Sergio protested. “We shouldn’t have barged in. Looks like you’re having a girls’ night.”
Jeremy slapped his arm in good humor. “Oh, honey, we can do girls’ night.”
From across the room, Suzie said, “Hey, if they’ll let me in, they’ll definitely let you in.”
Everyone laughed, and I said, “We’re just hanging out and you’re more than welcome to stay.”
Sergio held up his glass. “We don’t want to drink you out of house and home.”
I smiled. “Then it’s a happy coincidence that my dad owns a winery.”
“I love this girl!” Jeremy said.
“Brooklyn, we need you in here,” Robin said. “Alice needs consoling.”
“I’m fine,” Alice said, but I could hear her voice cracking.
I walked back to the kitchen and put my arm around her shoulders. “What’s wrong, my friend?”
Alice burst into tears and ran to the bathroom.
Alarmed, I turned to Robin. “What did you do?”
She looked nonplussed. “Nothing. I swear. She was talking about all the cool people in your bookbinding class, and I thought she was going to burst into tears, so that’s why I called you over. I thought I was kidding, but it turns out I was right.”
“You called her your friend, Brooklyn,” Vinnie said. “I believe that sent her over the edge. She seems a bit overwhelmed. Perhaps she does not have many friends.”
“She just moved to town a month or two ago,” I said.
“Well, that sucks,” Suzie said. She drained her wineglass and held it out to me. “Please, sir, I want some more.”
I blinked. “That’s from Oliver Twist.”
“Yeah, we watched it on TV the other night,” she said with a cockeyed grin. “The Polanski version, which is very cool and dark, by the way.” She slid off her barstool and went to the fridge to get her own wine. “But quite the downer. That kid couldn’t get a break.”
“I just finished rebinding a beautiful copy of the book,” I said.
“Cool.”
“Yeah, it was. Except it belonged to Layla.”
“Ouch,” Suzie said, hopping back up on her stool.
“Right. That was the book that caused all the trouble.”
“Ooh.” Suzie nodded. “Okay, that’s weird.”
Alice came back to the kitchen carrying a tissue and blotting her eyes. “I’m sorry to be such a twerp. You guys are just too nice. I don’t have any girlfriends in town yet and my stomach gives me problems and so does my fiancé, and I’m under a lot of pressure at the center and Layla’s dead now and I don’t know how to do what I’m supposed to do. I’m floundering.”
Vinnie patted her back. “I find I get flundery at times, too. It is good at these times to be with friends.”
Alice nodded sincerely and sipped her wine.
There was a pause; then Robin said, “Flundery?”
Suzie snorted. “It’s a Vinnie-ism. I figure it’s a cross between fluttery and floundering and flucked up.”
I pulled an apple out of the crisper and began to cut it up to go with the cheese. Glancing over my shoulder at Alice, I said, “I hope I didn’t say anything to upset you.”
“No, no,” Alice insisted. “I’m a little emotional, but right now, it’s because I’m so happy. I wish you were all my friends.”
“We are your friends,” Vinnie said.
Alice bit her lip. “Don’t get me started again.”
Sergio and Jeremy joined us then, and I refilled their wineglasses.
“All this wine reminds me,” Robin said, nudging my arm. “Are you going to Annie’s opening?”
“Are you kidding? My mom will kill me if I miss it.”
“What’s that?” Suzie asked.
I turned. “Remember I told you about Abraham’s daughter, Annie, opening a kitchen store in Dharma? Well, the grand opening is tomorrow. You’re all invited. All the free wine you can drink.”
“What’s Dharma?” Alice asked.
“Who’s Abraham?” Sergio asked.
“Did somebody say free wine?” Jeremy said.
I laughed. “Abraham was my bookbinding teacher. He died a few months ago. Annie is his daughter. She’s opened a kitchen shop in the village where my parents live, on the Lane.”
“The Lane is Shakespeare Lane,” Robin explained. “All the cool shops and restaurants in Dharma are there.”
Sergio nodded in agreement. “I know the Lane. Very chic, not to be missed. I used to work with the chef who opened the newest restaurant up there.”
“Cool,” I said, excited to know we were all connected somehow.
“Dharma is where Brooklyn and I grew up,” Robin said. “It’s a small town in Sonoma County, in the wine country. Near Glen Ellen.”
“It’s charming, sort of chic and rustic all at the same time,” I added, grabbing some chips. “Actually, most of Sonoma is that way.”
“With heavy emphasis on the rustic,” Robin said. “It’s not quite up to Napa chic yet.”
“Never will be,” I admitted.
“Nope,” she agreed. “We should probably just go ahead and call it redneck.”
“But with money,” I said. “Lots of big-city money. Lots of old wine money.”