Insatiable

Chapter Thirty-one

10:30 A.M. EST, Friday, April 16

BAO

155 Avenue of the Americas

New York, New York

Well, look at this,” Leisha said when Meena appeared before her styling station that morning at BAO (By Appointment Only). “Someone’s been a bad, bad girl.”

Leisha was stretched with her long, bare legs crossed at the ankles like a Nubian queen in her own styling chair, balancing a large grilled-chicken salad in a plastic carry-out container over her bulging stomach, even though the salon’s owner, Jimmy, had a strict no-eating-at-your-station rule.

But Jimmy’s rules didn’t apply to Leisha since she was his most popular hairstylist and seven months pregnant, besides. It would be a disaster for Jimmy-and BAO-if Leisha quit.

Meena pointed wordlessly to the empty chair at the station next to Leisha’s.

“Take it,” Leisha said, waving a hand, her many bracelets jangling, her nails, Meena noticed, recently French tipped. Someone in the salon had been using her fingers for practice. “Ramone took a personal day because he found out his boyfriend hasn’t deleted himself from Grindr. So.” Leisha shot her an aggravated look. “I’m totally pissed at you. Jon said you went on a walk with some guy after the countess’s party, and then you never came back. And then this morning on the news, they said they found another dead girl. Obviously, I’ve been sitting here all morning thinking it was you. At least until you finally texted me back. I was worried sick. You can ask anyone here. Sick.”

Meena looked pointedly at the chicken salad. “Not so sick that you couldn’t order an early lunch without me.”

“This isn’t me,” Leisha said, pointing at her belly. “It’s him! He doesn’t care what happens to you. He’s starving. And kicking me. Oh, my God. You wouldn’t believe how he’s been kicking me all morning. And it’s all your fault.”

“How is it my fault?” Meena asked, leaning down and picking up Jack Bauer and putting him on her lap. He snuggled against her, needing a little TLC. Now that Lucien wasn’t around, he was back to his normal, nongrowling self.

“For putting me through all that!” Leisha declared. “You think Thomas can’t feel how scared I was for you? What were you thinking? You never hook up with strange men. What was going through your head, Harper?”

Meena gave Jack Bauer a good scratching beneath his neck, and he threw back his throat in ecstasy.

“He wasn’t a strange guy, Leish,” she said instead of pointing out that Leisha’s doctor had gotten her baby’s sex wrong, which didn’t seem like it would be helpful. “He was the guy from the other night. With the bats.”

Leisha stared at her. “But that’s impossible.”

Meena was scratching the dog so hard that his hind leg began to thump. She toned it down.

“No,” she said. “Not impossible. Fact. Lucien Antonescu-the guy the countess was trying to fix me up with?-is the same guy who saved me from the bats outside of the cathedral. I know it sounds crazy. But it’s true. And, Leish, I like him. More than like him.”

Leisha shook her head. “No wonder you came straight here instead of going home before work. You’re having a mental breakdown.”

Meena frowned. “How am I having a mental breakdown? Do you think I’m making this up?”

“No. Because that’s so messed up!”

“Because I slept with him?”

“Because it’s so weird that it should be the same guy!” Leisha declared. “Of course you slept with him. And I should hope you like him. Seeing as how you scared us all half to death disappearing into the night with him.” She set her chicken salad down on the rolling hair dryer stand between their two chairs and tried to get as comfortable as a seven-months-pregnant woman could. “So. How was it?”

“It was-” Meena looked up toward the ceiling, which Jimmy had left open, though he’d had all the ductwork painted silver and black and the ceiling behind it painted a deep purple. “Amazing,” she said, sighing. “Really. I don’t know any other way to describe it.”

“Adjectives, please,” Leisha said. “I’ve been having sex with the same man for almost seven years now, and I’m over it. I want details. Did he sink your battleship?”

“Leish!” Meena cried, laughing.

“Seriously,” Leisha said. “I don’t care about anything else. Oh, wait, I do. What’s his expiration date?”

Meena regarded her friend with a face wreathed in smiles. “That’s the best part. He doesn’t have one. Or maybe it’s just…”

Meena let her voice trail off. She’d been going to say, maybe it was just that her ability to foretell people’s deaths was fading.

But she knew that wasn’t true. What about baby Weinberg and the weird feeling she had about her?

She had to tell Leisha. She had to.

But how could she do it without scaring the wits out of her?

“Maybe it’s just what?” Leisha gave her an exasperated look. “What is with you? You look so weird. Are you sure you’re all right? I think you might have a fever or something. Let me feel your head.”

Leisha’s fingers felt cool against Meena’s forehead. Meena wished she’d keep them pressed there forever. Maybe she did have a fever.

“Hmmm,” Leisha said. “You’re definitely running a little hot. What’d this guy do to you, exactly? Is that the flush of a new love affair? Or did he give you swine flu?”

