“What do you write?” James asks.
“Novels and screenplays,” London answers for me, then immediately apologizes. “Sorry about that. I’m just so excited to meet you. I can’t believe it took me so long to put it together.” Kayla still looks a little lost, so London clarifies, “She wrote the movieHeartbreaker.” Kayla’s expression shows surprised recognition as London turns back to me. “Right?”
“I did, yes.”
“God, I love that movie. I loved the book more,” she says, lowering her voice.
“She also had a book series turned into a TV series on Hulu,” Chloe says, and I smile and shake my head slightly. Chloe isalways tooting my horn for me.
“Wow,” Brandon says. “So you’re, like, famous.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” I say with a smile. I always falter a bit in these situations. It’s lovely to be recognized, to have my work praised. But it’s also always just the tiniest bit uncomfortable. Chloe used to tell everybody we met who I was, and it drove me nuts until I realized she was just a kid and she was simply proud of me, and she wasn’t sure where the boundaries of oversharing were. I finally had to have a conversation with her about how it was okay for her to talk about my work, but only if it was brought up by somebody else.
“I mean, she’s kinda famous,” Chloe says, her grin painted with pride.
“Well,Heartbreakeris in my top five all-time favorite movies.” London solidifies that with a determined nod. “Definitely.”
I start to thank her, but Kayla is squinting at me like she’s trying to look into my brain. “Was Aria Keller in that movie?”
“She was. She played the teenage daughter.”
Kayla points at me. “She’s a big client of mine.”
“Really?” Marina asks, jumping into the conversation. “What do you do?”
“I’m in security. I have several celebrities as clients, and Aria is a regular.”
London runs a hand down Kayla’s arm, clearly proud of her wife.
“What a small world,” Serena says. “Right? What are the chances you’d have some kind ofSix Degrees of Separationconnection?”
“I guess it just means we were all meant to meet,” Marina says simply, and murmurs of agreement zip around the room.
“So,” Serena says then and holds up the box top from the game. “What do you say? Are we ready?”
Let me state here that I had no idea my niece was so good at Taboo. Like, how have I known her for her entire life and never realized this? She’s a ringer.
So, the game Taboo has teams. We start out broken into four of them, but after over an hour, both Brandon and I decide we need a break. So now the teams are Kayla and James, London and Serena, and Marina and Chloe. The idea is you get a card with a word on it, saybook, for example. And then there’s a list of words that are taboo—meaning words you cannot use as clues. You need to get your teammate to guess the wordbookwithout using words likeread, pages, cover, story, New York Times bestseller, things like that. Kayla and James are comically bad. London and Serena are quite good—though not nearly as good as London and Kayla when they were on the same team. We had to break that up pretty damn quick. Marina and Chloe, however, are absolutely kicking ass.
Everybody is doubled over with laughter at the moment, me included.
“The fact that you goteggplantwith onlyphoneandpenisas your clues is alarming to me,” I say to my niece through my laughter. “What would your father say?”
“If you tell him,” Chloe warns me, also through laughter as she points a finger at me, “I will never speak to you again.” She’s sitting on one of the sofas next to Serena, and Reggie is curled up between the two of them, fast asleep. Not for the first time, I marvel at his ability to tune out a very boisterous room in order to nap. Chloe sees me looking his way and puts a hand on his furry head. “He’s good,” she mouths, as if understanding that I was checking on him. She’s such a sweet kid, full of empathy. That’s something I find seems to be lacking in a lot of youth these days, and it thrills me that my niece cares about others in her world.
I shift my gaze and catch Marina looking at me. She grins,and with her flushed cheeks and bright eyes, it’s clear she’s having a blast. Much wine has been consumed, lots of good nibbles have been had, and the night is winding down, I think, which James and Brandon confirm when they stand and one of them gives the usual “Welp” signal that’s pretty universal for “Time to go.” It’s funny how it only takes one person to start the flow of everybody leaving.
A glance at my watch tells me it’s going on ten. I could stay longer—I’m surprisingly not tired—but I know Chloe must be. Her body clock isn’t as regulated as mine. I give her the raised eyebrow look ofReady?She gives me a half shrug, like she’s not sure, and pushes to her feet. Reggie is not happy about it, and he makes a grumbling sound that makes both Chloe and Serena laugh.
“We’ve disturbed the little prince,” Serena says, giving Reggie a pet and a kiss on his head.
One by one, we hug Serena and thank her for a lovely evening. When it’s Chloe’s turn, Serena keeps an arm around her as she looks at me and says, “I like this girl. You can bring her around any time.” Chloe blushes adorably.
The handshakes the evening started with have turned into goodbye hugs, all of us feeling like old friends now. Kayla sidles up to me and asks, “Where’s your phone?”
I pull it out, and she and I exchange numbers.
“Next time you’re in New York,” London says, “give me a shout. We’ll do dinner or have you over or something.” She glances toward Kayla, who nods with enthusiasm.
