Page 82 of Cookbooks and Demons

“I’m sorry to be pulling you away from your job like this.”

“Oh trust me,” Helena said as she pressed a foot into the towels to make sure they soaked up the damp. “As soon as your dad gets here, I am abandoning you,” she quipped, then sighed. “I’m loving my job, but it’s also a lot of stress and work.”

Then she glanced at her friend.

“Not that it compares,” she added, only for her phone to ping again, forcing her to flip back and send off another quick message confirming that she was still coming to the afternoon meeting. Cindy stood in front of her suitcases ignoring it all, folding and distributing the remaining clothes from her dresser while she stared off into the dark abyss of herthoughts.

“I can’t believe they are kicking you out because of what happened. This is not your fault,” Helena said, then chided herself internally for not picking a cheerier topic to talk about.

“It’s fine. I wanted out of the lease anyway. I hate this building,” Cindy said, dealing out the last stack of clothes among the suitcases like they were large playing cards. “Are you sure you shouldn’t beat work?”

Yes. No,Helena thought, but instead she pulled out her phone to check the time. “Should I order shawarmas?”

“Oooh, yes please,” Cindy said as she went back for the clothes in her closet. “Oh hell, I should just throw all of this away and start over,you know.”

“Giving away all your possessions is one of the signs—”

“I know, I know. I retract the statement,” Cindy said. “Some doctor I turned out to be.”

“Some friend I turned out to be,” Helena countered, kicking herself. She just didn’t seem to be able to say the right thing even though her friend needed her to.

“Hey,” Cindy said, turning around to come back. She extended her arms and her tall friend wrapped them around Helena’s head for a hug. “Thank you so much for coming and finding me. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’tfor you.”

Helena rocked with her sister-friend, so relieved that she could do so. But while she did, her phone binged three times in quick succession. She ignored it but couldn’tnotfeel the urgency with each ping.

“I didn’t want this to happen, I swear,” Cindy said.

“I know, I know,” Helena assured, even as she snuck a peek at her phone. It was Yosef.Call. Emergency. Now.

They pulled apart, both wiping their noses, then laughing. “And thank God for your boyfriend. A damn angel,” Cindy added.

“You have no idea,” Helena said, truthfully, then texted to Yosef,Twominutes.

“Yeah, but you know what this means? I owe Charlie $20,” Cindy said as she turned to get back topacking.

“Yeah, sorry about that,” Helena said, flipping to Cindy’s dad’s text messages to find the link for his GPS location. He had sent it to her so she could estimate where he was. To her relief, he was fifteen minutes away. “Your dad’s almost here,” sheannounced.

“It’ll all be worth it if you tell me the sex was good,” Cindy said.

“With your dad?” Helena asked before catching on that Cindy hadn’t pivoted the conversationwith her.

“What? No, with your sexy chef.” Cindy peeked out, cocking a teasing eyebrow. “Do you have fantasies about my dad?”

“Ha, ha, ha.” Helena blushed, realizing there was no covering or being cool with that as herreaction.

Cindy stuck out her tongue, then turned back to her closet. “See, I told you it would work out with this guy if you just gave ita chance.”

“Well, nothing has really changed,” Helena admitted. “His circumstances are such that we can only be together sporadically before he has togo again.”

Cindy threw her a confused look over her shoulder. “Whyis that?”

“He has … obligations elsewhere.”

“Okay, that sounds mysterious,” Cindy said as she pulled clothing off of her closet hangers. “Does he cook for the president or the pope or something?”

“At the risk of adding to the mystery, I really can’t talk about it.” Helena held her arms out for Cindy to lay hung clothes over.

“That’s alright. I understand. So it’s just casual?”

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