Page 23 of Last Comes Fate

Still, she managed to pull out another sweet smile. “Well, even if I can’t, there’s always the bar.”

I did my best to mask a cringe. “You want to go back to serving shots off your ass?”

She scoffed. “It’s off a tray, not my ass. Not unless they gave me a huge tip, anyway.” She avoided my gaze. “But the manager said he would teach me to tend bar one day if I came back so I won’t always have to be a shot girl. Promotion! I hope.”

I tipped my head. “Sure you can remember all the drink recipes?”

I hated to ask, but we both knew the truth; memorizing things wasn’t exactly Joni’s strong suit either.

“If I do it, I can remember it,” she said with more confidence than I knew she had. “Plus, maybe I can teach ballet at the rec center to the littles like Sofia. Those who can’t do, teach, right, sis?”

Maybe I deserved that after doubting her ability to mix drinks. I knew it was only a joke, but I couldn’t help but flinch. I might have made it mid-way through my master’s degree, but I was just as much a dropout as she was. Not really one to judge, honestly.

“How long is Marie in Paris again?” I asked.

Fine. It was another cheap shot.

Given everything she was struggling with, Joni wouldn’t appreciate being reminded that Marie hadn’t come home to New York after the wedding but had returned to Paris, where she was currently living her best life attending culinary school courtesy of her super rich employers.

Heck, that would make anyone jealous.

“I don’t freaking know,” she said, sounding closer to fourteen than twenty-four. “But I guarantee she won’t enjoy anything but the dumb kitchen school. Especially not any hot Frenchmen. She wouldn’t recognize someone flirting if they smacked her in the face with their coc—”

“Language!” I interrupted with a stifled giggle. “Sofia doesn’t need to hear that.”

Joni just smirked and sipped her coffee from a cup that aptly read “Sly Bish” on the side. “Plus, Mimi’s too obsessed with her boss to do anything anyway.”

“Come again?” I asked as I put together a sunflower butter and jelly sandwich. “Marie’s in love with who?”

Joni wasn’t totally wrong in her assessment of Marie’s social skills. The idea that she had any sort of life was news to me. Then again, I hadn’t been involved enough in either of their lives over the past year to know, had I? I’d been too invested in my own drama.

Joni’s eyes gleamed over her coffee cup, clearly eager to be the bearer of juicy gossip. “He’s the younger son of the super-rich family she works for in Westchester. Have you ever heard of Daniel Lyons?”

I frowned. “Oh, you mean the younger son she’s had a thing for since she was sixteen?” I chuckled. “For a second, I thought you meant one of her teachers.”

Joni’s mischievous grin told me everything I needed to know. “Daniel Lyons is more out of reach than any stuffy French chef. He’s inPage Sixmore than the Kardashians.”

I set down the butter knife. “Joni, you know every time you read that crap, you are giving those shitty sites more reasons to invade people’s privacy and print lies, right?”

She shrugged, making her hoops bounce again. “Eh, they’re rich. They can deal with it.”

“Nina was inPage Six, you know. They reported on every little drama with her first marriage, not to mention her ex-husband’s criminal activities. They persecuted her for years, not to mention all summer and last year. Do you think Matthew would like the fact that you’re supporting them?”

Joni’s smile faded a bit, but she chose to take a large gulp of coffee instead of answering my question. Or meet my eyes, for that matter.

“What about me and Sofia, huh?” I pressed as I smacked my knife over the jelly side of the bread. “We were in the London tabloids too, because of our association with Xavier. They printed lie after lie about us. Even interviewed Mami, remember?”

By the time I was pulling up my phone to demonstrate my point, Joni’s grin had fully morphed into a frown.

“Shit,” she said. “I forgot about that.”

“Itjusthappened.”

“And youjusttold me how crappy my memory is!” she retorted. “I can be dumb or I can be cruel, Frankie. You can’t have it both ways. I just didn’t think about it, all right?”

“That’s kind of the issue, Jo. You don’t really think.”

Immediately, I knew I’d gone one too far.

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