“Oh, Leish,” Meena said. “He was so great.” She knew she was gushing, but she couldn’t help it. She could still smell Lucien on her skin from where he’d kissed her good-bye. “He’s just so…different than other guys I’ve met lately, you know? I mean, he doesn’t even know what Call of Duty is. And he made me breakfast. He asked how I like my eggs. And he ran a bath for me. And he was nice to Jack, even though Jack behaved like a total lunatic and did nothing but growl at him all night long. And…”

“So it was perfect,” Leisha said, finishing for her.

“It was perfect,” Meena said. Then something occurred to her, and she chewed her lower lip. “Except…”

“What?” Leisha’s dark brows slanted downward. “Don’t tell me. He’s married. He’s got a wife back in Estonia.”

“Romania,” Meena said, correcting her. “And no, of course not. That’s not it. There’s just something…okay, don’t laugh. But there’s something…sad about him.”

“Sad?” Leisha shook her head so that her long black hair, which she’d straightened with a hot comb and then curled into a sassy retro flip, skimmed her shoulders. “What do you mean, sad? Like a loser? Haven’t you had enough of losers after David?”

“No,” Meena said. “Not loser sad. More like something really sad happened to him once. And he never got it over it.”

“Maybe his wife died in childbirth,” Leisha said. Leisha, unlike Meena, loved movies with unhappy endings; the sadder the better. Leisha was a huge Nicholas Sparks fan. “Or died in a tragic car crash just hours before they were supposed to get married! Or was smothered to death in a Peruvian mudslide while inoculating orphans.”

Meena gave her a sarcastic look.

“Coming back to reality,” Meena said, “I think he had a crappy childhood. He didn’t seem to want to talk about it. Afterward-you know-I asked him about his family, and he said both his parents were dead. He said he has a half brother, but they’re not close.”

“Well, so there you go,” Leisha said, looking a little disappointed there wasn’t a dead wife who could be played by Rachel McAdams in the movie version of the story. “He just needs the love of a good woman to perk him up. A woman like you…the woman he saved from a bat attack! It’s so romantic. Except for the part where you boned him on the first date. That is totally so out of character for you. Let me feel your head again. I want to see if your fever’s gotten any worse.”

Leisha was reaching out to feel Meena’s forehead again when a young man, his skin almost as dark as Leisha’s and his black hair clipped into a light fade-a creation of Leisha’s, Meena didn’t doubt, since it suited his face shape perfectly-appeared in front of Leisha’s station.

“Oh my God, Meena!” he cried with a huge smile. “And Jack Bauer the Second! I’m so glad to see you both!” He walked right over to her, lifted Jack Bauer from her lap, and began coddling him. Jack lapped his face excitedly. “Leisha told me the good news!”

Meena recognized him as Roberto, one of BAO’s stylists-in-training.

But she had no idea what he was talking about.

“Good news?” she echoed as she leaned back in her chair.

“About Insatiable,” Roberto said as he rubbed Jack Bauer’s ears. “Finally getting some vampires on it. I’m so excited! It’s about time. I just love that Gregory Bane. I’m glued to the screen every time he comes on. Him and that other guy, from those vampire movies based on those books? Oh my God, they’re so hot. I want them to make a vampire sandwich out of me.”

Meena threw an aggrieved look at Leisha.

“Oh,” she said. “Right.”

“Oh, and I took your advice, remember, last time you were in here? I told Felipe no way was I going to Morocco for our anniversary, like he wanted.” Roberto went on, giving Jack more ear rubs. “Like you told me to. I said we should go to the Bahamas instead. So we did. And the weirdest thing happened: The hotel Felipe made a reservation at, the one in Morocco? The same week we were supposed to be there, some suicide bomber blew it up! Can you believe that? It was like you knew or something! Felipe can’t get over how lucky we were not to have been there. We could have been sitting there in the lobby having our breakfast and freaking died!”

Meena gave Roberto a watery smile. All she could think of, of course, were the people who had been there having their breakfast and who had freaking died…the ones she hadn’t saved. Just like Angie Harwood.

“I’m glad you had a nice time in the Bahamas,” Meena said as Leisha mugged at her owlishly behind Roberto’s back.

“Oh, are you kidding me?” Roberto beamed. “It was the best. Listen, so who’s going to hook up with the vampire on Insatiable? Is it going to be Victoria Worthington Stone or Tabby? Because I really think you guys should let Tabby get some. She’s like the oldest teen virgin on television-”

“Roberto,” Leisha said, interrupting him. Her patience for her fellow employees had never been high, but since her pregnancy it had been ebbing lower and lower. “I’m thirsty. Why don’t you run on back and get Meena and me a couple of seltzers? And a bowl of water for Jack Bauer.”

“Oh, no problem, sweetie,” Roberto said. With obvious reluctance, he put Jack Bauer back down on Meena’s lap. “You want some fruit or something?”

“Mango?” Leisha smiled. When Leisha smiled, no one could deny her anything. It had been that way since she and Meena were kids. “Cut it into the little squares; you know, how you did last time. That was so good.”

“No problem,” Roberto said. He scurried off to fulfill Leisha’s wish.

