“I hope I didn’t make her nervous, by reacting to what she said the way I did earlier?” I heard Katy ask as I walked away from them, looking at Harley with regretful eyes, who returned my glance with a look that spoke volumes.

It was Helena, who was explaining that she and Shane had decided to drop Harley’s car off, because they both had things to do in Santa Monica this morning.

“Um… uh …sure, that sounds like a good idea,” I said distractedly, as I whipped around and looked at Harley, who was still observing me with a puzzlement. It’s Helena, I mouthed. She’s dropping your car off.

Harley nodded to indicate she understood what I told her.

“What’s up, Aerin?” Helena asked with clear concern.

I blew a breath out. “Nothing, nothing,” I said lamely. “I’ll just see you both in a bit.” I turned around again, to face away from them. “Yeah, we’re both here in Harley’s place…long story, Helena…tell you about it one day…”

After I ended the call and headed back to where they’d moved to, I caught the tail-end of Harley’s explanation. “…got caught in traffic out in West Hollywood yesterday afternoon, so I caught a ride downtown with Aerin. I guess Aerin’s friends are driving over this morning, avoiding the traffic …”

I jumped in, “Yeah… Shane has brunch with a bunch of people in Santa Monica, and Helena is meeting up with her mom, out near the beach area, who’s apparently trying a yoga class out. They thought that Harley would need her car today, so they decided to take Harley’s car over. They figured Shane could easily catch a ride back to WeHo with a friend of hers after the brunch.”

The conversation shifted to traffic jams that had plagued the city all day yesterday, for no apparent reason. Except that it was LA, and that Californians like to blame things on random causes.

As we chatted, Annie checked her watch surreptitiously, so I said, “But we don’t have to wait for them, Annie. I know you all planned to leave early this morning …”

Katy shushed me by touching me lightly on the forearm, “Oh, don’t worry, Aerin. We have loads of time. Something about the crew checking to make sure boating conditions were right, and then Phillip saying we might as well wait for Thad’s parents to drive over from Santa Barbara, where they’d spent the night at the Four Seasons. This way Thad’s parents could join us.”