“Sweetheart Seer residence. How may I direct your call?”
“Evie, it’s me.”
“Mabesie! How do you like my secretary voice? Do you think it gives me an air of mystery?”
“I knew it was you.”
“Oh. How disappointing. But you sound out of breath! Are you running from wolves? Do tell.”
“You won’t believe it. I don’t believe it!”
“What is it?”
“I… I’m still pinching myself.”
“Mabel Rose! If you don’t stop torturing me and tell me this instant, I’ll… I’ll… well, I’ll do whatever clever threat I can’t think of just now.”
“Are you sitting down?”
“Pos-i-tute-ly prone and ready to hear this story already!”
“Jericho kissed me.”
There was such a profound silence on the other end that Mabel was afraid she’d lost the connection. “Hello? Evie? Operator?”
“I’m here,” Evie said quietly. “Jeepers. That’s swell news, honey. How… how did it happen?”
“It was after our date this evening and—”
“Wait a minute—you had a date? Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Well, Evie, you’re awfully hard to catch these days,” Mabel said, hoping Evie caught her drift: You’ve been too busy for even your best pal.
“Tell me about the kiss. Did he kiss you a lot?”
“No. Just the once. What happened was—”
“Did he say anything to you first?”
“Not… well, he—”
“What was his expression? Could you read anything in his face?”
“Evie! Will you please let me tell the story?” Mabel pleaded into the receiver.
“Sorry, Mabesie.”
Mabel continued. “We went to the Kiev Tearoom—”
“Ugh. They have such sad little blintzes. If blintzes could frown, those would.”
“And in the beginning,” Mabel said, without stopping for Evie, “it wasn’t going terribly well, to be frank. But then, then he asked me to dance, and, oh, Evie. It was so romantic. Well, to be perfectly honest, it was terrible until we got the gist of it. Why, oh, why didn’t I let you teach me how to dance?”
ho winced. “It’s pretty dreadful, isn’t it?”
Mabel wrinkled her nose in agreement. “But the blintzes are good.”
Jericho escorted Mabel to the dance floor, where they stood facing each other, awkward and uncertain. The orchestra struck up a tune whose notes were laced with old-country drama—blood feuds and doomed romance, survival and reinvention.