Alice squinted at him. “You’ve never been too nervous to go on a date by yourself before,” she pointed out.
“My dates have never had the voice of an angel before.”
Alice quickly took a gulp of her drink to hide her smirk. She’d suspected that Lewis had feelings of some sort for Whitney; she just hadn’t expected him to be so smitten. At least, not so fast. “I’m not dating Adam,” she finally said. “I don’t want him to get the wrong idea.”
“Just think of it as dual chaperonage.”
“Lewis…”
He looked at her pleadingly, the same way he had years before when he’d wanted her to climb onto her roof with him when they were in the fourth grade. She hadn’t been able to resist him then, either–even though it had cost her a broken arm and twelve stitches.
“Please? I promise I’ll make it up to you.”
Sighing, she rested her head on her hand. “Okay. But only because I love you, and Whitney deserves to go out with someone who’ll treat her right.”
“And someone who can string more than three words together at a time.”
Alice cracked a small smile. “I’m guessing you don’t think you’ll be able to do that on your own.”
“I know I can’t.”
Laughing, Alice shook her head at him. “You should feel lucky that I like you both so much.”
He smirked and pointed a finger in her direction. “I think you like Adam more than you’re willing to let on, and you’re secretly looking forward to this.”
The smile that had found its way to Alice’s face, just seconds before, faltered. “I don’t…”
Lewis slapped the table with his hands and started gathering his trash. He seemed very smug. “We’ll be at your place tomorrow at five. And wear something pretty.”
Annoyed, Alice slammed her cup on her tray harder than she’d intended. She wasn’t sure if she was more irritated at his suggestion or his assumption that he was right. “Pretty? Whatever happened to casual and comfortable for a first date?” she asked pointedly. “Especially since your two chaperones aren’t dating each other.”
Lewis just grinned at her. “I can’t help myself.”
“Well, where are we going?”
His grin widened even farther. “The Whitney.”
***
Alice rubbed her eyes and yawned. It was Friday morning, she’d slept until ten o’clock, and she didn’t have anywhere she had to be.
She wasn’t sure what to do with herself. As soon as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes, she knew she’d feel very out of sorts.
Whitney was in the kitchen when Alice stumbled in. “Good morning,” Whitney said quietly. “I was starting to think you were going to sleep through our date this evening.”
“It’s not a date,” Alice corrected automatically. Then, catching Whitney’s crestfallen expression, she shook herself. “What I mean is that it’s not a date for me. I’m just coming because…”
“Because Adam asked you?”
Well, that wasn’t really the case but she wasn’t sure how to tell Whitney the truth. Lewis had made her sit at the table in the food court while he talked to Whitney by himself, and she wasn’t sure what he’d told her. “Something like that,” she said evasively.
This fortunately seemed to satisfy her friend. “So what are you wearing?”
Maybe Whitney and Lewis was a better match than she thought. They both seemed to have this fascination with clothes. “I don’t know,” she said vaguely. “I haven’t really thought about it.”
The kitchen was silent as Alice stuffed a piece of bread in the toaster and leaned against the counter to wait. She yawned again. Getting up late was simply not all it was cracked up to be. She’d already wasted half the morning.
“I’ve never been on a proper date before.”
Whitney’s words snapped Alice out of her toaster-watching stupor. “What?”
She shrugged. “A few boys asked me out in high school, but Brittany always found out before I could go.”
Alice could only imagine how Brittany would have behaved. She would have hated for someone to pay more attention to her little sister than they did to her. “I see. You never tried to sneak out?”
Whitney shrugged again. “I never really liked the guys that asked, and it didn’t seem worth all the trouble it’d cause if Mimi found out what I’d done.”
She had a point there, Alice thought. “I guess it’s good then that Adam and I are coming to keep an eye on the two of you. You sound scared, and Lewis’s worried that he won’t have anything intelligent to say.”
Whitney almost cracked a smile at that. “Maybe I should calm down a little.”
Alice laughed around her bite of toast. “Maybe you should. I think Lewis’s nervous enough for the both of you.”
An hour later, Alice stuffed her clothes in the basement washer and wandered up to the first floor of the house. She hadn’t been in Arthur’s section of the house since he’d driven off to Florida, and it was fairly obvious that no one was living there on a regular basis. It smelled dusty and neglected.
She walked slowly from room to room, letting her fingers trail across surfaces that they used to touch every day. It felt strange to be back, knowing that no one was there.
Arthur hadn’t changed anything since her mother had died, and she smiled to herself when she caught sight of her graduation picture sitting on an end table in the family room. There she stood, sweltering in a cap and gown in the sun, with her smiling parents on either side of her. It had been a hot day, especially for Michigan, and they all looked rather sticky. Proud, but sticky. She wasn’t sure which had been the greater relief that afternoon. The fact that she was finished with college, or that she was finished with the gown.
She ambled through the house twice before sighing and veering off to the mudroom for a rag. If Belinda had seen her house this dusty, she’d probably have had a coronary. Alice had just opened the cupboard when her phone rang.
“Hey, Dad,” she said. She was surprised by how cheerful her voice was.
