Page 55 of The Dreidl Disaster

Naomi nodded. Then paused, an imaginary lightning bolt of discovery or remembrance flashing over her head.

Which made Liv nervous.

“Wait,” Naomi said. “This is what you were talking to me about at Shabbat dinner last week, right?”

Life had been so wild that she’d managed to forget she’d confided in her sister in the first place.

That made the whole explanation and eggshells awkward as hell. And yet all the same, Liv nodded. “Yes,” she said. “I took your advice and…”

“Which meant I agreed to come to the event I strongly suggested you come to. Even better. So yes. You’ve made a good choice, two of them.”

“What choices?”

“Agreeing to go, and then inviting me.”

In the silence, Liv knew something was wrong. Naomi had gotten too quiet for her own safety if not taste. “Yes?” Liv said. “Because I know you have something on your mind, and you desperately want to say it.”

“You know this is just dinner, and you’re going, right? What do you intend to play this off as?”

This was how she had to explain herself and the situation without disclosing the extent to which she’d already fallen for this guy.

“What swayed me,” she replied, pulling words together that hopefully made some degree of sense, “is that Artur wanted to reinforce new connections that I’ve been making through him that might be helpful.”

There. As professional as she could make it sound, as unemotional and impersonal as it could be.

Naomi raised an eyebrow.

It was a tell of her sister’s; she’d said something Naomi didn’t believe. “And does he know you’re thinking of this as a networking event? Not just for this event, but for events in the future. That he’s introducing you to contacts, not friends? In his hometown?”

It turned out the thing Naomi didn’t believe was all of it. Which meant Liv needed another way of explanation, courtesy of the man himself. “He knows I might,” she said. “He actually suggested something like it, in the event I was nervous about seeming unprofessional or untoward.”

“Untoward is out of one of Melanie Gould’s books…or Penina Alton Schraders,” Naomi replied, rattling off authors she’d recently started reading. “And it would sound worse, except it does in fact sound like it was tailor-made by this guy because he knows you enough.”

Which was a compliment wrapped in an insult and par for the course for her sister. “That sounds worse than it actually is.”

“It’s an out,” Naomi replied. “An excuse, which you’re grabbing onto as tightly as you can so that you don’t have to admit to having feelings of any sort. Which is fine.”

“It is?” Liv managed, surprised at her sister’s easy acceptance of the statement. “Why?”

“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth,” Naomi replied, running a hand through her long dark hair. “But what I will say, is that in this case, actions speak more than one thousand words. This picture is going to be fascinating.”

She smiled, but then the phrasing brought her to her earlier dilemma. Jeans, a sweater, nice earrings. Perfect for fall. And yet.

She needed an expert opinion, and Naomi would be the ideal person to deliver it. “Speaking of pictures, I have a question for you.”

Naomi raised an eyebrow. “Okay?”

This was it. Here she went, not off the deep end but ready to go. “How do I look?”

“What do you mean how do you look? You look fine—comfortable and ready to go to a barbecue.”

Naomi was so nonchalant, and Liv envied that. Not always, but now, right here at this one. Because going to this really meant something. She could tell. “But…”

Naomi shook her head, and Liv knew she was in trouble. “You’re playing this straight down the middle,” her sister said. “You’re casual but you have a full face of makeup on. So I’m not quite sure what you’re trying to do?”

Liv sighed. How could she explain herself to her sister? How could she express exactly how she felt without telling her.

But her sister knew her well enough to stand in front of her, looking earnest, like she genuinely wanted to hear what Liv had to say. “I want to look…nice but professional, but not too professional.”

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