Sarah Morgan - Sunset In Central Park

“You have to let her work that out for herself, Ev. You can’t love someone who doesn’t want to be loved.”

“Everyone wants to be loved. If they don’t, it’s because they’re afraid.”

Frankie pressed Send on her email. “Or because they think that love is just too much trouble.”

“That’s another way of saying they’re afraid. Don’t worry, I learned my lesson. I’m not going near her again. From now on I’ll be projecting my positive feelings from a safe distance.” Eva’s phone rang and she picked it up and wandered out of the room, the fabric of her tiny scarlet skirt skimming her long, tanned legs.

Frankie stared after her, wondering how it felt to be that sexually confident. “Did she forget to dress? If she goes outside wearing that skirt there will be a riot.”

Paige jabbed the charging cable into her phone. “She looks amazing, doesn’t she? We went shopping yesterday when you were lost in your book. Your response to stress is to read, ours is to shop. How was it, by the way?”

“I didn’t make it past the third chapter.”

“That’s not like you. What’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong.”

“Frankie—”

“It’s Matt.” She closed her laptop. “He found out I don’t need to wear glasses.”

“He— Oh.” Paige let out a long breath. “How? When?”

“Saturday night. He came down looking for Claws. I was on my own and I wasn’t expecting anyone. I was reading and cooking and—I wasn’t paying attention. Long day.” She closed her eyes briefly. “I can’t believe I was so careless.”

“Is it really such a big deal?”

“It’s a huge deal.”

“Why?” Paige sat back in her chair. “Frankie, it’s not as if he’s a stranger. Matt has known you since you were a kid. He knows pretty much everything there is to know about you.”

“He didn’t know I wear glasses even though my vision is perfect.”

“How did he react?”

“I don’t know. I pushed him out the door without asking.” Remembering made her want to crawl under the table. “There were a million things I could have said or done. I could have smiled and said I manage fine without my glasses in the apartment but no, I gave him a shove that would probably have injured someone less powerfully built than your brother.”

“If he upset you, I’ll kill him.” Paige sounded annoyed. “Did he say something tactless?”

“I didn’t give him the chance. It wasn’t his fault. It was me. All me.” She dropped her head in her hands. “What is wrong with me? I’m a sane, independent woman. I’m good at my job—”

“You’re excellent at your job.”

“Yeah, I really am. And I know I’m a disappointing daughter, but I’m a great friend even though I don’t hug enough for Eva.” She lifted her head. “All I’m saying is that in every other aspect of my life I’m pretty normal and function well. Why am I such a basket case around men?”

“Do you seriously need me to answer that?”

“No, but I should have the emotional intelligence not to let the antics of my mother affect my life like this. Matt said he liked me in my T-shirt—he paid me a compliment and I responded as if he’d covered me in anthrax.”

“This is why you want to learn to flirt?”

“I want to learn to be normal .” She looked at her friend in despair. “What am I going to do?”

“Do you mean about the glasses, Matt or men in general?”

“All of it! How can I wear glasses around him knowing that he knows? I’ll feel stupid. And what do I say next time I see him?”

“Whether you wear glasses or not is your choice, Frankie. If you feel more comfortable wearing them, then wear them. And as for what happened on Saturday—” Paige thought for a moment “—you should probably talk to him about it.”

“I was leaning more toward pretending it never happened.” If she could ignore it, she would. “I could leave him a note saying sorry I was weird.”

“You don’t have to do that, Frankie. He knows you.”

“You mean he knows I’m weird.”

Paige smiled. “No. I mean he knows what you grew up with. I don’t understand why this bothers you. This is Matt we’re talking about. Not some stranger.”

It was precisely because it was Matt that it bothered her. Exposing the depth of her hang-ups to a guy she’d known forever and found attractive was mortifying.

Generally she didn’t care what men thought about her, but she cared what Matt thought.

“You’re right. I should have an adult conversation. But I can’t turn ‘hey, I wear glasses but I don’t need them’ into anything that sounds remotely mature.”

Eva walked back into the room. “That was Mitzy. She wants to officially be one of our clients, and before either of you say anything, I know she’s never going to be our biggest earner, but I love her. What’s the matter with you two?” She peered at Frankie. “You’re wearing your doomed face and Paige is wearing her problem-solving face. What’s happened?”

“I have a doomed face?” Just for a moment Frankie wished she had Eva’s confidence. Never in a million years would she go out in public wearing a skirt that short.

“You have the face you wear when things are going wrong.”

Paige stood up and picked up some pages from the printer. “Matt worked out that she doesn’t need glasses.”

“Oh.” Eva’s brow cleared. “Is that all? I thought something awful had happened.”

“That is awful.”

“Why? Wearing glasses is part of who you are. It’s part of your individuality.”

“You mean my hang-ups.”

Eva shrugged. “Hang-ups are individual. The important thing is that you mustn’t be afraid to let people know the real you. That’s what intimacy is.”

“I don’t want intimacy! That’s why I wear the glasses—to repel intimacy.”

“Yes, but—” Eva caught Paige’s eye. “But I strongly defend the right of the individual to wear whatever they like, so I’m making no comment. Is that why you want to know how to flirt? So that next time he talks about your glasses you can turn it into seduction?”

“I wear the glasses so I can be sure I never reach the point of seduction.”

Eva looked baffled. “I love you, but I will never understand you.”

“That goes both ways. And if you don’t comment on my glasses, I won’t comment on that thing you call a skirt.”

“Hey, I am rocking this skirt.” Eva’s cheeks dimpled into a smile as she rotated her hips in a sensuous movement that would have caused multiple collisions had they been in public. “Don’t you love it?”

“I’ve seen wider hair ribbons, but yes, it’s cute. Now tell us about Mitzy.” She needed to stop thinking about Matt and focus on work. “What does she need from us? If she can get me early copies of all Lucas Blade’s releases, I’ll do pretty much anything for her.”

“She wants me to bake him a birthday cake.”

Paige clipped pages together. “Does she really want a cake or is it just an excuse to spend another afternoon talking to you?”

“Does it matter? She’s so kind. And wise.” Eva’s voice thickened. “She reminds me of Grams. And she treats me as if I’m family.”

Eva had such a rosy view of family it made Frankie feel guilty that she couldn’t feel better disposed toward her own.

“Go and see her, Ev. I’ll make up a bunch of flowers for her, and don’t charge her for the cake.”

“I don’t think she minds paying. Money isn’t the problem. But she’s lonely.”

And so are you, Frankie thought, making a mental note to spend more time with her friend. As an introvert, she didn’t seek human contact the way Eva did. She loved her friends, but she was equally comfortable in her own space with her books and her plants. But she knew that with Paige spending more time with Jake, Eva would be spending more time alone.