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F O U R
- Quinn -
The seal was officially broken, so I was relieved when there was no line outside the bathroom. Not that there wasn’t another I could check, but I liked the one off Alicia’s bedroom. It had a short trail of round tiles surrounded by pink and blue stones you had to navigate to get to the toilet, which amused me. And that was more than I could say for the conversation I’d just had with Amber about how I should totally join her beach volleyball club. Well, I say conversation, but I drank for both of us while she did the talking.
I turned the handle on the ensuite and swung it open just in time to catch Maddy rooting through the medicine cabinet. Her brow was furrowed like a detective on a hot scent, but her face fell when she saw me.
“Are you doing what I think you’re doing?” I asked.
“Don’t you knock?”
“Don’t you lock the door?”
“I thought I did,” she said, glancing at the other entrance behind her as she sank back onto the heels of her tan sandals, which had long skinny straps that she’d wound around her ankles several times. They were tied just tight enough to sink into her skin as if they were gently biting her, and the thought made a waft of jealousy billow through me.
“Didn’t find what you were looking for?” I asked, stepping inside and getting a faint whiff of flowery perfume that was no doubt sprayed during her snooping sesh.
Maddy’s cheeks flushed until they matched the stones underfoot. “Please don’t say anything.”
I lifted my palms, as if to show her I intended to leave empty handed. “Saying anything isn’t really my style.”
“I was just curious what kind of face cream Alicia uses and whether she’d have a shelf full of Xanax like a Real Housewife.”
“You don’t have to explain yourself to me,” I said. “I only stopped by to do the same.”
She glared at me like she didn’t appreciate being mocked.
“But for the record, I think Alicia’s drug of choice is probably spirulina or whatever powdered green muck they’re selling these days at the East Bank Club.”
She turned to face me, her right foot stumbling into the small stones beside the large tile she’d been standing on.
“Sorry to disappoint.”
She shrugged. “To be honest, I hoped I’d find something that would make me dislike her, so I won’t feel so bad when James breaks her heart.”
Poor, Alicia. The truth must’ve been obvious to everyone but her. Then again, Maddy had always taken a special interest in any woman that was visibly invested in her brother. It was actually kind of sweet. Made me wish I had a sibling that would look out for me simply because of shared childhood experience. “You didn’t have to come in here for that,” I said, leaning back against the door so it latched shut. “Haven’t you seen her bookshelves?”
She swallowed, giving away the fact that being in the enclosed space with me made her uneasy.
Admittedly, the feeling was mutual, but there was another exit on her side that she was welcome to use. Yet she stayed, not even taking a step back as the air around us grew thick with something. I wanted to make it stop, wanted her to feel comfortable around me, but I didn’t know how. So I drank her in too slowly instead, unable to help myself.
“What’s wrong with her bookshelves?” she asked, her voice cracking as my eyes drifted back up to hers.
I wished I knew whether she was the same kind of uncomfortable as I was or if she just didn’t like me. Either way, she still hadn’t left, as if my presence made her forget what the fuck a bathroom was for. “None of them have any books on them.”
Her eyes narrowed like she was trying to decide if I was right.
“You don’t have to take my word for it,” I said, glancing at the long, white countertop to my right. “Have a look around.”
“I didn’t know you were a reader.”
“I didn’t say I was,” I said, not wanting the conversation to take a personal turn. “I’m saying Alicia isn’t.”
“Right.”
In truth, I was a reader, but getting Maddy in an enclosed space and bringing up books when I knew she read voraciously, too, seemed dangerously flirtatious. Like the kind of thing I might do if I were trying to seduce her mind, which I wasn’t. It was bad enough that I wanted her physically, but at least I didn’t know her. At least her hopes and dreams and fears were a mystery to me, and that gave me enormous peace of mind.
After all, I had a terrible feeling that I wouldn’t like her less if I got to know her. Not that I admitted that to James earlier when he told me she might need to crash at our place for a while. How could I? If I pretended to care, it would’ve given away the fact that I did. So I bit my tongue and spent the next hour mulling over the two-minute conversation, trying to figure out when I might’ve casually mentioned that I thought it was a terrible idea. Except he would’ve asked why, and I couldn’t tell him the truth. I couldn’t tell him that it took me weeks to recover every time I saw her, that the sound of her laugh strangled my heart in my chest. That I knew exactly how many times I’d made her smile hard enough that the dimple in her left cheek appeared.