Leisha turned her dark, thick-lashed gaze on Meena.

“Okay,” she said. “He’s gone. Sorry about that. Thanks for saving his ass with the Morocco thing, by the way. I actually would have missed him if he’d have been blown to smithereens with all those other people. And not just because he brings me freshly sliced mango. Anyway, back to Lucien. So…irresistibly drawn to the stunningly good-looking foreign guy with the deep dark secret. Not that you would know anything about having a deep dark secret. What exactly did he do to you to get you into bed with him in the first place? You’re so repressed you wouldn’t even shower in the locker room with the rest of us after gym class, remember? That’s why Angie Harwood used to call you Steenka Meena.”

Meena blushed again.

“Well, for one thing, he took me on a private after-hours tour of the Met,” she said. “That’s where I first saw him looking so sad…and I don’t know…it just…it felt right. I really like this guy, Leish.”

Leisha stared at her. “Uh-oh,” she said. “I do not like that look in your eye, Meena. You don’t just like this guy. You love him. Even worse…you want to save him. Admit it!”

“So what if I do?” Meena looked down at the top of Jack Bauer’s head and sighed. “It doesn’t matter. He’s going back to Romania.”

“When?” Leisha asked.

“I don’t know,” Meena said with a shrug. “I didn’t ask. I didn’t want to be that girl, you know?”

“You mean you didn’t want to be yourself?” Leisha asked.

“Shut up.” Then Meena brightened. “He asked me to the symphony tonight.”

Leisha made a face. “Oh, ugh! Does he even know the real you at all?”

“I love the symphony,” Meena said in protest. “I happen to be extremely cultured. I played the clarinet in sixth grade.”

“Um, badly, if I remember,” Leisha said. “You were like twentieth chair. Out of twenty-one.”

“Says the person who sat in the twenty-first chair,” Meena retorted wryly.

“So he doesn’t know about this”-Leisha tapped her head-“either?”

Meena made a face. “Why would I tell him about that? I’m not going to mess this up like I’ve messed up every other relationship with a guy I’ve ever had.”

Leisha frowned. “Meena. Seriously. If you want this to go anywhere, you’ve got to be honest with him. You can’t play games. Your ability is a huge part of who you are-”

“But not the only part,” Meena cried.

“You mean like the part where you don’t ever want to have kids?” Leisha asked pointedly.

Meena’s eyes widened. She was speechless.

“I’m not trying to be hurtful,” Leisha insisted. She wasn’t teasing anymore. “I think you’re amazing. Why else would I have picked you to be my best friend, instead of Lori Delorenzo? She had way better hair than you did. I think you’re generous-so much so that it gets you in trouble sometimes. You care about total strangers-again, to the point that you go out of your way to help them, which I think is a little above and beyond. And you’re funny and smart and pretty and sweet. But the truth is, Meena, if this guy sticks around, he’s going to find out who you really are. Like he’s going to find out you don’t really like the symphony. Maybe you should just be straight up with him from the beginning and see what happens. You might be surprised.”

“Like with David?” Meena gave a sarcastic laugh. “I don’t think so. Maybe I’ll just ease him into getting to know the real Meena Harper a little bit at a time.”

“Yeah, well, it sounds like he got to know at least a pretty good part of Meena Harper last night,” Leisha said with a sarcastic laugh of her own. Then she sobered. “Seriously, though, Meena. I know I bitch about Adam, but the reason we’ve lasted this long is because he’s the first guy I’ve ever been with who I’ve been able to just be myself around, no holds barred. If you can’t be who you really are with this guy, you might as well just keep being alone.”

Meena looked at her friend thoughtfully. Leisha had a point…a good one.

The scary part was that she didn’t know how much Meena was holding back from her… Meena was just going to have to tell her.

And judging from the size of her belly and the level of alarm bells that went off in Meena’s head every time Leisha mentioned the baby, it was going to have to be soon.

“Hey,” Leisha said, glancing at her watch. “Shouldn’t you be at work or something?”

“Yeah,” Meena said slowly. “That’s kind of what I wanted to talk to you about… Can I leave Jack here until after work, then come pick him up? You know how everyone loves him-”

Roberto, coming back with a bowl of water for Meena’s dog and a plate of perfectly cubed mango for Leisha, overheard this last part and gasped. “Yes, please!” he cried. “We’ll babysit the puppy!”

Meena, suppressing an urge to laugh, glanced at Leisha. “It’s just, I don’t want to go all the way back uptown to my apartment to drop him off, then have to come all the way back downtown to go to work-”

“We love the puppy!” Roberto cried. “We’ll give him a puppy pedicure!”

“You,” Leisha said, glaring at Meena as she popped a mango cube into her mouth, “owe me one.”

“I really do.” Meena agreed.

“You’re going to watch my kid for me when he’s born,” Leisha said. “For free.”

“Believe me,” Meena said under her breath as she surrendered a wiggling Jack Bauer to Roberto’s waiting arms. “I already am.”