Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96600 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96600 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
“Oh?” That perked Charlotte up a bit. “Were you talking about me?”
“We were.” I mentally edited everything Mom had said. “She thinks you and I are a good match.”
Not a lie; she’d said we were “suitable.”
“Oh.” Charlotte gave a small, relieved laugh. “I was worried you were in there getting scolded for my bad behavior.”
“The only bad behavior you engaged in, I initiated,” I reminded her. “And I very much enjoyed it.”
“I was worried about…you know. Seeming like I belonged.” She turned to look out the window as we passed one of the meadows. “I never felt like I did, but no one threw me out, so I guess that’s a win.”
I considered her statement. It might become the way I evaluated the success of my social interactions from then on.
“I’m a little peopled out,” she said, repositioning the back of her seat. “Will you mind if I zone out on the way back?”
“Zone away. As long as you don’t mind some music?” The weekend had exhausted me too.
“Go for it.” She closed her eyes, and I slowed the car to fiddle with the touch screen.
It was a normal car ride. Why couldn’t I shake the awful feeling I’d had leaving the conservatory?
Maybe it would be better once I got on the highway.
* * * *
It did not.
In fact, it didn’t even get better when we arrived at the apartment. We weren’t in bad moods, at least, speaking for myself. And Charlotte was chatty at dinner—about anything other than the visit to my mom’s. If that got brought up, she deflected and moved on to something else.
Maybe it was just me, noticing things that weren’t really happening. Building up catastrophe in my mind. I’d done it before.
We were in the den, curled up under a cashmere throw while we smoked and half-watched a baking show when I finally couldn’t stand it anymore.
“Hey, did somebody do something to upset you at the house today?” I asked.
She went very still.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” I took the nearly burned roach and stubbed it out. “Who was it?”
“What, are you going to beat up the kids who were mean to me?” She gave me a playful sidelong look.
“No. Like I said, I’ll buy whatever they love.” I’d done it before. “I came very close to buying the Rangers just to ruin them for my ex.”
“Okay, I don’t know what that is—”
“A hockey team.”
“—but nobody was mean to me. I overheard something…” Her face scrunched up. “Fuck, this is difficult to tell you.”
“You can tell me anything.” She could tell me she was a serial killer, and I’d rationalize it away somehow.
Probably wasn’t healthy, but I would deal with that later.
“No, I can’t because you’re going to be as angry as I was. More angry, probably.” She paused. “Yeah. You’re definitely going to be angrier than I was. I have to tell you this thing that’s going to create so many problems, and I have to do it because we want to be honest with each other, right?”
“Yeah, dishonesty is a deal breaker. Kinda concerned that you had to check…”
She rolled her eyes. “What I’m saying is, things would be so much easier for us if I didn’t tell you what I overheard.”
“I think things would be easier for us if I wasn’t walking around with this mystery in my head for the rest of our lives.” In fact, I would probably spiral to the worst possible conclusion within the next half hour. “Is it something that’s going to make me love you less?”
“I hope not,” she said.
“Is it something that will prevent us from being together?” A cold sweat broke out on the back of my neck. “Fuck, you didn’t find out we’re related, did you?”
“No, nothing like that. But… It might affect our relationship, yeah.” Her eyes glazed with tears. “And I don’t want that to happen.”
I swallowed the lump of fear in my throat. “I don’t want that to happen either. So, let’s make sure it doesn’t.”
She nodded glumly, took a deep breath, and said, “Remember how we were trying to figure out who your sister is cheating on her husband with?”
“Yes?” I couldn’t imagine that the answer would have anything to do with my relationship to Charlotte.
“It’s Scott.”
Okay, maybe that.
But it couldn’t be Scott. That didn’t make any sense. “Wait, he was with me the whole time you were in the bathroom. It couldn’t have been. Unless he teleported.”
“That’s exactly what I thought.” She wrinkled her nose. “There’s that sexually transmitted nerdiness again “
“What, what are we talking about then?” I couldn’t put it together. It couldn’t have been Scott.
“I overheard them in the driveway. Well, they weren’t in the driveway, I was in the driveway. They were behind some bushes—”
Relief flooded through me. Of course, it was a misunderstanding. “My sister would never have sex in a bush.”