Once and for All(43)

Which was nothing, as I saw enough formal wear. In my mind, though, I pictured rolling dice, slowly warming to the idea of aiming to gather losses rather than worrying about winning. If I really was cynical girl, then this was my kryptonite. “Okay. I’ll see you at seven thirty.”

“All right!” she crowed, and I heard her beep the horn as punctuation. “That’s my girl. I gotta go. Love ya!”

“Love ya back,” I replied, although I was pretty sure she didn’t hear me. As I put down my phone, I had a flash of the jughead guy at the party: in her thinking, strike one. How many more before I’d earned a decent hit? I guessed I would find out.

Just as I thought this, I saw the girl with the picnic basket coming back across the courtyard. At the exact same time—how was this possible?—Ambrose and Hajar were approaching via the opposite entrance. They were holding hands, each of them carrying a cup from Lotus Sushi. Ira and I were in the middle, the dead center point where these two parties would collide. I felt my stomach clench. Ira started barking.

“Ira!” Ambrose called out, seeing only the dog. Ira barked again, excited, while I made a point of looking directly at the girl with the basket, willing Ambrose to follow my gaze. Finally he did, suddenly slowing his pace, as if he could put off this confrontation with space alone. Nope.

“Ambrose?” I heard basket girl say, from my left-hand side.

“Jenna!” he replied, from my right. Beside him, Hajar, in a red maxi dress and sandals, gave a tentative smile. “You’re here!”

“I brought you lunch,” she said, not smiling at all. “Like we discussed last night?”

Now Hajar’s face changed. She looked at Ambrose. “I thought you stayed in last night.”

“I did,” he said quickly. Jenna put a hand on her hip, physically contesting this. “With Jenna. Actually.”

Now everyone looked tense. Except for Ira, who was wagging away, trying to get to Ambrose.

“I’m going back to work,” I said delicately, moving to step around the dog.

“I should, too,” Ambrose said immediately. “The boss is a real bear about lunch breaks.”

He wasn’t getting away that easily, though. “Were you really with this girl last night?” asked Hajar as I slipped past her. Ira, having no luck with Ambrose, tried to follow, his nose bumping my leg. “You lied to me?”

“I didn’t lie,” he said. “The plan was to hang at her house and watch a movie. And—”

“He stayed until three a.m.,” Jenna finished. “Him and his dog.”

Hajar looked at Jenna. “Well, did he tell you we were together this weekend? He went out to eat with my entire family.”

Clearly, this was news to Jenna, who responded with, “So you’d already done that when we met on Monday at the movie theater?”

I was clear of this threesome now, free to go. I felt bad for Ira, though, his stretched-out leash still tangled around one of Jenna’s ankles, looking from the girls back to Ambrose like a confused child.

“Monday?” Hajar demanded. “You said you had to stay home with your sister.”

“Who then decided she wanted to go to a movie,” Ambrose said quickly. Glares at him from both directions. “Ladies, I did go to the movies Monday and I stayed in last night. I haven’t been untruthful to anyone here.”

“Oh, so you don’t lie,” Jenna said. “You just don’t tell the whole truth.”

“Is there a difference?” Hajar asked.

“Well, if we’re splitting hairs,” Ambrose said, “then yes. It’s vast, actually.”

“Vast?” Jenna repeated, whether because she didn’t get the sentiment or the word itself, I wasn’t sure. Hajar, over the semantics, just loosened the top of her drink and threw the contents at Ambrose, then walked away.

Whoa, I thought as Ira dove for the ice cubes. Jenna unwound his leash from her foot, then shifted the basket to the other arm.

“Well,” Ambrose said, rather magnanimously, smiling at her, “and then there were two.”

“You’re an asshole,” she replied. Then she walked away as well.

In the silence that followed, I wished more than ever that I’d abandoned this scene when I had the chance. I was embarrassed enough; I couldn’t imagine how Ambrose felt. But as he crouched down in front of Ira, shirt stained wet with cola, and scratched his ears, he appeared largely unaffected, as if this kind of thing happened all the time.

“She left you a note,” I told him, just to say something. “Jenna. Before, when she came by.”

“Oh, thanks.” He stood again, then checked Ira’s bowl. “But I’m pretty sure whatever it says no longer pertains.”

I nodded, then started toward the office. A moment later, he fell into step behind me. I said, “Can I ask you something?”

“Sure.” So agreeable. I was beginning to think this was a regular occurrence.

“Why do you do that?”

“Do what?”

I stopped and faced him, shielding my eyes with one hand. “Juggle two girls at once. It clearly won’t work, at least not for long. And you can’t enjoy getting busted.”

“Well,” he replied, “I don’t consider it busted. I didn’t lie to anyone, nor did I make any promises about exclusivity.”