Room Service by Fiona Riley

Author:Fiona Riley [Riley, Fiona]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781635551211
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2018-05-31T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

It was significantly cooler outside the suffocating design space, but the Arizona heat was still making its presence known. Most of the local area businesses were without electricity, but Savannah found a deli not far from the design site that was running on an emergency generator. They ordered salads and large iced teas, and being the sole patrons, they got the prime seating in the shade behind the restaurant under some solar-powered fans with blades in the shape of large banana leaves. The building was painted in bright turquoise and orange, and looked almost Caribbean in the hot Phoenix sun.

Savannah moved the mandarin slice around her salad and dipped it in dressing before she slipped it between her lips. She caught Olivia watching her intently as she chewed and smiled through the motion. “So, tell me about your family. You have a sister?”

Olivia nodded and leaned back. “I have an older sister, Christine. She lives out in Pennsylvania, a few miles from my mother.”

Savannah took another small bite of her lunch. “Is that where you’re from? Pennsylvania?”

“Yeah, I grew up a little outside of Philadelphia, in a small town.”

“Have you been in New York long?” Savannah watched as Olivia shooed away a fly from her salad. She moved a tomato around the plate like it was a toy before she finally forked the food and ate it.

“I went to school there and stayed there afterward. I’ve been a New Yorker for about ten years, I guess.” She shrugged. “I like it. I feel like it suits me.”

Savannah could envision Olivia cruising the busy sidewalks, seamlessly melting into the crowds, and hailing cabs like a pro.

“What about you?” Olivia tilted her head as she waited for Savannah’s answer.

“I grew up in Southern California and I went to school out there before I finally ended up in Chicago.” She didn’t elaborate. The rest of the story wasn’t very good.

Olivia frowned. “Any siblings? Do your parents live in California still?”

Savannah watched Olivia’s frown deepen as she paused. Rarely did anyone inquire about her past life, so she rarely addressed it. “My mother left just after I was born and my father remarried a lot. I’m an only child, but I have four half siblings from three different women. We’re not close. I haven’t exchanged more than an email with any of them in months.” Savannah shrugged. It was all she had known. If not for Cooper, she’d consider herself an orphan. “I am close to my youngest little brother, Cooper. He lives in Chicago. We see each other often.”

“And your father? Do you talk to him?”

Olivia’s questions were innocent. Savannah didn’t love talking about her father, but she didn’t want to keep anything from Olivia either. She felt her smile falter as she considered this question. “We don’t talk. I’ve always been sort of…baggage in his quest to find a pretty, wealthy woman to live off of. Our relationship was always a little tense. When I was old enough to strike out on my own, I did.

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