India's Summer by Thérèse Read Free Book Online Page B

plinth!” India laughed. Annabelle appeared be-side her. She looked exhausted.
    “Hi, Adam,” she said with a smile. “I don’t know about you and India but I have got to get out of here. Are you ready?”
    India nodded, hands over her ears. “I’m starving,” she shouted. “Can we go eat somewhere?”
    “A brilliant suggestion,” Annabelle replied. “Adam? Maybe you’d like to join us?”
    India pretended that she hadn’t heard the question and scanned the room while a voice inside her screamed, Please say yes! Please say yes!
    Like an answered prayer, his eyes locked on hers and he nodded. “Great idea! Where?”
    Annabelle thought for a moment. “How ’bout the Polo Lounge? It’s usually quiet at this hour.”
    “Give me a minute,” Adam said, pulling out his phone and pressing speed dial. “You want a table inside or out?”
    “We’re easy,” Annie mouthed, grabbing India’s arm and steering her through the crowds toward the back entrance, where Robert would be waiting with the car.
    “Freedom, at last!” Annie sighed, pulling out her seat belt after telling Robert their destination.
    India lowered her voice. “Do me a favor,” she said as the car took a long turn and glided up past the line of palm trees and banana plants toward the Beverly Hills Hotel. “Don’t talk about what I do for a living.”
    “Your secret’s safe with me, darling, but I don’t quite get it. I mean, it’s not like you’re a lap dancer or a stripper. What’s the problem with teaching?”
    “It’s not the teaching. It’s just that I want to seem a bit more mysterious, more seductive, I suppose.”
    “Well, we could always talk about me all night. There’s a subject I never tire of,” Annie joked as they headed up the red-carpeted stairs.
    “Can we go to the loo?” India asked. “I mean restroom.”
    “Sure, I’ll lead the way.”
    This is so opulent it’s surreal, India thought, following Annabelle through the peachy pink circular lobby with its heavy Italian chandeliers, gilded balconies, and velvet settees. As the door swung open India saw two young women puckering their lips and playing with their hair in front of long gilded mirrors. They were both wearing baby-doll dresses and seven-inch Lady Gaga–style shoes.
    Shit! she thought, catching her own reflection and pulling her cardigan more to one side over her shoulder. If I had something sexy on underneath – I don’t know, maybe a French basque – I could take this off. But as I don’t, I’m just going to have to channel Diane Keaton instead.
    She took a deep breath. It’s all about confidence… she reminded herself. Say YES!
    Annie retouched her lipstick and then, as if sensing her discomfort, gave India an impulsive hug.
    “Relax, darling. He likes you. He wouldn’t be here if he didn’t. Let’s go.”
    Sweeping past the now star-struck girls in their baby dolls, Annabelle drifted across the marble lobby and through the mahogany swing doors into the bar of the restaurant.
    “Annabelle! How’s it going?” said a tiny middle-aged guy in a striped shirt, leaping to his feet and fiddling with his earpiece. “Great to see you.”
    “You, too, Jeff. It’s been too long,” she said, leaning down to air kiss each cheek.
    Hovering behind her, India took a deep breath as Adam shook Jeff ’s hand. As the manager escorted them toward a booth at the back of the room, Adam gently touched her waist. “I’m glad I came,” he said. India just looked at him, mutely, and smiled.
    Only tribal peace talks in Iraq seemed more complicated to India than Annabelle ordering food in a restaurant.
    “Does the soup have cream in it?” Annie asked. “Are there onions in the jus?” “And what about the salmon? Is it wild or farmed?”
    It’d be simpler to cook it yourself, India thought. You’d have a hard time ordering like that at the Cat and Lion pub.
    Annabelle took a while and then gazed up at the waiter. “I’ll have the halibut. Baked.