“Naomi!” he shouted again, agitated and excited and still clutching Mary’s shoulders with one arm. He obviously didn’t want to let her go. “I didn’t know she was going to do that, Mary. The blind date thing. I didn’t think she was going to spring that on you. And then when she told me what you’d said, that you weren’t going to come around here anymore, well, I didn’t blame you. I’ve spent the last month trying to figure out if I should go to Brooklyn, but I didn’t want to invade your space. But I’ve been so scared that everything was ruined. I didn’t know when I’d see you next.”

The man’s eyes filled with tears as he hugged his daughter again. John might have felt out of place or uncomfortable at witnessing this show of obvious vulnerability, but he truly didn’t even think his presence had registered for Mary’s father.

“Mary!” And then there she was, the infamous Naomi Trace. She was beautiful, of course, even more beautiful than John had pictured her. She had short, stylishly cut and dyed blond hair, and a surprisingly colorful silk robe that she clutched around her neck and covered her down to her toes. He’d never seen so much silk in one place before outside of old Hollywood films. “What are you doing here? At this hour?”

Naomi’s eyes flicked to John, and she patted self-consciously at her hair.

“You told Dad that I wasn’t going to come around anymore? That’s it? That’s all you told him?”

Naomi’s eyes bounced away from John, over to Mary, and then back to John. “I—”

“Was there more?” Mary’s dad asked, one hand still on Mary’s shoulder.

“Yes, there was more!” Mary threw her hands up in the air. “I said I wasn’t coming back here unless she apologized to me. But I made sure to tell her that I would always answer a phone call from you two. That I would never turn you away. I wasn’t cutting you out! Either of you!”

Mary’s father turned to his wife, his face as white as chalk. Without another word, he turned and walked out of the foyer.

Naomi took half a step after him, stopped, patted her hair again and turned back to Mary. “You might have called.”

“Well, I’m glad I didn’t, so you didn’t have time to reframe your story for Dad!”

“Mary!” Naomi admonished with a surprising amount of self-righteousness, considering she’d just gotten caught in a rather egregious lie by omission. “Can we not do this in front of a guest?”