“Oh that.” Cooper gave a wistful look. “I pitched it to Harvey two years ago. Every now and then we meet a resourceful, bright young client who has so much wasted potential, and you just know, if only someone gave them a break, they’d soar. I suggested to Harvey that if we found someone like that who was interested and who loved animals, we could pay for the costs of their tuition, offer them the practical support of a vet-tech apprenticeship at Living Ruff, and help get them on their way. I’m not talking a big scheme. Just one candidate every few years as we find them. We could really change lives. Harvey loved it, but we didn’t have the funds to try it.”
“So now that you do, it’s happening?” Felicity asked.
Cooper shook her head. “Why would you think that?”
“Rosalind seems to think that’s what Harvey’s doing with that big donation from last year.”
Cooper’s eyebrows shot up. “He never said.”
“Why wouldn’t he?”
“I guess, knowing him, he’s probably still working out the pros and cons. Slow and steady. He can be a bit of a turtle.” She smiled. “This is great news, if it’s true.” She paused. “But he still should have told me if he was going ahead with it.”
“Maybe he’ll get around to it soon.” Felicity reached for the menu again. “I’m starving. That Caesar salad really does look good.” It didn’t, but what else was she going to eat that wouldn’t go straight to her hips?
“The salad? We’re eating in New York’s best-kept secret. You have to try the specials menu. What about the meatball parmigiana?” Cooper’s eyes took on a dreamy expression.
“Little fatty cheesy balls? Pass.” She pursed her lips.
“Felicity, we’re celebrating! Why not spoil yourself tonight?”
“And blow out like an elephant?” She waved in Cooper’s general direction. “I think not.”
“You mean like me? I’m an elephant?” Cooper’s mouth went wide and round.
Felicity was flooded with horror. “God no!” How could magnificent Cooper, with those mighty limbs and, mercy, those shoulders, ever think Felicity was fat-shaming her? Didn’t she understand how much Felicity deeply appreciated her body? “My comment was actually about me. I come from…sturdy stock,” she confessed, plopping the menu down with a huff. “My mother and sister. Round as bowling balls.” She made the shape with her hands. “And to be taken seriously, to succeed in work or life, the rule is: be sexually attractive to men. I don’t have to like it, but that’s the truth. All right?”
Cooper regarded her in astonishment. “You eat for…society? For…status?”
Was that so ridiculous? Half the planet did. Appearances mattered. “I’m hardly unique on that score.”
“What of your father? You’ve only mentioned your mother and sister.”
“What about him?”
“I don’t mean to pry, but you had the weirdest look when you mentioned your family just now.”
“If you don’t want to pry, then don’t.” Felicity glared at her, then wished she hadn’t. “Sorry. I’m ruining our nice dinner. It’s an old, sort of touchy issue.”
“What is?”
“My father.”
“Okay, new topic, and I hope it’s not touchy. too. Where are you from?” Cooper asked gently.
Felicity hesitated. She really did want to fix the mess she was making of their dinner conversation. “The Midwest. Pinckney, Michigan, specifically.”
“I haven’t heard of Pinckney.”
“It’s just next to Hell. I mean that literally. Hell’s the name of our neighboring town. They trade on it. Bikers and tourists love it.”
“No way. Are you pulling my leg?”
“Why would I make up being one step away from Hell?”
“Good point.” Cooper laughed. “I don’t think the Michigan accent’s terrible, by the way. It’s sweet.” At Felicity’s blank look, Cooper added, “The day we met you said you used to have a terrible accent.”
“It’s only terrible in the sense it got in the way of my promotional aspirations and me being taken seriously. So my voice teacher, Mrs. Allsop, wrenched the hick right out of me.”
“Hick? You?” Cooper paused, eying her with confusion. “You thought you were a hick?”
A waiter appeared, placed their drinks in front of them, and asked what they wanted to eat. Felicity stuck with the Caesar salad, and Cooper opted for garlic bread and a Sicilian pizza that sounded both unholy and unhealthy. Felicity tried to hide her horror, which only made Cooper laugh.
“If you hang around me, Felicity, you’re going to have to get used to seeing a lot of food groups.”
“Yes, well,” Felicity said dryly, “I expect that’s true.” She couldn’t contain the little buzz she got from the suggestion there might be more hanging around.
“Hey,” Cooper said, “you didn’t answer the question. Were you a hick? Do you originally come from a family of hicks?”
“Okay, I might be exaggerating,” Felicity said, reaching for her wine. “But we weren’t polished. My mother and sister are proud of their roots. My father, however, complained often of our unimpressive status and took off for New York with a less embarrassing woman. His secretary. Tiffany was not round or of sturdy stock, nor did she speak like us. Her accent was sophisticated; so was her fashion. She was so sleek and waiflike, she always looked as if a stiff breeze could blow her away.”
“She sounds like you,” Cooper said quietly. “You’re a bit of a flight risk in a stiff breeze, too.”
“Now, maybe. If I’d stayed, I’d have ended up just like them.” Felicity rolled her eyes. “I can just see it: big, sprawling old property with chickens and dogs and cats. Career aspirations that extend only as far as Ann Arbor and not a mile more. You know, my mom spends her days teaching snot-nosed children and schmoozing at fundraisers, despite once having a career in biophysics. And my sister?” Felicity lowered her voice and darted her eyes around the room. “Works at a herbology place. Her whole life is three things: that store, her hippie husband, and their perfectly plump, excitable children exactly like her.” She shuddered. “I’d have sooner died.”
“Are they unhappy?” Cooper’s brow puckered. “What’s wrong with that life?”
“What’s wrong with— Haven’t you been listening?”
“I have. I heard your father rejected your family—you—for what you were, so you became what you thought he liked. Thin, driven, without an accent or anything else holding you back. All that Pinckney baggage gone. I’m curious: did that baggage include having pets?” Cooper asked, looking thoughtful. “Were they something too uncool or needy to be in your life? Something not befitting the new high-flying corporate you?”
Silence fell. Felicity’s nerves started to fizz, and she felt as if she’d just been slapped. She stared at Cooper in dismay as her anger rose, strong and sharp. “You have a lot of nerve.”
“I—”
“You think you can just strip me down to the bones like that?” Felicity glared at Cooper, fueled by white-hot rage. “You think that’s what I deserve? I told you things I rarely share with anyone, and you sit back and pick me apart, like it’s some curious little game? You have no right!”
“No, Felicity, I—”
“You know nothing!” Felicity slapped the table so hard that the cutlery bounced and heads swiveled to stare. Fuck them. Hurt warred with rage. She’d never thought Cooper would be one to mock her choices or assume the worst of her.
“Felicity?” Cooper’s tone was pleading, and regret clouded her eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound like I was judging you. Please calm down.”
“I’m perfectly calm,” Felicity snapped. “You know, this is not the first time I’ve been treated as though I’m some zoo oddity to be picked apart. People often assume the worst about me because I don’t conform to how they think I should be. I’m not warm enough. I don’t smile enough. I don’t hold my tongue or lie or coddle to protect fragile egos. Apparently, I have ‘all the maternal instincts of an alpine glacier.’ Direct quote from my previous boss.”
Cooper winced.
After a sigh, Felicity barreled on. “Look, I know I don’t fit easily with people. I rub everyone the wrong way—and sometimes that’s a choice. Either way, I’ve learned not to care what most people think of me. However, with you…” God. I care. “Well, for some mystifying reason, I lowered my guard. Congratulations on landing a few direct shots to the ribs. That doesn’t happen very often, I can assure you.”
