The One That I Want by Marilyn Brant Page A

as you’ll recall, I gave to you and Elsie. Why? Because I don’t want to see him again. It would just be too weird.”
    Shar mumbled something that sounded like “hopeless case” and crossed her arms. I thought this meant I’d managed to get off the hook.
    I should have known better.
    “Listen up, girlfriend, you are my best friend. When you need my help, I’m there for you, right? And when I need your help—”
    “Seriously? You’re really gonna play the best friend card on this one? It’s that important to you?”
    Shar grinned in victory. She knew she had me. I knew it, too.
    “It is,” she said. “You know that expression, ‘to kill two birds with one stone,’ yes?”
    “Yeah?”
    “Well, this event is the equivalent of killing the whole flock with a really big teacake.”
    “That’s one dangerous dessert.”
    She laughed. “All I’m saying is that a lot of good things will happen if you’re there this afternoon. We’ll get to help Blake out. We’ll show community spirit to the organizers on all sides of the event. We’ll keep the balance of levelheadedness intact.” She raised a meaningful eyebrow.
    There were, we both knew, some community members who could be kind of inappropriate and tactless.
    “You and Dane will get some closure, and he’ll have a chance to apologize to you in person,” she continued. When I began to protest, she cut me off. “I know he won’t pick a fight with you, Julia. You’ll be able to part as friends. Plus, you’ll get to see inside the radio station, which is a cool place to visit, and we’ll all get to eat teacakes and pastries from The Gala, so we’ll be supporting Nia’s family business. There is literally no downside.” And she held up a warning finger to keep me from arguing back.
    When Shar put it that way, it was nearly impossible to disagree.
    “Besides all that,” she added, “we’ll have an excuse to go get manicures before the event. C’mon! I’ll help you with these groceries..”
    ~*~
    After I’d gotten the few food items I needed and dropped them off at home, Shar and I went to the salon for manicures and then changed quickly for the radio interview-slash-afternoon tea reception.
    Shar was right about the station being an interesting place to visit. I’d seen a few larger broadcasting buildings in Chicago, mostly for television news, and one other radio station in the city, years ago. But I’d never gone into Mirabelle Harbor’s own small station before.
    There was just one soundproof booth, filled with equipment that I had no idea how to operate. Blake, however, looked comfortable with the various buttons and levers, and we could see him through the clear glass from the hallway outside of the booth.
    He waved to his sister and to me when he spotted us, but he had his headphones on and looked pretty busy getting things organized. It reminded me of the small radio station that Minnie Driver’s character worked at in the film Grosse Pointe Blank —only without John Cusask and a bunch of hitmen running around.
    Thankfully, Dane Tyler didn’t seem to be inside the radio station yet. I figured we might miss running into him altogether, especially once I realized that the listening/reception area was in a different part of the building from Blake’s booth. We would only be able to hear them talk during the interview, not actually see them.
    The room that the bosses had approved for the various newspaper people to congregate in was swarming with live bodies, though. Nia’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. Pappayiannis, and her brother Dimitri were busily setting up all of the desserts at a long table—a veritable feast of Greek pastries, English teacakes, chocolate confections, and a range of hot and cold beverages. I spotted dueling trays of baklava and galaktoboureko from across the room and my mouth began to water.
    Nia waved to us when she saw us walk in.
    “Where’s Chance?” Shar demanded.
    His young girlfriend flashed a grin.