Page 39 of The One You Want

“You could use mine for the questions,” Lilahoffered.

Shit. “Well. You guys are on the second quiz, right? I should probably take the first one, you know? Don’t, uh, wanna slow you down or anything. Not when, uh, you guys are on a roll, figuring out your secret gifts andstuff.”

“Hidden gifts,” Lilah corrected. “But you’re probably right. The first quiz is like, reallyimportant.”

The other girls nodded eagerly. “Soimportant.”

“So, uh.” I edged towards the door of the cafe, wanting nothing more than to exit this conversation. “I’ll just try to get that done lateron.”

“Don’t wait too long,” Tessa chirped. “You need to finish the quizzes before you do the main part of thehomework.”

My fake smile, meant to placate the crazies, faded. “I though the quizzeswerethehomework…”

“Oh, no,” Lilah said. “The quizzes are just a tool. The real homework is to choose your PrideProject.”

“Mywhat?”

They all stared at me, something like worry on their faces. “Sweetie, didn’t you do the first reading? We’re all supposed to come to the next meeting with a Pride Project pickedout.”

When I offered nothing more than a confused blink, Lilah’s eyebrows furrowed. “Pride? Like, the title of the book? We have to establish our own pride of women here on Lilac Bay. Just like the lionesses on thesavannah.”

Oh my God. What even was thisbook?

“Power, Reflection, Inner Drive, Excellence,” Tessa recited. “Pride.”

I opened my mouth to comment that it just sounded like a bunch of random buzzwords that had absolutely nothing to do with lionesses, but Lilah cut in. “The Pride Project is something we’ll spend the next six weeks workingon.”

Six weeks? We were going to be doing this crap for six wholeweeks?

“I think I’m going to try to finally get that environmental initiative I always talk about going,” Tessa said, lookingexcited.

“Tessa,” Lilah scolded. “You’re not supposed to choose until after you finish the quizzes.” She looked over at Jill. “Total marsupial over here. Getting ahead ofherself.”

Jesus. Apparently the book we were all going to spend the next six weeks reading made people insane. “Anyways,” I said quickly, “better get going. Have fun youguys.”

“Bye Jenny!” they chorused, and I shook my head as I entered the cafe which was, thankfully, blessedly quiet and nearlyempty.

“Hey,” a guy named Mike said from behind the counter. He pushed a pair of black hipster glasses up his nose. “Were those girls giving you a hardtime?”

“No,” I assured him. “We were just talking about some stuff from the Libbiesmeeting—”

“I know,” he said, exasperated. “They’ve freaking gone nuts. And it’s not just them. Earlier today Sherry Mercer was in here telling me that I was a classic pride infiltrator. I don’t even know what the heck thatmeans!”

I shook my head. “Sorry, Mike. I think they’re getting a little overly invested in this self-help book we’rereading.”

“That’s a polite way of putting it,” he muttered. “Those three have been out there yelling and waving that book around for hours.” He took a deep breath, pushing on his glasses again, as if gathering himself. “Anyhow. What can I get foryou?”

I glanced at the display case, biting my lip. The problem with the sandwiches at the Lilac Cafe is that it was nearly impossible to choose. Iris’s husband, David, the island’s best chef, created the menu himself, and everything on it was freaking delicious. “Um, what do you recommendtoday?”

“The dried tomato Gouda is reallygood.”

“Sign me up. And a raspberry iced tea,please.”

He winced. “I actually just ran out of the raspberry, but I can put on a fresh pot. I just need to run back to the storeroom—”

I held up a hand, not wanting him to go to the trouble. “It’s fine. A regularworks.”

“Decaf okay?” He makes an apologetic face. “Ran out of the regular about the sametime.”