An Illusion of Trust (Sequel to The Brevity of Roses) by Linda Cassidy Lewis Page A

"Your puffy little feet are adorable. But we should watch your salt intake."
    I kick him with my other puffy little foot. "I hate this dress. Why did I let Aza talk me into buying this shiny thing? I look like a ham wrapped in foil." Jalal tries, without success, to hide his amusement, which only makes me more irritable.
    "You look beautiful." He gets up and slips on his jacket. "I will have to stay close by your side all night to run interference."
    "Don't be ridiculous. None of yours and Judith's friends will even notice me."
    "How could they not, a foil-wrapped ham of your size?"
    A six-inch heel makes a hefty dent in the wall when your target ducks. Jalal's brows are raised nearly to his hairline when he looks from the wall to me. "I'm not going," I say. "I don't think Kristen is ready to handle Adam by herself."
    He lowers his brows and just
looks
at me in that maddening way of his.
    "I'm sorry, Jalal. I'm fat and I'm in a crappy mood. Just go with Aza."
    "Adam is asleep and will stay asleep until morning, as he has done almost every other night for months. But if—for some bizarre reason—he wakes up and is traumatized by our absence, we will be five minutes from home. Kristen has my number on speed dial and my phone will be in my pocket the whole evening. And you are not fat; you are pregnant."
    He said all that in a calm voice, but I've heard that voice before and I know it's just an inch from anger. He thinks I'm being unreasonable and overprotective again. But that's not why I don't want to go. "What will your friends think of me?"
    Jalal's face softens into a smile. He pulls me to my feet and looks into my eyes. "They will think you are beautiful and charming and I am a very lucky man."
    That's bull, but I smile back because he's trying to make me feel better. I'm a poor substitute for Meredith is what his friends will really think. I waddle toward my closet. "The least you can do is help me find shoes to go with this dress."
    "Indeed, you grumpy little ham."

    Even the low-heeled sandals I'm wearing prove too much for my back, and after twenty minutes of standing by Jalal's side as he catches up with old friends, I kick them off, which means I now feel like I'm standing elbow-height to everyone else. I don't say much more than
nice to meet you
, but no one seems to notice. This is the first time I've seen Jalal work a party. He's a natural. Everyone seems to like him. I'm not jealous. I'm in awe. I'll never learn how to be charming like that. I don't think I have the patience for it.
    When I tell that to Aza, as we're sitting on a couch in a quiet corner, she laughs and says, "So all those years you waited tables and chatted with your customers you were sincere?"
    "That's different."
    "No, not really. Oh, he's genuinely interested in
some
of these people. He's just being polite to the rest."
    "Well, that's something else I never learned—manners."
    "Yes, it's disgusting that you eat soup with your hands."
    We're laughing when Jalal walks over and extends his phone to me screen first. It's a text from Kristen—
all good
. "Can I get you something?" he asks as he pockets his phone.
    "You can hoist me up. I need to pee."
    When I come back into the room, a man is sitting next to Aza and she seems to be enjoying his attention, so I look for Jalal. He's in a group, of course. I scan the rest of the room. I'm the only one alone. I head for the bar hell-bent on a glass of wine, but when I get there guilt requests a Pellegrino. I take it to a comfy nest of a chair in the corner where I can watch the whole party play out in front of me. It's research.
    Judith joins me about ten minutes later. "I've been looking for you," she says. "Why are you hiding?"
    "I'm just resting."
    She perches on the arm of my chair and gestures with a sweep of her hand. "So, what do you think of the Coelho upper crust?"
    "They're just people."
    "Exactly. And if you keep that in mind, you'll stay sane."
    "That sounds like a lesson hard