“Thank you,” Ari said, realizing to her horror she’d dug in without expressing her gratitude. “I was starving and didn’t have anything here to snack on.”
“I keep bars and nuts and stu in my top drawer,” Sloane replied, leaving Ari unsure if she meant they were there for the taking or if she was just bragging about her preparedness level.
After Ari crushed half the massive portion of food, Sloane spoke again without looking at her. “So, are you seeing someone tall, dark, and sexy that might carry you o into the sunset?”
Ari resisted the urge to laugh. “Not that I know of, but if you see a girl matching that description wandering around looking for me, let me know.”
Sloane’s lip twitched but didn’t break into a smile. “So, you’re not dating at all?”
“Are you?” Ari countered. “I don’t know where I’d find the time.”
Sloane took a sip of her water. “You make time for what you want.”
“You’re so wise.” Ari wiped her mouth with a napkin before saving the rest of her food for lunch. “Did my mom send you to tell me I sabotage all my relationships with my unrelenting drive and inability to balance interests?”
Quirking an eyebrow, Sloane balled up the white paper serving as her plate and tossed it into the garbage can. “So, this has been an ongoing problem with you?”
“Only if you ask my mother,” she replied with a laugh.
“She’s been afraid I’m going to die single and childless since I opted to go to prom with my friends.”
“That’s not so weird,” Sloane decided. “Plenty of people don’t go with dates. It’s not an indictment on your ability to mate and procreate.”
Ari winced. “I should’ve mentioned I had a girlfriend at the time.”
“And you didn’t pick her up in an ugly stretch limo and rent a hotel room for the both of you?” Sloane asked in exaggerated surprise.
“I felt bad for my date-less friends,” Ari replied in her defense.
“And you weren’t that into her,” Sloane guessed with a wry smile.
Ari hesitated for a moment. “And I wasn’t that into her.”
“You were super into that girl you were dating when we started law school,” Sloane said, unexpectedly recounting a fact Ari didn’t think she remembered. “What was her name?
Crystal? Amber?”
Ari chuckled. “Coral.”
“Coral! That was it. You were pretty serious about her, if I’m remembering your heartache correctly.”
“I guess,” she admitted begrudgingly. “But when she said it wasn’t going to work with her going to business school in California and me staying here, I agreed.”
Sloane raised both her eyebrows. “You didn’t fight it?”
Ari shook her head, wondering for the first time in a long time how Coral was doing. “She was right. We were just prolonging the inevitable. Trying to make it work would’ve
been a distraction for both of us and ended the way it did anyway.”
“Wow. Remind me never to accuse you of being sentimental,” she said with a laugh.
“Whatever,” Ari replied, crossing her arms over her chest in feigned o ense. “Judge me all you want. I knew what I wanted with my life and I did what I had to do to get it.”
Sloane studied her for a moment, her eyes exuding curiosity like a cat zeroing in on something flickering in the distance. “Or you could’ve done a little less, made time for a relationship, and still had all . . .” she gestured around the cramped little o ce, “of this.”
Ari narrowed her eyes. “Now I’m positive you’ve been talking to my mother.” The florescent light danced in Sloane’s eyes when she laughed. Ignoring the fluttering in her stomach, Ari took a turn at playing inquisitor. “What about you? Is someone going to whisk you o to an island getaway and leave me with this mess on my hands?”
Sloane tipped back in her chair. As she apparently debated whether to come clean, Ari held her breath. She told herself that she didn’t care about the answer.