“Oh, no,” Carley muttered under her breath as she sent a fresh shower of popcorn over the edge. She jerked back instantly.

“What?” Noelle asked.

“I think we’re in trouble. He just turned around and looked up here and I don’t think he’s pleased.”

Fine, the management could throw her out of the theater if he complained. Noelle didn’t care.

“I want to know about you and him,” Carley said. “I wasn’t even born when his mom and our mom had their big fight.”

Noelle was reluctant to describe all this old history, but she supposed her sister had a right to know.“Well, Mom had just started selling real estate and was making new friends. She claims Mary was jealous of those friends, especially one whose name was Cheryl. Cheryl had been working at the agency for a while and was kind of showing Mom the ropes. She was holding an open house and wanted something elegant to set off the dining room. Mom knew that Mary had this exquisite silver tea service—the perfect thing. But Mom also knew that if she asked Mary to lend it to Cheryl, Mrs. Sutton would turn her down. Instead, Mom asked to borrow it for herself, which was a fib.”

Carley frowned. “So that’s why Mrs. Sutton blamed Mom? Because Mom lied—I mean fibbed—and then the expensive silver tea service got stolen? Oh, I bet Mom was just sick about it.”

“She felt awful. According to Mrs. Sutton, the tea service had belonged to her grandmother and was a family heirloom. It was irreplaceable.”

“What did Mom do?”

“She called the police and offered a reward for its return, but the tea service didn’t turn up. She went to every antique store in the area, looking for something similar. Finally there was nothing more she could do. She tried to repair the damage to the friendship, but Mrs. Sutton was angry—and really, you can’t blame her. She was hurt because Mom had misled her. They got into this big argument about it and everything escalated from there. Mrs. Sutton did some petty things and Mom retaliated. Next thing you know, a grudge developed that’s gone on to this day.”

“Retaliated?” Carley asked. “How?”

“When it became clear that Mrs. Sutton wasn’t going to forgive and forget, Mom tried another tactic. She thought she’d be funny.” Noelle smiled at the memory. “Mrs. Sutton got her hair cut, and Mom sent her flowers and a sympathy card. Then Mrs. Sutton ordered pizza with double anchovies and had it delivered to Mom. You know how Mom hates anchovies—and furthermore she had to pay for it.” She shook her head. “It’s sad, isn’t it? That a good friendship should fall apart for such a silly reason.”

“Yeah,” Carley agreed. ‘‘They acted pretty childish.”

“And my relationship with Thom was one of the casualties.”