Stuck-Up Suit(58)
When he sat back down, I leaned in. “Cracker?”
He whispered back. “As in Graham. Apparently, I have a nickname.”
“What’s your name?” Chloe climbed up on her chair and kneeled. She was sitting directly across from me.
“My name is Soraya. It’s nice to meet you, Chloe.”
“Soraya?”
“That’s right.” First try.
“I love your hair. Mom, I want to do that to my hair.”
Genevieve picked up the menu. “I don’t think so.”
“Are you Graham’s wife?”
“No.”
“Are you his…”
Genevieve again interrupted her curious daughter. “Soraya is Graham’s friend, sweetheart. Now, why don’t you sit down on the chair properly?”
She shrugged. “But I like sitting on my knees. I can reach things better.”
“Sit. If you need something, and you can’t reach it, I’ll get it for you.”
Chloe pouted but planted her butt in the seat properly.
“Do you remember the time we came here after we landed the Donovan account?” Genevieve asked Graham.
“No.” His response was quick. It was clear he remembered but was trying to move her from the subject.
Lowering her eyes to the menu, Genevieve smiled broadly. “That’s too bad. But I’m sure you remember later that evening.”
“Cracker, what are you going to get?”
“I don’t know yet, Chloe. What are you going to get?”
She scrunched up her entire face and held her pointer finger to her nose in deep thought. “The iced hot chocolate.”
“I take it you’ve been here before?”
“I used to come every week after dance with my dad.” Chloe’s face faltered. She directed her next question to me. “Did you know my dad, too, Soraya?”
“Ummm…”
Graham rested his hand on my knee under the table and responded for me. “She didn’t get to meet your dad, Chloe.”
“You know what my dad would get every week?”
“What’s that?”
She wrinkled up her nose like something smelled. “Coffee.”
Graham set down his menu. He hadn’t even taken a look at it. “I’ll have what you’re having, Chloe.”
She smiled so big, I could almost count all her little white teeth. When the waiter came to take our order, I ordered a frozen hot chocolate, too. Genevieve ordered just coffee. He left Chloe a tin can filled with crayons and a paper kids menu for coloring. She immediately set to work.
“What’s your favorite color, Cracker?”
“Blue.” Graham’s eyes narrowed to the tips of my hair. “Yours?”
“Green. I wanted to paint my room green, but mommy said it wasn’t beckoning of a little girl’s room.”
Genevieve chimed in. “Becoming. I said it wasn’t becoming of a little girl’s room.”
Chloe shrugged and went back to coloring.
“So, Soraya. What do you do?” Genevieve asked.
“I work for a columnist. Ask Ida.”
“The relationship column?”
“That’s the one.”
She fake smiled. “I’ll have to remember that, the next time I’m looking for advice.”
I nodded.
“How did you two meet?”
“Graham wrote into the column for relationship advice a few years back.”
“He did?” Genevieve’s eyes went wide.
Although I thoroughly enjoyed her reaction, I figured it was best not to screw with her too much. “I’m just messing with you. We met on the train. Well…sort of. Graham left his phone behind, and I found it.”
“Graham was taking the train?”
“He did that day.”
Graham squeezed my knee.
“Mommy doesn’t take the train. Daddy and I used to take it together!” Chloe announced factually. Speaking of Liam didn’t seem to upset her as I thought it would. She continued coloring and then her pointer finger returned to her nose. It was clear that it was her thinking position, and it was freaking adorable. “Will you come to my birthday party?”
I caught Graham’s face wilt. He hadn’t known when his daughter’s birthday was. There was so much he needed to catch up on.
I responded. “When is your birthday?”
“May 29th.”
“What kind of a party are you having?”
“A princess party. Will you come?”
My eyes flashed to Genevieve for assistance. “Her party is at our summer home in the Hamptons.”
Chloe interjected, “It’s big. You can stay with us.”
“I was actually going to ask Graham if he wanted to join us, Chloe.”
She made it clear the invitation was not a plus one.
Graham didn’t seem to give a shit. “Soraya and I would very much like to attend your birthday party, Chloe. We’ll see if we can make that happen. Thank you for the invitation.”
When it was time to go, I saw in Graham’s eyes he wasn’t ready to leave his daughter yet. His daughter. It still didn’t seem real. Out in front of the restaurant, Chloe gave me a quick squeeze goodbye and then turned to Graham. He crouched down at eye level on the street and spoke to her.