“Hey, sweetie. How’s work today?”
Alice grinned involuntarily. She talked to Arthur once a week or so, and every time she did, he sounded a little more… content. Maybe not happy, yet, but at least he was sounding more like his old self.
“I forgot you haven’t heard,” she said, and proceeded to tell him about the uproar from the day before. Arthur was suitably impressed.
“That Princeton guy sounds like he knows what he’s doing,” he said. “I think you should keep him around.”
“Adam, Dad. Not Princeton.”
Arthur chuckled. “Sorry. So what are you doing on your day off?”
Swiping the rag across the top of the piano, Alice made a face. “Cleaning your house. It’s a dust bunny’s dream come true.”
There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. “I believe that. You know, Alice, I’m not sure I feel comfortable with you in that house all by yourself. I know you have a roommate,” he added, “and I don’t know about Whitney, but you at least aren’t quite… aren’t quite…”
“Scary?” Alice thought she knew where this was going. Arthur may have left in a rush, but every time they talked, he made her promise to be smart and stay on her guard.
Arthur laughed uncomfortably. “I always told your mother we should have enrolled you in judo rather than all those social dance classes. If someone comes up behind you, all you can do is triple-step them.”
“That’s not true,” Alice protested. “Lewis’s not that far away–”
“And I’m sure some creep would give you the time to call for backup, and then wait around for your skinny friend to trip over his own feet while he ran up the stairs.”
Alice couldn’t keep from laughing. He’d pegged Lewis perfectly. “Well, he’d try his darndest to keep us safe.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Arthur muttered. “I’d just feel better knowing someone was living in that hous
e. Maybe I should rent it out to a police officer for a few months, until I get back home.”
At least he was still calling Michigan home, Alice thought. “When do you think you’ll come back?”
Arthur hesitated. “I don’t know, sweetie,” he said finally. “I want to be home by August at the latest. Are you doing okay? You’d tell me if there was a problem, wouldn’t you?”
Alice leaned her head on the wall and stood there for a long time without saying a word. “Alice?”
“Yeah, I’m here.” She closed her eyes. “I’m fine. Whitney keeps me company, and Lewis makes sure I don’t do anything stupid.” Except chaperone his dates, she added silently. “I miss you, though.”
“I miss you, too. You should come down for a visit sometime.”
Arthur had obviously missed the whole I-get-one-day-off-a-week discussion, but Alice was tired of reminding him of that. “I’ll see what I can do.”
After she got off the phone, she sank to the floor in front of the piano. She rested her head against the bench, and cried until she could hardly breathe.
***
Lewis arrived ten minutes early that evening. Adam was conspicuously absent. Alice just looked at him with raised eyebrows.
“He’s already downtown. He had to meet with his lawyer at the last minute.”
Alice sighed and rolled her shoulders unconsciously. Was there anyone in the world anymore that didn’t have a lawyer? Maybe she was more old-fashioned than she’d thought.
“Don’t worry, though,” Lewis said, trying surreptitiously to look over her head. “He’s totally stoked about our date tonight.”
“I thought we weren’t on–”
“My date,” he amended hastily. “Wentworth is just…” His voice trailed off.
Alice stared at an open-mouthed Lewis for a few seconds before she heard Whitney. “Hello, Lewis.”
Smirking, Alice reached up and closed his mouth for him. He swallowed once before grinning down at her. “Your date doesn’t hold a candle to mine. He’s too tall for me.” He stepped around her and offered his arm to a blushing Whitney. “Shall we go?”
The ride into downtown Detroit was… interesting, Alice decided. For a man who’d professed to jittery nerves only the day before, Lewis was a model of charm and relaxation.
And he talked the whole way down. She watched his face in the rear-view mirror, and the longer they drove, the more suspicious she became. She knew Lewis almost better than she knew herself. She had the sinking feeling that he was up to something underhanded, like concocting a mad scheme for him and Adam to get dates for the evening.
Lewis caught her eye in the mirror and raised his eyebrows at her before returning to his shameless flirtation. Alice groaned silently and tried to sink further into the backseat.
Lewis must have felt guilty for ignoring her, because a few minutes later he spoke over his shoulder. “Have you heard from your dad recently?”
“He called this afternoon. He seemed to think I wasn’t safe living in the house with the main floor empty.”
Alice watched as Lewis’s eyes flitted to Whitney. “And what did you say to that?”
She shrugged. “I told him you weren’t far away.” She paused for a second, smiling to herself as she remembered their conversation. “Then he muttered something about renting it out to a police officer.”
Grimacing, Lewis pulled into a parking spot and took the key out of the ignition. “I’m glad he thinks so highly of me,” he said drily.
Alice was shaking her head as she walked slowly toward the restaurant, trailing behind Whitney and Lewis. She slowed her steps and smiled when Whitney saw the name of the restaurant. Lewis grinned at her and took her hand, tugging her up the walk. “It used to be a mansion,” she heard him tell her, excitement lacing his voice. “It was owned by a guy whose last name was Whitney. Is that awesome or what?”
Alice stood there and observed them. She was tremendously glad that Lewis had found someone that interested him. But it made her feel slightly unnecessary, almost like she was being left behind on the greatest adventure of all.
