yes,” Jim says with a scoff. “I was highly