“I guess.” Caroline sipped her hot coffee slowly, mulling over Allie’s behavior the last few days. “Emily, something about this business with Mark Townsend just doesn’t sit right with me. Why would he act like he’s falling in love with her one minute, then stand her up for a date the next? After that, nothing except a text about some bogus job interview.”
“You’re asking me to explain men?” Emily laughed.
Caroline laughed too. “I guess not.” Still, the whole situation was making her very nervous. “Maybe shopping will take Allie’s mind off him for a while. Do we have any dinner plans?”
“Actually, Sara and I would like to take the three of you to a new restaurant downtown. All the young people your age hang out there.” Emily winked at Caroline. “Our treat of course.”
“You’re too good to us!” Caroline hugged Emily, grabbed a muffin and started toward the stairs. “I’ll just see if I can drag Allie out of the bed.”
Upstairs, she found Allie awake, checking her messages. “No word from Mark?”
Allie shook her head. “I’m texting him, letting him know exactly where I’ll be today. Maybe he can meet me for lunch or something. Something.”
Caroline’s heart was breaking for her sister. She could only nod, bite her tongue, and tell her sister about their dinner plans.
****
Caroline thought the restaurant Emily and Sara had chosen certainly lived up to its hype. It was definitely the trendsetting establishment for the twenty- and thirty-something crowd. Valet parking and a hostess in evening clothes added to the ambiance, as did the extensive wine list and gourmet menu. Emily had made eight-thirty dinner reservations, but even then their table wasn’t quite ready when they arrived, due to the many reservations ahead of them. Still, it was worth the wait, because the food was excellent and the service was impeccable. Waiters in semi-tux attire hovered endlessly, refilling water or wine glasses unbidden, and bringing extra baskets of bread and olive oil for dipping.
“Thanks for picking up the tab, you two,” Caroline said to Sara and Emily. Any restaurant that didn’t post its prices on the menu meant if you had to ask, you couldn’t afford it.
Sara smiled at Caroline, put her credit card inside the black leather folder with the restaurant logo embossed in gold, and shoved it to the end of the table. “Our pleasure.”
Once dinner was over, Brittany said, “Let’s go into the bar. There’s dance music and lots of hot guys!”
Emily and Sara were agreeable, Allie was indifferent, and Caroline wasn’t interested in that idea at all. But Brittany was itching to dance, so the five of them left their table and went into the bar. Or at least they tried to go in. It was even more crowded than the restaurant. Young adults, dressed to impress, mingled everywhere, drinks in hand, laughing and chatting with good-looking members of the opposite sex.
Brittany playfully elbowed Caroline and tilted her head in the direction of a couple of attractive guys standing by the bar. “Single guys everywhere, girlfriend!”
Caroline winced but turned to Emily as she tried in vain to see anything above the shoulders of the crowd. There was a DJ on a platform, loud music with a steady beat, and way too many people crammed onto the tiny dance floor. Florescent lights gave an eerie purple cast to the room, and naturally it was so loud, conversation was out of the question. “Is this a good idea? Maybe we should go somewhere quieter,” Caroline shouted.
“I’m going to try to make my way to the bar,” Emily shouted back. “Anyone want anything?”
“I’ll go with you,” Sara said in loud lawyer voice. “Ladies? Anything?” She turned to Allie, Caroline, and Brittany.
“White wine for me, if you can get there,” Brittany shouted. “Need any help?”
“No, we can manage,” Emily called back.
Judging from the number of people milling around the bar flirting with potential dates, and the difficulty squeezing by them just to place an order, Caroline figured Sara and Emily would be a while. There was nothing else to do but people-watch from their location near the entryway. And people of all shapes, sizes, and fashion statements were there to watch.
Brittany could hardly stand still. “Caroline, Allie, come on! Let’s dance!”
Caroline shook her head. No way was she venturing out among all those strangers. “Allie, you and Brittany go ahead. I’ll wait here for Sara and Emily.”
Allie pulled a face. “It’s too crowded, and there’s no one to dance with.”