She glanced up and jumped when her eyes met Adam’s. He was only a foot away from her, watching her watch her best friend fall towards love.
He slowly reached out and touched her elbow. “Hello, Alice.” His voice had a faint trace of understanding hidden in it. It made her wonder if he knew what she was thinking. The thought made her feel oddly better. “You look positively lovely. Thank you for coming tonight.”
Taking a deep breath, Alice felt her shoulders relax. “No, thank you.” She nodded her head in Lewis’s direction, and Adam chuckled quietly next to her. “I was starting to feel a little redundant.”
Adam froze for a second before his hand slid down her arm until her fingers were held loosely in his. “You could never be redundant.” Alice smiled up at him and let him lead her into the restaurant.
Much to Alice’s surprise, the dinner didn’t go nearly as abominably as she’d expected. In fact, if she was being honest–and she was inclined to do just that–she hadn’t had such a lovely time in years.
They were seated in the Whitney’s former library, surrounded by stained glass windows and leather-bound books that remained from the family’s original collection. She couldn’t remember the last time she had laughed so much or so freely. Lewis caught her eye from across the table at one point and smiled at her. His arm was slung over the back of Whitney’s chair, and his eyes were alight with pleasure.
Alice sighed contentedly and leaned back in her seat. Adam spun his water glass idly on the table, making the liquid inside swirl. It was almost dizzying.
“We never finished our discussion about your dad,” Lewis said abruptly. “What did he have to say?”
Alice shrugged and watched as the glass in Adam’s hands came to a swift halt. “He said he’s feeling happier, but he probably won’t be home until the end of the summer.” She tilted her head back to look up at the ceiling. “And, of course, the police thing.”
“What police thing?” Adam asked.
Alice glanced at Adam without lowering her head. He seemed strangely fascinated with her chin. “He thinks we’re not safe enough,” she explained.
His earlier irritation obviously forgotten, Lewis leaned over and smirked at her. “And he wants her to find a police officer to live with her.”
Adam’s arm twitched, and the next thing Alice knew, the water in his glass was dripping from her lap.
He stared at her for a single heartbeat before wordlessly handing her his handkerchief. Then he buried his face in his hands.
***
Alice watched as Whitney fiddled with the hand dryer in the ladies’ room. “I don’t think it’s going to turn that far around,” Alice noted. “This is an old building, remember? They didn’t really want the thing to be wrenched around.”
Sighing, Whitney gave up and turned to her. “Did you at least manage to get most of the water out?”
Alice glanced down at her dress and laughed. “I won’t drip on the carpet, if that’s what you mean.” She walked over to the sink, wrinkling her nose at the feel of the wet material on her legs. “I hate that feeling,” she said. “All cold and wet. It’s like I’ve been slobbered on by a Great Dane.”
Whitney leaned against the counter. She stared off into space for a long time. “What’s up?” Alice asked.
“I was just thinking.”
Alice looked at her friend closer. She was twisting her ring around her finger and shifting her weight from one foot to the other. “About…”
The fidgeting sped up. “Lewis.”
Ah, thought Alice. That didn’t take very long. “What about him? You like him, don’t you?”
Whitney’s ring fell to the floor. She was flushed when she stood back up. “Yeah…”
Alice raised her eyebrows. “What’s the problem?”
Whitney was quiet for a long time, and when she finally spoke she was whispering. “Is he… is
he…”
This was going to take forever. “He’s not in love with me, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“Oh! Um, no, I wasn’t worried about that. I was just thinking he might be… might be…”
Alice sighed and moved to stand beside her. “Just spit it out, Whitney.”
She took a deep breath, screwed her eyes shut, and blurted out, “Is he gay?”
Alice burst out laughing so hard she doubled over, clutching her stomach. Some unfortunate woman, choosing that moment to open the restroom door, took one look at Alice and backed out, her eyes wide with panic. Alice wondered how long it would take her the call someone official to check out the situation.
Whitney’s mouth opened and closed several times before she finally settled on something to say. “I can’t decide if you’re laughing because he’s gay, and I’ve been blissfully ignorant, or if he’s not and he’d die if he found out I thought he might be.”
It took Alice a minute more before she was able to calm down enough to answer. “He’s not gay,” she said, wiping her eyes. “Although I can see why you might think he was. He’s more of a metro sexual than anything else.”
Nodding thoughtfully, Whitney gazed off into the distance. “That would explain a lot.”
Alice glanced at her out of the corner of her eye while she was checking her mascara. “If you’re interested, I happen to know he’s available. And interested in girls,” Alice added, just to make sure Whitney understood.
The smile on Whitney’s face glowed. “That’s good to know.” She patted her hair, straightened her blouse, and stood up straight. “Come on. If we stay in here much longer, Adam’s going to think you’ve fallen into the toilet.”
***
Adam had never felt so humiliated in his life.
The fact that she didn’t think they were on a date bothered him, but he was willing to overlook that in the name of social felicity. Here he was, on a date with the woman of his dreams. And what did he do?
Alice in Glass Slippers Page 15