I’d shifted to Plan B—find a shameless liar who doesn’t see any harm in playing a part—but my shameless liar has a hangover, and now I’m out of luck.
Unless Pansy is an even bigger dipshit than I thought, she’s going to realize Marco is as fake as an orange tan.
I didn’t get good results the first time, but I kick the bathroom door again.
Yup. Still doesn’t feel good. And this time someone yelps on the other side.
“Is someone out there?” I ask incredulously.
“Uh…yeah,” says a familiar voice. “And we need to talk.”
Fuck my life, I knowexactlywho’s behind that door.
Cormac Peebles, my soon-to-be stepbrother.
Cormac and I went to school together, starting with elementary school, although we didn’t have classes together until high school. It wasnotthe beginning of a beautiful friendship. I mean, sure, I had a lightning-quick crush on him during my brief emo phase in my junior year of high school, spurred on by hisdon’t give a fuckattitude toward everyone, along with his superintelligence, curly hair, and smoky gray eyes. But the first time I tried to strike up a conversation with him, he informed me that there was a grain of pepper stuck between my teeth. Specifically, my lateral incisor and cuspid.
I attempted to talk to Cormac a second time by commenting on hisHalf-LifeT-shirt, because I was still obsessed with that game, and I’d thought I was the only one. He replied, “Oh, actually a lot of people are. That’s why they made a sequel.”
The third time we interacted was at a high school party. I was shocked to see him there. He wasn’t the party kind of guy. I didn’t think the lame gatherings had much inherent value, but I figured anything was better than being stuck at home.
I was flabbergasted when he consented to play seven minutes in heaven. Everyone else was too, and Justin Greene, the most popular asshole in our class, thought it was hilarious to back him into going first.
His bottle spinstopped on me.
Cormac refused to follow through.Refused.Supposedly, he hadn’t understood the rules of the game.
Total BS. Either he didn’t like me or he figured I always had pepper in my teeth.
Never let it be said I can’t take a hint.
It was at that exact moment I stopped trying, and started disliking him and his superior-ass attitude in earnest.
Honestly. Who doesn’t honor the rules of seven minutes in heaven?
A monster, that’s who.
My poor impression of him was renewed by his complete overreaction after I knocked over his science fair robot in the second half of senior year. It was a complete accident, but he flipped out on me, suddenly not at all at a loss for words. He’sstilltalking about it, as if I were the only stumbling block between him and a brilliant science career.
“Nora?” he prompts from the other side of the door.
I glance at the window over the toilet, but unfortunately it’s not human-sized, and as the maid of honor for this wedding, I can hardly avoid the best man forever. Sighing, I open the door, and am a little caught off-guard by the sight of him.
He wasn’t at the rehearsal party last night, something about an important meeting with people in a disagreeable time zone, yada yada yada. It’s actually been a month and a half since we last crossed paths at an Easter lunch, and he looks different. He’s been palling around with my friend Briar’s boyfriend, and they’ve been working out a lot. It shows in the snug fit of his suit jacket. His curly, light-brown hair is a bit overgrown, as usual, and his wire-frame glasses look like they’ve seen some shit. But his gray eyes are attention-getters, the same as always.
“What’s up, Cormac?” I ask.
He adjusts his glasses and looks away from me.
“Were you looking for me, or did you have a sudden, urgent need for a private restroom?”
I shouldn’t provoke him, but he’s always as rude to me as I am to him. It goes without saying that neither of us are pleased we’ll be stitched together permanently through our parents’ impending marriage. Most people have the pleasure of leaving their high school acquaintances permanently behind as soon as they leave those hallowed doors.
He gestures to my office door, which leads to the back hallway of The Ginger Station. “There are bathrooms out there.”
“Indeed. This one is attached to my office.”
“Which is why I figured you might be in here. I checked the other office first, but your mom and a few other women are in there, and they have really big hair. Anyway, I’m getting off track. I was hoping we could…” He pauses, rocking on his heels. “Air out our differences? You know, we’re going to have to spend plenty of time together.”