Brittany stood on tiptoe and searched the room. “Come on, you party-poopers, there are good-looking guys all over the place. Hey, check out that one over there!” Brittany tugged on Allie’s arm as she pointed to an attractive young man already on the dance floor. “He’s hot!”
Allie looked in the direction Brittany was pointing. She blinked her eyes and looked again, shouting into her sister’s ear. “Caroline! Mark’s here!”
Caroline looked, sure her sister was mistaken, yet when she stood on tiptoe she was stunned to see Mark Townsend. He was enjoying himself on the dance floor, dancing closely with some woman wearing a too-tight red cocktail dress whose face she couldn’t see. Before she could stop Allie, her sister was pushing her way through the crowd, headed toward him.
“Allie!” Caroline called after her, but it was too loud for Allie to hear, or maybe she didn’t want to hear. Caroline pushed her way through the crowd to catch up to her sister, reaching out to grab her arm just as Allie got close to the dance floor.
“Mark! Mark!” Allie called out, breaking free of Caroline’s grasp and shoving her way close enough to tap him on the shoulder. “Mark! Ohmigod, why haven’t you returned any of my messages?”
Mark gazed at Allie for a moment as if he had never met her, calmly turned back to his dance partner, and whispered something in the woman’s ear. The woman laughed, nodded, and pulled Mark in close as they resumed dancing. Allie stood there, stunned by the rejection.
“Allie, come on, let’s go.” Caroline took her arm and tried to lead her away from the dance floor, just as Mark’s dance partner turned around.
“Misty!” Caroline exclaimed. “What are you—?”
Misty seemed just as surprised to see Caroline, and they stood glaring at each other in silence for a tense moment. But Misty quickly recovered her composure, turned her back on Caroline, and threw her arms around Mark. And now it was Caroline’s turn to be shocked as he pulled her in closer.
Allie jerked her arm away from Caroline, shoved her way through the throng of people, and didn’t stop moving until she was out of the bar. Caroline tried to go after her, but she couldn’t get through the knot of people quickly enough.
Brittany stopped a breathless Caroline. “What happened? Where’d Allie go?”
“Mark Townsend’s a jerk,” was all Caroline said as she chased after Allie.
Brittany hurried along behind Caroline, and they arrived at the entrance to the restaurant just in time to see Allie jump into a cab and speed off.
Chapter Fifteen
Caroline was frantic, pacing the floor at Emily’s condo as she checked her phone yet again. “Why won’t Allie answer?” she asked. “Every phone call goes to voice mail, and she’s not responding to texts either.”
Brittany peered out the front window one more time. “It’s like Chicago just swallowed her up, like she vanished into thin air.”
Emily stifled a yawn. “I just made a pot of fresh coffee, ladies, and I don’t want to make light of this situation, but it’s three a.m. and I’m falling asleep.” She was headed for the stairs when a cab pulled up in front of the building.
“Thank goodness! There she is.” Caroline ran outside as Allie stumbled out of the taxi.
“Currlyne,” Allie slurred, “I’m outta cash, and I told thish nice man you’d pay ’im.”
Caroline looked at the meter and sucked in her breath. “Oh, Allie, that’s a huge tab, and I don’t think I have enough…”
Caroline had no choice but to a
sk Emily. She sprinted back into the house, trying to calm her rapidly beating heart. “Allie promised the driver we’d pay him, and—”
“Say no more.” Emily grabbed her wallet from her bag sitting on the coffee table and went outside to pay the fare. Caroline followed closely behind. Emily added on a generous tip and waved the cabbie away, and with Emily on one side and Caroline on the other, they helped Allie stagger into the house.
“Where have you been?” Caroline demanded. “We were worried sick!”
“Part-ee!”Allie laughed and then coughed and gagged. “Clozhed down sevrull barz.”
Caroline shook her head and realized Allie would just have to sleep it off. They could talk in the morning—much later in the morning—when Allie was sober. And probably hung over.
