“I feel so stupid. I’ll be all right. I’ll just put some ice on it, right, Julia?”
“I’ll get some right now,” Liam said, and rushed off to find a waiter.
In the meantime, Clifford put his cold vodka and soda glass against my ankle.
“I’m lucky I didn’t pull or strain something out there, too,” Julia said, reaching for my hand. “The last time I danced that way was . . .”
“The first time we were here.”
“No, we weren’t as wild as that. Were we?”
I nodded.
Clifford looked up at us, smiling stupidly. He still looked a bit wobbly, I thought.
“Get up, Clifford,” Julia said, seeing the stupid grin on his face. “Wait for the ice. That’s not going to do anything for her. It’s not cold enough by now.”
He shrugged, then stood up and almost collapsed in his chair. “I think I overdid it a bit,” he muttered, closing his eyes and holding his hand over his heart.
Julia smiled at me as if we were conspirators who were succeeding. When more than ten minutes had passed, I sat up. Julia saw my concern and looked around the Underground.
“Where is he? How hard is it to get some ice?” Julia said.
She’s going to take him, I thought. God, no!
I stood up. “Find him!” I cried. Clifford opened his eyes.
“What?”
“Find Liam!” I shouted at him. “Now!”
“Easy, Lorelei,” Julia said. “What could happen to him? He’s probably just—”
“No, forget the ice. I want to go. Now,” I said firmly.
“Okay, okay. I’ll go this way, Clifford. You go that way,” she said, nodding.
My shouting and her orders sobered him quickly. He started in the direction Liam had gone. She looked back at me and then walked off, too, both of them disappearing into the thick cloud of revelers all around us.
“No worries. They’re just having a little talk,” I heard, and spun around. It sounded like Daddy standing right behind me, but there was no one there.
Moments later, I saw Liam rushing back to me. In his hands, he had ice wrapped in a cloth napkin. I felt the air trapped in my chest and throat escape and my body soften. Julia was heading back our way, too. She had seen him approaching the table.
“Sorry,” he said, kneeling down. “No one was listening to me. They’re a bit overwhelmed here, but some young woman heard me and was very persuasive. Otherwise, it might have taken another twenty minutes.” He pressed the cold pack against my ankle. He looked up when Julia arrived. “Is this right?”
“That’s good,” she told him. “Where is Clifford?”
I looked back in the direction he had gone. “Find him, Julia. I want to leave.”
“Right,” she said, and hurried off.
“Sorry it took a while,” Liam said. “But as I said . . .”
“Was it the same girl you saw on the dance floor?”
“What?”
“Both you and Clifford were hypnotized by that girl on the dance floor. Was it the same girl who helped you get the ice?”