Page 63 of The Boyfriend List
“Hey! What’s wrong with the Biebs?” Raina asks as she and Gloria have finished their song and are now standing by our table.
I plan to stand up to let Gloria back into her side of the booth, but she slides in next to me instead, wedging me between the wall and her. Which I don’t mind at all. Sasha and Giorgio get on the stage next, and the soft acoustic strains of Taylor Swift’s “Everything Has Changed” filter through the room.
Sasha eyes Giorgio with barely-veiled annoyance as she sings one of Taylor Swift’s lines, while Giorgio wears a mischievous smirk as he belts the chorus. I have no idea how she got roped into singing with him when it looks like she hasn’t forgiven him for their mini golf date.
“Please never refer to Justin Bieber as ‘the Biebs’ again,” Kostas says.
“Why not?” Raina asks with a mischievous smirk. “Does it annoy you?”
“Yes,” he says with a glower that could send lesser men fleeing for their lives. When he turns it on his wife, though, she just laughs and kisses his cheek.
“I think you should do a duet with London,” Raina suggests to Gloria, her eyes sparkling.
“I would say you’ve had too much to drink, if you weren’t clearly pregnant,” I say, shaking my head.
Gloria flips through the binder of songs, her finger swiping through the laminated pages until she finds a song she likes. “Aha! Perfect.”
I raise an eyebrow. “Please, no One Direction.”
“We should make him sing a Ryder Black song,” Raina suggests with a laugh.
Gloria gets up to order more fries and Kostas excuses himself to use the bathroom, leaving me alone with Raina.
I’ve never really spent much time with Gloria’s best friend before. They were roommates in college, so we would bump into each other every now and then, but we never shared any classes. Once or twice, we all hung out in a big group with some of Raina’s friends, but other than that, I’ve never been alone with her.
The way she’s scrutinizing me makes me feel like a lab rat, though.
“So, you and my best friend are together now,” Raina says, swirling her paper umbrella around her drink. Who knew a fake paper umbrella could look so threatening, as if she’s sharpening a knife in front of me instead? “How did that happen?”
“Gloria hasn’t told you all the gory details?”
“She has, but I’d prefer to hear them from you.” I feel like a criminal suspect being interrogated by a cop.
“I came to my senses and realized I couldn’t miss my chance with her after Giorgio asked her out,” I say, summing it up in what I hope is a convincing statement. Sweat beads under my collar. Why do I feel like I’m hiding a secret that she’s determined to ferret out?
“Hmm.” Raina sips her remaining Shirley Temple. “So your relationship was only born of your testosterone-fuelled rage at seeing her with another guy?”
“No! I’ve been in love with her for years.”
“She mentioned that you’re close with your mom,” Raina says. “Which is sweet. But she also said that it’s the reason she hesitated to believe you had feelings for her for so long.”
“What does my mom have to do with anything?” I wonder how long it will take Kostas to come back from the bathroom and Gloria to get more food.I’m worried that if I get up, Raina might try to stab me with the pointy end of her paper umbrella.
“Oh, Gloria told me a story about her once. You mean she hasn’t told you about it?” Raina’s pencilled brows shoot up in surprise.
“No. She hasn’t.” I drum my fingers on the table, wondering how long this interrogation will last. And what Gloria hasn’t told me. She’s only met my mom once, I think, when I brought her home for Thanksgiving the year we met. How could that have been enough time for my mom to scare her off?
“You should ask her, then.” As if on cue, Kostas returns to the table as Gloria returns with a fresh basket of fries.
Gloria slides into the booth next to me, only to grab my hand. "We’ll be next. We're doing an Adele cover."
I can't decide if singing karaoke or being faced with Raina Aguilar Vasileiou's questioning is more terrifying.
"Yay," I deadpan. Raina turns her all-knowing eyes on me like she's revelling in my suffering.
As Gloria half-drags me, and half-walks toward the stage, I say, "I thought Raina liked me."
"She does."
