Page 52 of The Dreidl Disaster

“My sister,” she replied as he signed a credit card receipt she didn’t realize he’d gotten.

“It’s fine,” he said quickly. “If you’re concerned, it’s a business expense.”

Whether he actually meant he considered their outing a business expense or whether he was just saying that, who knew. But either way. “Thank you.”

He nodded after he passed the plastic tray over to the waiter, taking a break to slurp his own noodles. “Tell me about your sister.”

“Her name’s Naomi, and she’s younger than I am.”

“What does she do?”

“She’s an event planner, mostly weddings but some other parties, corporate or otherwise. Anyway, she’s uninvolved with politics and sports, but she likes events and likes being around people.”

“Well,” he said. “Looking forward to meeting her.”

“Whether you’ll say that after the event remains to be seen.” She said as they dove in to lunch before finishing and heading out of the restaurant. “See you on Saturday?”

“See you on Saturday.”

And their goodbyes were done, leaving her free to wave and head back to her office, to the work she had waiting that had nothing to do with him or with Hanukkah.

Chapter Seventeen

Artur put downthe last case of wine within his vicinity, having stacked wine, soda, beer, chips and who knew what else. He’d been lifting boxes and bags all afternoon.

Thankfully, he wasn’t the only one; Abe had enlisted the entire quiz show group to help, after all. Leo was doing something in the back, Sapna was organizing the drinks behind the bar, and Claire and her girlfriend were on snack duty. Batya was helping Abe with prep, of course.

It had been a nice afternoon; Liv had been right about how this group of friends didn’t really need a reunion considering how deeply everybody was in each other’s pockets. And Claire’s new girlfriend was nice.

Except Artur couldn’t help but stare at any timepiece that came into his line of sight. A watch, an electronic assistant; anything. This impatience was doing him absolutely zero good. And between bringing boxes and bags from the landing spot to her girlfriend behind the snack table, Claire had been staring at him for the last ten minutes. Undertones of ‘are you okay’ were extremely clear in her eyes.

He was fooling nobody.

Which meant he needed to get to the one person who could talk him off the ledge and prevent him from going splat before Liv got there.

He headed toward the porch where Claire was standing with her girlfriend.

“You okay?” Claire asked as he approached the pair, clearly visibly relieved that she had finally asked the question she wanted to.

He nodded, yanked back to reality. “Need a break from this, so I’m going to try and relieve Batya for a while.” At least that least that was what he intended.

Claire nodded, grinning, “Abe definitely needs something,” she said.

And he could believe it; Batya had been on a tear since breakfast; there was something about hosting a gathering that threw her a little off her game.

Abe just fell into his element, but to Batya, there was a difference between making barbecue and hosting people.

“And what about me?”

Claire snorted. “You look like if you see another case of wine, you’ll create a typhoon of it all over everybody.”

Which wasn’t exactly the problem he had, but the problem he’d admit to at the moment. “You know me all too well,” he told his friend. “Happy lifting.”

“So how will I know who will be here to help me move this?”

He laughed. “Either I’ll be back or Batya will.”

Which is when he waved and headed inside in search of his friend. Of course, if he wasn’t sure where Abe was, he could always follow the smell.

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