She and Emily helped Allie up the stairs and into the guest room. Allie collapsed on the bed and was instantly asleep. Caroline looked sympathetically at her sister, removed Allie’s shoes, and covered her with a blanket. Caroline didn’t know if what she felt was exhaustion or relief, but when she glimpsed her pale complexion in the dresser mirror, she admitted she’d been scared out of her wits. “Emily, if you don’t mind, I think I’ll stay up a while longer, maybe read a magazine or something. My stomach’s all tied in knots, and I doubt I could sleep anyway.”
Emily nodded assent. “I’ll just say good night then.”
Caroline turned off the light and quietly closed the door. She couldn’t help going over and over in her mind the scene with Mark at the bar earlier. Why was Mark so cold to Allie, and why—why?—was he with Misty? Suddenly Misty’s ‘desperate’ shopping trip to Chicago made sense.
****
It was early afternoon when Caroline finally peeked into the guest room. “Allie?”
“Yeah,” Allie croaked.
Caroline opened the door and stepped inside. “You look terrible.”
“Gee thanks.” Allie lifted herself up on one elbow long enough to peer at her reflection in the dresser mirror, and then collapsed back onto the pillow. She was pale with dark circles under her eyes, hair plastered to her head, clothes wrinkled and covered in stains from spills of tropical beverages. She blinked and looked away as Caroline opened the curtains, letting in the sunlight. “I think I drank too much.”
“Ya think?” Caroline felt bad about the emotional state Allie was in, but she wasn’t so sympathetic about Allie’s bender. She handed her a bottle of water. “Here, drink this. You need an aspirin?”
“Ugh, no.” She twisted open the bottle and took a couple of tentative sips.
Caroline sat down on the edge of the bed. “So just how many bars did you close down last night?”
“I lost count after three.”
“All by yourself?”
“Of course not.” Allie tried to smile, but then grabbed her forehead in pain. “The bars were full of men ready to buy me drinks, and I had the company of the cabdriver, too.” She moaned. “Oh, my head!”
Caroline frowned at her sister. She always knew Allie could be overly dramatic, but last night’s bar crawl exceeded any stunt she’d ever pulled. “That’s crazy, Allie.”
Allie eased herself down onto the fluffy pillow. “I got dumped and I got stupid.”
“You ran up a huge bill with the cabdriver, too, which Emily paid, by the way.”
Allie frowned. “Sorry.”
Caroline didn’t think her sister was in any condition to make amends right now. “I’ve got to get back to Indy. I know you don’t feel well, but you need to come with me, put some distance between you and Mark Townsend.” She got up and started putting her belongings into her overnight bag.
“I can’t go home right now.” Allie moaned as she carefully shifted her head to ease the pain.
Caroline zipped up her bag. “I’m sure Emily and Sara and Brittany would be glad to have you stay, but I don’t think it’s a good idea. And please don’t tell me you’re going to try to contact Mark again.”
Allie’s eyes filled with tears as she slowly sat up. “No, he made himself pretty clear last night.”
Caroline felt terrible for her sister, but Allie had been so secretive about what had actually happened with her and Mark, and now she wanted answers. “All this started July third. You have to tell me what happened.”
Allie grabbed a tissue and blew her nose. “He told me he thought I was getting too serious.”
“That doesn’t sound unreasonable.”
Allie put the chilled water bottle to her throbbing temples. “I told him I was falling in love with him.”
Caroline groaned, her worst fear realized. “Love? You barely knew him, Allie.”
“But we’d spent practically every waking minute together since we met. He told me…or he let me believe…” Allie broke off with a sigh. “He said he was too worried about his dad’s money problems to get involved in a relationship.” Allie laughed a humorless laugh. “Can you believe that? Money problems? We live in a tiny house, no money, no school…”
Caroline gave that some thought. “It sounds like a lame excuse, like he wasn’t really that into you.”
“Starving artist—that’s what he called me,” Allie said with tears streaming down her face.
“Oh.” Caroline was finally seeing the big picture, and she didn’t like the view.
“I just thought he needed more time,” Allie said with a sniffle, “but I guess what he really needed was someone to bankroll his family’s debt.”
“And when he heard the name Benedict, he thought that was you. Then he found out you didn’t have a trust fund, so he moved on to a richer woman—Misty Peterson.”
