Emily: "I feel really out of place."
Mary: "Seriously? I thought you came here all the time with Stone."
Emily: "I did. I felt out of place then, too, but now I feel really out of place."
Mary: "Don't worry about it. Your money is as good as anyone else's in here."

Emily: "Maybe, but I have substantially less of it than they do."
Mary: "They don't know that for sure."
Emily: "Trust me, Mary. These people know when you're not 'one of them'."
Mary: "Their problem, not mine."

Mary idly flipped open the menu the waiter had placed in front of her before he'd haughtily scurried off to some unknown place that was obviously far more important than the back table where she and Emily were left to wait for Laura. As her eyes settled on the price list, the color drained from her face.

Mary: "Holy Moses!"
Emily: "What?"
Mary: "The Tibetan silk worms have given up the garment business and have gone into restaurants. Apparently there's more profit. Looks like I'll be dining on the centerpiece."
Emily: "I forgot how pricey this place is. Hey, didn't Laura say she was buying?"

Mary: "In that case, I'll start looking for the most expensive item on the menu."
Emily: "Mary!"
Mary: "She owes me for that butt bow."
Emily: "Now that you mention it, I think I have a sudden craving for the second most expensive item."

Mary had hardly gotten started going through the steak selection when Laura seemed to appear out of nowhere with a young man at her side. He pulled her chair away from the table for her before taking his own seat. Mary felt a sharp jab in her ribs from Emily after she failed to not roll her eyes.

Laura: "Hi girls! Did you have any trouble finding the restaurant?"
Emily: "None at all, actually."
Mary: "Even if Em hadn't been here a dozen times already, the topographical survey map and GPS coordinates were pretty much dead on."
Laura: "Pretty much? Damn. I thought I'd gotten them exact. Good thing you're a regular here, Emily!"
Emily: "Well I wouldn't exactly say I was a regular."

Laura: "Anyway! Ladies, this is my fiancé, Brian Howell. Brian, these are my dear friends Mary and Emily!"
Brian: "It's lovely to finally make your acquaintance. Laura's told me all about your adventures together in college. It sounds like the three of you were quite the group."
Mary: "Apparently, yes."
Laura: "Mary was always ready for a party! We could always find her by the beer keg trying to drink the frat boys under the table! It was very rare that she was outdone."

Mary's gaze narrowed into the beginnings of a glare, but before she had time to respond Emily was talking.

Emily: "So Brian, what sort of work do you do?"
Brian: "I'm a plastic surgeon."
Emily: "Here in town?"
Brian: "I'm finishing up a rotation at the local medical complex, Whidbey General. Have you heard of it?"

Emily's expression visibly darkened.

Mary: "Yes, we're familiar with it."
Brian: "I've been working on reconstructive surgery there for the past year. It's an excellent facility, I'll be sad to leave."
Emily: "Why are you leaving?"
Laura: "Brian's been offered a position in L.A. at the end of the month! Isn't that fantastic?"
Mary: "Just peachy."

Brian: "What do you two do for a living?"
Emily: "I'm a very successful out of work photographer."
Mary: "And I'm an unemployed human Xerox machine, or an unemployed accountant. It depends on who you're asking and how high up I am on their 'Enemies' list."
Brian: "Ah. I see."

The conversation was interrupted by the same waiter who earlier couldn't have been bothered to give them the time of day. After ordering, Laura fixed her gaze on Mary.

Laura: "Did you bring the tulle sample from the fabric store?"
Mary: "Yeah."

Mary: "Oh. Did you want that now?"
Laura: "If you don't mind. I need to make sure it's what I ordered, after all."
Mary: "Right."

Mary dug around in her purse, pulling out a carefully folded square of netting that she passed across the table.

Laura: "This isn't right."
Mary: "What?"
Laura: "The color is all wrong!"
Mary: "It's off-white, just like you described to me over the phone."
Laura: "Mary, this is 'Parchment', I need 'Bone'!"

Emily: "Can't you just reorder a bolt of 'Bone'?"
Laura: "There's hardly time now!"
Mary: "Why don't you just use the 'Parchment'? I don't think anyone else on earth will be able to tell the difference."
Laura: "I'll know!"

Mary flinched as Laura took a deep breath. She was sure the woman was going to hurtle something at her, and only relaxed slightly when she didn't.

Laura: "I'll just have to call the fabric store first thing after lunch. I hope this disaster can be averted."
Mary: "Disas-"
Emily: "I'm sure they'll be able to help. I bet they have to deal with this sort of thing all the time."
Laura: "They wouldn't have to if they would do their job correctly in the first place. Right, honey?"

Laura's fiancé blinked heavily a few times as if coming out of a daze.

Brian: "Absolutely."
Laura: "I mean, can you imagine if you had to tell someone 'Oh, sorry about that little mistake with your nose. Let's schedule you another appointment to fix that right up! Don't worry, we deal with this sort of thing all the time.' It's just unprofessional."
Brian: "Yes, dear."

Laura: "Emily, I hope you had better luck with the photographer!"
Emily: "He said he'd do his best to get all the shots you requested."
Laura: "He'd better, that's all I have to say about that. Also, I'm going to leave you in charge with giving him his check at the end of the night. I'm sure I'll be far too busy to keep track of him."
Emily: "Me?"
Laura: "I'm sure I can trust you!"

Before Emily had a chance to protest, their waiter returned with lunch.

Mary marveled at the way Laura was able to simultaneously talk nonstop about the wedding plans and still manage to finish off her sliver of steamed chicken and broccoli. Any of her earlier hints of guilt for ordering the $45 steak were quickly and efficiently wiped away after being put in charge of making 'extra sure' that the 'unity candle' was made specifically from the wax of certain genus of Mexican bee. She was fairly sure the demon woman in front of her had invented unity candles on the spot, and utterly convinced that the bees were added in just to make her go completely insane.

Finally the meal was mercifully over.

Mary: "This is insane."
Emily: "The wedding, her, or us?"
Mary: "Yes."
Emily: "Agreed."

Mary: "Did you notice how Brian would go all spacey whenever the wedding was brought up?"
Emily: "I had, actually. I was just about to mention it. I wonder if she's cast some sort of spell on him or something."
Mary: "Something that keeps him from knowing what she's up to I bet."
Emily: "That's really creepy. You don't think she's done anything like that to us do you?"

Mary: "I don't think so. We seem safely paranoid."
Emily: "Of course if she did work some mojo on us we'd never know it."
Mary: "Thanks for making me feel better."
Emily: "Any time."

Mary: "Hey did you need to go anywhere else this afternoon? I think I want to head to the library to do some more research on demony type things."
Emily: "Nope, I was just planning on finishing up painting my room."
Mary: "Excellent. I'll drop you off at home on the way."