Page 17 of Dirty News
“I’ll try not to fall so you don’t have to throw in the towel, Lila. And for the record, I will be a good sport if you win. I’ve always been a good sport. The alternative wasn’t tolerated by any of my coaches. Win or lose, when the game is over you shake every opponent’s hand and thank them for a good game. I’ll do that too once this is decided.” I hoped that made her feel better aboutthings.
“I can see why everyone likes you, Duke.” She gave me her big, sunny smile. “You are a nice guy underneath it all. But for now, you’re my opponent, and things just have to be the way they are, I guess. And please try not to fall, because I wouldn’t be able to help myself. I’d have to help you up.” The smile stayed on her face and melted my heart. The girl was too good to betrue.
Or was that a ploytoo?
She’d said she felt she was in uncharted territory in this competition, but this was uncharted territory for me too. I wasn’t used to bright-eyed smiles and promises of help from my opponents—I was used to being smacked in the face with competition, sometimesliterally.
One thing was for sure—I had to watch myself withher.
The first half of class went by pretty fast, and we were dismissed for lunch. My cell dinged, and I saw that Mrs. Baker had left me a message. She wanted to let me know that a dinner meeting had been set for me, her, and Artimus that evening. As I looked at the message, I knew it probably meant I’d gotten thejob.
Walking just behind Lila on the way out, I reached out and touched her arm. She stopped and looked at me. “Hey, I’ve just gotten a message from the boss. They want to meet with me for dinner tonight. I think we’ve both got a pretty good idea what it’s about, so I just wanted to say one more time that I hope there are no hard feelings if I get the job. I would like to be friends when this isover.”
“Cool, me too.” Her smile was wide—too wide to have heard such grim news. “I’ve got lunch with them both in half an hour. Seeya.”
I was frozen in place as she left me standingthere.
What the hell justhappened?
ChapterNine
Lila
I stopped off at the hotel to freshen up before heading to Greenwich Village to meet Artimus and Mrs. Baker at Il Mulino for our lunch meeting. Hopping out of the cab, I hurried to get inside. I was only one minute late, but that was one minute too long in mybook.
“Artimus Wolfe’s table, please,” I told the maître d. As he led me through the restaurant, which was far fancier than any place I’d ever dined in, I had little time to admire the surroundings, but I tried to anyway. “Oh, my goodness, that’s Taylor Swift rightthere!”
He said nothing as he hurried me along. “Here you are,madam.”
“Thank you.” He stepped out of the way, and there was Duke Cofield, sitting in the chair next to the one the maître d had pulled out forme.
“Hi there.” Duke smiled as if he belonged there, which I knew hedidn’t.
“Hi.” I took my seat and tried not to act surprised or pissed, which was achallenge.
“I came here for lunch. Saw these two and had to stop and say hello.” Duke nodded in the direction of our boss and hisassistant.
I stared at his shit-eating grin a moment before turning my attention to Artimus and Mrs. Baker. “Sorry for holding you twoup.”
Mrs. Baker looked at the watch she wore on her wrist. “By my count, you’re only about a minute late. Nothing to worryabout.”
“Well, I’ll leave you three to your meeting. Nice seeing you all. I’ll save you a seat back at class, Lila. Just in case you’re running late again.” Duke got up, leaving usalone.
“Bye, Duke.” I tried not to roll my eyes but might’ve failed a littlebit.
The waiter came to our table, filling my glass with white wine. “May I bring you something to start,madam?”
“Have you two already ordered?” I askedthem.
They both nodded then Artimus said, “Please, go ahead andorder.”
Opening the menu, I knew I should hurry. I only had about an hour until I had to get back to the class. “I’ll start with the caprese salad.” Mozzarella cheese, basil, and tomato seemed okay. All the dishes were in Italian, so I had to look at the ingredients to get the gist of what items were on the menu. Glancing at the prices, I knew this was a place I could never afford to go on my own. The freaking little cheese salad was almost thirtybucks!
And as I looked at the prices of the entrees, my eyes almost bugged out. A New York strip steak would’ve cost eightydollars!
I settled on something that didn’t offend my frugal sensibilities too much, but still wasn’t cheap for what it was. “I’ll have the spaghetti carbonara too.” Thirty dollars for a plate of spaghetti seemed a bit over the top to me, but that was the only thing on the lower end of things that I could alsopronounce.
“How are you finding the classes, Lila?” Artimusasked.
