“That was pathetic.” I wiped away tears of laughter and rubbed my finger. “My mascara is smudging.”
“Waterproof. I keep telling you. It’s an amazing cosmetic technology.” Leo stood up and smoothed her skirt down. “Come on, we’ll go fix it.”
Drio shot her a wry look. “That’s code for they want to talk about us in private.”
Leo planted her hands on her hips and arched an eyebrow saucily. “Anything we could possibly say about you, Ricci, could be said before we left this table. There’s just not that much there,” she said.
Drio put his hand to his heart and fell back, mock wounded, a smile so sweet on his face, that I checked for cameras to see if I was being pranked.
Rohan wore the same gobsmacked expression that my face had frozen in. Drio shot me the finger, but when he turned to Ro, he shifted in his seat, his eyes dropping to his lap.
“Oh. No, man.” Ro clapped him on the shoulder, without a word. Some unspoken message passed between them, some permission granted, then Drio nodded and relaxed, smiling at Leo again.
Leo looked as lost in this little exchange as I was, though she also preened under his attention.
“Snap out of it,” I hissed as we scootched sideways through the tightly packed tables.
Smirking, Leo skipped her way into the restroom.
“How serious is this?” I said.
Leo wagged a finger at me. “Uh-uh. I can see the hearts and flowers dancing around your head. Not all of us are you and Le Mitra. Or want to be. Boy toy. That’s it.”
“That’s fine.” Better than fine, because Leo had a small chance in hell of keeping her demon secret if the two of them stayed casual.
She uncapped her lipstick. “I don’t think I’ll sleep with him tonight.”
I blotted my smudged mascara with a paper towel. “I can see that. Those piercing green eyes, that olive skin against his blond hair, that hard body. Meh.”
Leo paused to glare at me in the mirror. I grinned. “I didn’t say I didn’t like him or want him,” she said. “I’m not dead. I said I wasn’t going to sleep with him tonight. You made Rohan work for it.” She gasped theatrically, covering her mouth with her hand, her eyes wide. “Oops. Sorry. Wrong friend.” She smirked. “You rolled over like a cat in heat.”
I threatened her with my mascara wand. “Piss me off and your friend base goes into negative numbers.”
“I have plenty of friends. Drio is my friend.”
“Drio may be many things, kitten, but friend?” I screwed up my face.
“Harry.”
“Harry is your boss and mentor. Different dynamic. I’m it.” I puckered up. “Give me some sugar.”
She twisted her lipstick into the tube, popped the cap on, and dropped it into her small clutch. “Drio has a masochistic streak. I make him work for it, things go very nicely for me.”
“Gross.”
She snapped her fingers. “Kane is my friend. Kane who tells me all sorts of TMI things.”
“You’re a pervy voyeur and you’re not allowed to gossip about me.”
“Pfft. Whatever. You’re a raging exhibitionist.”
“True.” I dropped my mascara back in my clutch, then checked the stalls to make sure we were alone. “Get this. I’m a witch, not Rasha.”
“Reaaaaallly? That ought to liven things up. Can you give me bigger boobs?”
I grimaced, remembering the frog fiasco. “No. There’s more. I met Lilith.”
“You met Sarah McLachlan?”
“Why would I have met Sarah McLachlan?” I scrunched up my hair, plumping my curls.
“You met Lilith. Lilith Fair? Sarah founded it and she lives here in Vancouver.”
“Garden of Eden Lilith.”
Leo tugged up her sweetheart neckline. “Oh.”
“Meeting the person out of the Old Testament is less exciting?”
“Those SPCA videos Sarah does?” She sighed and patted her heart.
I shook my head and headed for the door. “Why do I bother?”
“You gonna give me more details later?”
“D’uh.” And with a wink, I left the bathroom.
Ro and Drio were almost finished their first glasses of wine. Drio had switched seats to be across the table from Rohan.
“What’d we miss?” asked Leo brightly.
“Me.” Drio stretched his arm out along the top of the booth.
Leo dropped into Rohan’s lap, curling a finger into his hair. “Not so much.”
Rohan wrapped his arms around her, mugging at me.
“Bella.” Drio’s purr rumbled through me, so Leo, as its intended target, was probably creaming herself.
On my boyfriend. Ew.
I jerked a thumb at her. “Off.”
Then I sort of got distracted by Drio shrugging out of his jacket, revealing a tight black shirt that was kind of shiny and somewhat see-through, but not in a cheesy way. I swallowed, mesmerized by his intensity as he tipped his head to watch Leo from under his fringe of lashes, before flicking his hair out of his eyes with strong fingers.
“Ahem.” Rohan tugged me down beside him.
I hadn’t even noticed Leo vacate his lap and plant herself at Drio’s side. He tilted his head down to murmur something to her. Leo blushed, caught herself, and said something back to make him laugh.
“You really want to remind me he’s your type?” Ro said.
“You’re my only type.” I patted Ro’s abs absently, my eyes locked on Drio’s physique.
“At least look at me when you’re being patronizing, Sparky. Put some effort into selling the lie.”
“His shirt is just so shiny.” I tilted my head, all the better to see the light catch the translucent fabric, and the teasing glimpse of olive skin stretched taut over sculpted abs.
Ro clapped a hand over my eyes.
“Looking is allowed,” I said.
“Is it? I’ll remember that.” He removed his hand.
A flare of jealousy for this wholly fictitious girl spiked through me. I tore my eyes from Drio and hooked my fingers in Ro’s belt loops. “Try it and I’ll gut you like a fish.”
His answering smile was a tad smug.
The waiter carried over a tray laden with plates.
“You ordered for us?” Leo said.
“Appetizers.” Drio rearranged the wine glasses to make room for the crab cakes, beef carpaccio, seared scallops, and oysters.
“Is there anything you guys didn’t order?” I said.
“We figured we needed energy.” Rohan threw me an exaggerated wink.
“Less so with every passing second,” Leo chirped, but she speared a scallop and held it out for Drio to eat off her fork.
I kicked her under the table because the expression on her face was pure infatuation.
“Ma che cazzo!” Drio kicked me back. “Did you just kick me?”
Leo, who’d just eaten her own scallop, began choking with laughter, then actually choking. Hurriedly she downed a glass of water.
“Don’t think so,” I said.
Rohan held a paper-thin piece of carpaccio out for me, his eyes twinkling. “Oh, how she lies.”
I ate the beef, pleasantly surprised by the tangy, citrus reduction drizzled on it, then held up my glass of Malbec. “Eat, drink, and be merry for tomorrow we die.”
Drio dropped his napkin and swore. Leo’s fork clanged against the china plate. I could swear that even the restaurant dimmed, conversations petering out around us as the candles fluttered nervously.