30
Emma
When I return to the table, Marcus is talking about his fund’s latest strategies and everyone is attentively listening, so I quietly slip into my seat next to him and spread my napkin over my lap. The encounter with Janie distracted me from my Emmeline-induced angst, but now that I’m back here, I’m thinking about it again—which is why it takes me a minute to notice that I’m the recipient of all sorts of covert glances.
Even as the men are listening to Marcus talk about the fund’s returns, they’re eyeing me with expressions ranging from confusion (Ashton) to amusement (the Gyles brothers) to cynicism (Weston Long) to a peculiar mixture of the above (the rest).
Did something happen, or did I commit some faux pas by going to the bathroom when I did?
“Excuse me, gentlemen—and lady
