I also can't wait for the chapter 'Peekaboo,' as it's a big turning point for my leads in "Damsel in the Red Dress."
I should stop sharing spoilers:
The restaurant is more crowded than I expected for a weeknight, bubbling with bodies like a pot of mortal soup at a rolling boil. Small groups of teens and twenty-somethings hem us in on both sides, like Kattar and I are the extraneous tide in a little pool surrounded by flesh and bones as numerous as the grains of sand. Everything is sound, ricocheting into my skin like a thousand pint-sized kamikazes exploding in minute amounts of tranquil panic.
Someone. Joking and debating - too little too late - why they should have gone out for Chinese or Mexican instead. Someone laughing at a companionās failed dye job that made them look like a ginger-haired skunk. Complaining about totally aggravating partners and how totally āstarvingā they are though theyāre less than twenty minutes away from dinner at this point.
At least three sets of parents with pre and grade-schoolers are ordering an early dinner while trying to convince their irascible offspring, rancorously crying for McDonaldās, to try something new. One set actually brought a Happy Meal with them for their toddler, and thatās as ridiculous as it is very probably illegal, though nobody but me really seems to mind.
Kattar is fidgeting uncomfortably, unnecessarily intent on his menu, but Iām sure it has nothing to do with the cantankerous kids, who at this point, are throwing themselves on the floor.
Iām also sure heāll never tell me why, even if I ask, so I try my best to ignore it like I ignore the tantrum.
