“You okay?” she asks as I finally get out of the car.
“Yeah,” I say and force a smile on my face and all those idiotic thoughts out of my head. I can’t remember the last time I got in my head about someone. It certainly hasn’t happened with any of the many people I’ve had sex with over the last few years.
My mouth falls open as that thought lands.
It’s because I’venothad sex with Maeve.
Sex is completely off the table with Maeve.
And that, for some reason I can’t quite reach, makes everything very, very different.
“You sure?” she asks as she comes to stand opposite me. I’m frozen in place, suddenly uncertain about how to talk to her, how to be with her, how I feel about her.
“Yeah, sorry. Just hungry, I guess.” I put on my own mask, relieved it will hide half of my face, half of my expressions.
“Same here. I’m so hungry I could eat a dirty nappy through a letter box,” she says and brings her hand to her stomach. “A nappy is a diaper, by the way.”
I’m chuckling and feeling all my unease wash away. “Thanks for clarifying, because that was really necessary for the visual.”
I gesture toward the front door and then open it with my keys.
“Momma?” I call out, but not too loud in case Jessica is sleeping.
“In here,” she responds from the living room.
“We come bearing gifts,” I say as I walk in.
“But don’t get too excited,” Maeve says from behind me. “It’s mostly healthy shite. Food, I mean. It’s mostly healthy food.”
Maeve almost looks sheepish after correcting herself when I turn back to look at her, but then my eyes are quickly pulled towhere Jessica is lying on the sectional, a couple of blankets over her and her arm sticking out, an IV stuck to the back of her hand. I flinch. She hates having them there. I choose not to think about why it had to be there, about how it was possibly difficult to get a vein in the inside of her elbow.
“Hey Jess,” I say softly and move to sit beside her.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” she croaks.
“Which is to say,” my mom steps toward Maeve with her hand outstretched, “we curse in this family so no need to censor yourself.”
Maeve takes my mom’s hand and shakes it. “Happy to hear that. My family’s the same, we’re a bunch of fecking potty-mouthed pirates.”
My mom laughs and I know then that Maeve has already charmed her. I know it too when I hear Jessica start to cough after her own attempt at a chuckle. I grab the spit bag that was by her side and hold it up.
We wait for Jessica to clear as much fluid as she can and I am so intent watching her, ensuring it’s under control, that I forget Maeve is also witnessing this. Just as Jessica settles back in the cushions behind her, I turn to look at Maeve as my mother takes the bag out of my hand to dispose of it.
I study Maeve, looking for discomfort or, worse, disgust, but her face is blank apart from the pull of concern slightly creasing her brow.
She comes closer.
“Well, that fucking sucks for you,” she says. “I’m Maeve, by the way. It’s nice to meet you, Jessica.”
Jessica looks up at Maeve. “You’re like… even prettier than your photos and videos. Even with a mask on. That’s really fucking annoying.”
“And you’re a lot funnier than your sibling here.” Maeve nudges me. “That’s also really fucking annoying, for them.”
Jessica manages to suppress the laughter that threatens again and she looks at Maeve’s bag.
“Am I smelling Dino’s chicken kale salad?”
Maeve holds up the bag in her hand. “Yes, you are. But don’t worry, I got garlic bread and twisty fries on the side so it won’t be all rabbit food.”
