The three of them approached the counter. Olivia already knew what she wanted, but Ivy buried her nose in the menu.
‘I’m pleased to hear your school is putting on Romeo and Juliet,’ Mr Vega said.
‘Me, too,’ Olivia said. She was planning to try out for the role of Juliet.
‘But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?’ Mr Vega said, putting one hand on his heart and the other pointing towards an imaginary balcony. ‘I played Romeo once or twice in my youth.’
‘Do you mean what neon horror assaults mine eyes?’ Ivy asked.
‘I would never be so rude.’ Mr Vega smiled.
The serving girl – it was the same one as on the last visit, Olivia recognised her cow-shaped earrings – looked baffled at their return. ‘Welcome to Mister Smoothie?’ It was more a question than the usual perky statement. ‘I’ll be your elixir mixer.’
‘I’d like a small Cookies and Cream,’ Ivy said.
‘And I’ll have a Mini-Mommy Pear Perk-Me-Up,’ Olivia said.
Mr Vega studied the menu intently.
‘How about a Twist and –’ Ivy began with a wicked grin on her face. It was the Twist and Shout that made everybody sing.
‘No!’ Mr Vega jumped in. He cleared his throat. ‘I … I would like this one.’ He pointed to a Spacey Sour Apple smoothie and the serving girl looked relieved.
‘Coming right up!’ She busied herself with the blender.
‘Ah, Shakespeare.’ Mr Vega looked wistful for a moment. Then he grabbed an orange straw from a cow-shaped dispenser. ‘En garde!’ he declared, pointing the small plastic ‘sword’ at Olivia. ‘You know, girls, I had to learn stage fighting for the role.’
Then he started to demonstrate by attacking Olivia.
‘Hey! You’re attacking a defenceless girl!’ Olivia shouted. She grabbed a yellow straw in one hand and a pink one in the other.
‘O happy dagger!’ she declared. It was one of Juliet’s lines from the very last scene of the play.
‘Touché!’ replied Mr Vega and they pretended to duel.
They even did a fun slow motion scene where Mr Vega pretended to get skewered.
‘Trips to Mister Smoothie are always eventful,’ Ivy said drily as the server handed over the three colourful smoothies.
Olivia poked her tongue out at her sister and followed her over to a four-seater booth by the window with a bunch of mini helium balloons that spelled out ‘reserved’. She was impressed with how spontaneous and relaxed her bio-dad was being.
‘I’m planning to audition for Juliet,’ she said to Mr Vega. She wasn’t going to admit it to her bio-dad, but she desperately wanted to play Juliet to Jackson’s Romeo.
It would be the most romantic thing, Olivia thought, to have our first kiss on stage in the most famous love story ever told. Olivia didn’t mind that they hadn’t kissed yet. She totally believed in waiting for the right time, and the play could be the perfect moment.
Mr Vega bowed. ‘I look forward to watching you from the front row.’
‘Uh … great!’ Olivia made a mental note that if she did win the part, she would have to bribe an usher to make sure neither of her dads was sitting in the front row. She definitely didn’t want them that close if she was going to be kissing Jackson. ‘Ivy is going to be the stage manager,’ she said to change the subject. ‘And my friend Camilla is the director. Although she did say she had some sort of twist planned.’
‘A twist in Romeo and Juliet?’ Mr Vega asked. ‘I’m not sure I like the sound of that.’
‘Did somebody say twist and shout?’ Ivy said innocently.
‘No!’ shouted Mr Vega and Olivia at the same time.
As Mr Vega sipped his smoothie, Ivy watched him carefully. Why has he brought us back to Mister Smoothie?
‘How’s your drink?’ she asked.
Mr Vega forced a smile. ‘Ah, it is terrific.’
Now I know something is up, Ivy thought. Dad never says terrific. Tragic, tortuous, traumatic … but never terrific.
She didn’t know how to pry it out of him. Maybe Olivia had a plan? She nudged her sister’s foot. Mr Vega was staring out of the window, so Olivia mouthed, ‘What?’
Ivy motioned with her eyes towards their dad. Olivia looked confused. Ivy jerked her head more forcefully but Olivia just shrugged, not understanding.
So much for twin intuition, Ivy thought.
‘Hey,’ Ivy started at the same time as Olivia said, ‘Well,’ and Mr Vega began, ‘Girls.’
‘You go,’ Olivia and Ivy said in unison to their dad.
Mr Vega sighed. ‘I have something to tell you.’
Here it comes, Ivy thought. At least I didn’t have to torture it out of him.
‘Do you remember when I went on that business trip to Dallas?’ he asked.
Olivia nodded, wanting to keep up the pretence, but Ivy blurted, ‘You didn’t go to Dallas.’
Mr Vega was just about to take a sip of his drink, but the cup slipped between his fingers and he fumbled to catch the smoothie before it spilled over the table. He carefully put the drink down and stared at Ivy. ‘How did you know?’
‘I saw your luggage tag,’ Ivy confessed. ‘It said LAX.’
He nodded. ‘Indeed, I went to Los Angeles.’
Olivia looked relieved that their bio-dad was finally coming clean.
‘What possible reason could you have to go to one of the sunniest places on earth?’ Ivy asked. None of it made sense. Mr Vega’s secret trip to LA, all this relaxed chatting and laughing, suggesting a trip here in the first place … Ivy much preferred the dad who hung heavy velvet drapes to keep the house cool and dark.
‘I was on a mission,’ he said. ‘I know how important family is to you both.’
Ivy looked at her sister. She had only met her twin at the beginning of the school year and it had taken ages to work out who their real parents were. Once they had realised Ivy’s adoptive dad was actually their real dad, they had convinced him to take them on a trip to Transylvania to meet their vampire relatives. It had been so amazing to meet their grandparents, the Count and Countess.
‘Having access to your … Transylvanian … family was relatively easy.’ The three of them had just spent a week in their grandparents’ goth-gorgeous mansion. ‘But I thought it was important for you to connect with the other side of your family too.’