“See you then,” he said, already starting his walk back to the elevators.
He was halfway across the lobby when a sudden curious urge struck him. He glanced back over his shoulder, and sure enough, he caught Mira Winkler doing the same thing.
Let yourself have a good time, Judah. It’s only as lonely as you let it be.
He lifted his hand in a slight wave, and she waved back.
Chapter Sixteen
“I had no idea you were a Kleinatic.”
Ari immediately darkened her phone and looked up at her little sister, who was smirking from the doorway to her bedroom. Going home for the holidays was always an adjustment because, as nosy as Liana was, she had nothing on Hannah Becker. Ari wasn’t sure her little sister even had an internal dialogue; she certainly didn’tseemto keep a single damn thought to herself. “It came up as a suggestion on my page,” she lied.
“Twelve times in the last hour?” Hannah arched one of her naturally thin brows. “No judgment. Shira and Molly are both obsessed, which of course means I hate him. So actually, maybe some judgment.”
“I just like this song.”
“Mmmhmmm. Just admit you’re a huge cliché with a crush on the hot Jewish celeb of the hour.”
Ari snorted. “Unlike your roommates, I actuallyknowthe guy, and trust me, I do not have a crush on him.” She wanted to say more, to call him uptight and obnoxious and everything else she used to call him before that night at Akiva’s party. But after everything he’d told her that week, airing his worst fears about himself felt like a betrayal. Instead, she said, “He’s definitely not my type.”
That part, at least, was true.
That he seemed to be an exception to every rule of hers was another story.
“And yet you’re watching him over and over when you could just listen to the track,” Hannah pointed out, tapping the dimple in her chin. “How curious.”
“How are you stillthisobnoxious?” Ari grabbed a stuffed panda from her bed and threw it at Hannah’s face. “Shira and Molly must despise living with you.”
“Shira and Molly love me, but Shira’s also moving to Chicago for grad school and Molly’s getting married in August, so this is pretty short-lived anyway. Molly actually tried to get Judah for her wedding, but he was already booked. She was literally gonna move her wedding for it, but I think her fiancé would’ve left her. I should’ve just come to you.”
Arielle snorted. “I do not have influence over Judah’s work schedule, and the wedding he’s booked for is probably Liana and Gideon’s. Sunday the fifth?”
“Sunday the fifth,” Hannah confirmed. “Damn. But hey, sounds like we’ll both need new roommates then. Whaddaya think? Your place is so much nicer than mine.”
“I think we did enough living together in this house,” Ari said wryly, though the question of what shewoulddo after Liana moved out had definitely been plaguing her.
“Okay, but you’re missing out,” Hannah singsonged. “I make Shira and Molly pancakes on Sundays.”
“I don’t even like pancakes,” Ari lied.
“Ah, so I see this is the day for pretending you don’t like stuff that you actually totally like. Cool, cool.”
“As if we’re not both gonna be doing that later when Dana and Evan show up.”
Hannah snorted at the mention of their big sister’s insufferable boyfriend, and Ari was sure she’d finally distracted her from their original conversation until Hannah said, “Think about how much better a brother-in-law Judah Klein would be for me.”
Ari searched for something else to throw at her sister, landing on her pillow. “You are like a dog with a bone, you nut.” She hurled it, and Hannah’s laughter trailed behind her as she ran off. “Move on!”
As soon as the sound of Hannah’s mirth disappeared, Ari trudged over to the doorway to retrieve her stuff, trying not to let her sister’s words hit home. The last thing she needed was to insert a mental picture of Judah by her side at the Seder, his warm hand on her thigh, his beautiful voice filling the room with each song, her mom and sisters getting starry-eyed…
She shook the image out of her head. What the hell was wrong with her? Why was she suffering from delusions, andwhy, oh why, had she called him? She’d meant it to be a quick check-in, a nice little gesture during what she knew was a tough time for him, but to her horror it had the terrible effect of making hermisshim.
And now, her freaking sister, of all people, had caught her fangirling… God, what a mess she was. Two days away from phones and the internet had never been so welcome.
Half an hour into the Seder, Ari was already dying to get back to the city. Instead of Judah’s warm hand on her thigh, she had Hannah’s sharp claws digging in every time Evan made an obnoxious move. If they’d been taking a shot every time he rolled his eyes or yawned hugely or got a text or phone call at the table, they’d both be passed out on the floor by now. Ari had always loved her big sister, but she felt as if she didn’t even know the woman sitting there with a fake smile on her face, pretending the “love of her life” wasn’t being an offensive asshole during one of the most important nights on the Jewish calendar.
“Is it so hard to just shut the fucking thing off?” Hannah muttered as Evan’s phone pinged with a text for what felt like the tenth time during “Dayenu.” It was usually one of the family’s favorite songs of the Seder, about all the things God did for the Jews in the desert that would’ve each been enough on their own, but Evan couldn’t stop making it known thathe’dhad enough. And there was some added insult to injury in that he was the only man at the table,the person who would, under ordinary circumstances, probably be leading the whole thing.