Allie wiped away tears with the back of her hand. “As strongly as we felt about each other, I still hoped…”
Caroline put up her hand to stop the rest of that thought. “I think you should’ve believed him when he said he wasn’t ready for a commitment. And even if you didn’t believe him, his cyber-silence spoke volumes.”
“But I know he felt something for me!” Allie exclaimed.
Caroline reached over and patted her sister’s shoulder. “Maybe. But it wasn’t enough.” She gave Allie a hug. “I’m sorry you got hurt, Allie, but you have to let him go.”
Allie watched as her sister slung her bag over her shoulder and stepped to the door. “You’re leaving? I’m upset here.”
“I’ve got to deal with another problem now, Allie. Richard and Misty.”
Allie narrowed her eyes. “At least I had a relationship with Mark,” Allie mumbled. “Not like you pining over Richard and never saying a word to him about it.”
Caroline’s mouth dropped open. “Maybe I don’t wear my heart on my sleeve like you do, but the situation is entirely different. I can’t tell him. He’s engaged!”
“To a woman who’s cheating on him!”
Caroline sighed. “I never did think Misty loved Richard, but until last night I had no idea how far her dishonesty went.”
“Now you know, so what are you going to do about it?” Allie demanded.
Every muscle in Caroline’s body tensed up at the thought of either confronting Misty or ratting her out to Richard. She shook her head. “I’m staying out of it. He and Misty will just have to work this out on their own.”
Allie slowly stood up and steadied herself on the nightstand. “But what if they don’t? Richard has a right to know what his fiancée’s been up to! With my boy—ex-boyfriend, no less.” Tears came to her eyes again. “Car, admit it, you’re in love with Richard.”
Caroline caught a glimpse of her steely-eyed look in the mirror, and didn’t like what she saw. “Believe me, Allison, if I thought telling him would change anything…”
Allie grabbed her sister and pulled her into a tight hug. “This sucks!”
Slowly Caroline pulled away. “I know.” She readjusted the bag on her shoulder. “You sure you don’t want to come home with me?”
Allie shook her head, so Caroline closed the door behind her and went downstairs. Brit
tany was flipping through a magazine, and Emily was poring over some MLS listings on her phone.
“So what happened last night?” Emily asked.
Brittany put her magazine aside. “Yeah, is Allie okay?”
Caroline shook her head and slumped into an arm chair. “The condensed version is that Mark told Allie in Indianapolis that he didn’t want a relationship with her, but she refused to believe him and followed him up here.”
Emily pointed to Caroline’s packed bag. “Are you leaving?”
“I have to be at work tomorrow, but Allie wants to stay. I told her okay, as long as she promises to stay away from Mark.”
“Allison is welcome to stay,” Emily said. “We’ll take good care of her.”
Brittany jumped to her feet. “Yeah, I’ll take her shopping, to museums, a concert, whatever. I can cheer her up! She’ll forget about what’s-his-name in no time!”
Caroline smiled. “Thanks, Brittany. She’s lucky to have a friend like you. Either Mom or I can come get her next weekend, or Allie can take the Megabus home if she’s ready before then. Maybe a few days of shopping and sightseeing will do her good.” She fumbled in her purse for her keys.
“Caroline,” Emily said, “who was that woman Mark was dancing with last night? You seemed to know her.”
Caroline rolled her eyes. “Don’t get me started on Misty Peterson.”
“Peterson? Like Peterson’s Coffee Emporium Peterson?”
Caroline found her keys and pulled them out of her handbag. “One and the same. And she’s engaged to Richard, my boss and Sharlene’s brother. One big happy, dysfunctional family.”
Chapter Sixteen
When Caroline got to her desk at work the next morning, her phone’s message light was blinking. Before she could pick it up and dial into voice mail, the phone rang.
“Richard Meadows’ office. May I—”
“Caroline, it’s Misty.”
She braced herself. “Richard’s not in yet, Misty. Did you try his cell phone?”
“I didn’t call to talk to Richard, I have something to say to you, you miserable b—”
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