Aunt Delilah narrowed her eyes and gazed at Ceci pensively. “That’s debatable. How long since you’ve … you know?”
“What?”
Ceci turned to Pixel for some assistance, but her friend shrugged. “You know.”
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
“It’s got everything to do with everything,” Aunt Delilah exclaimed. “If it didn’t, we wouldn’t be talking about it now.”
“We’re not talking about it. You are.”
“Trust me, dear. You are talking about it, even if you’re doing it in code.”
Ceci was about to respond, but her aunt wasn’t finished.
“Talk of sex aside … at least for the moment. What’s really puzzling me is if it was Sir Clarke, whydancewith you?”
Ceci threw her hands into the air. “I haven’t a clue.”
“Why kiss you?”
“That one’s easy. That was so I wouldn’t remove his mask.”
Pixel made a face.
“What? It’s true.”
Pixel shook her head. “But the way you described it.”
“I didn’t describe it because there was nothing to describe. As I said, he did it to keep me from removing his mask.”
“Yeah, but that’s the thing.”
“What’s the thing?”
“It’s not like you not to say anything more.”
Ceci threw up her hands in exasperation. “I just told you, there wasn’t anything more to say.”
“Well, given it was good, there must have been something more to say.”
“Why do you say it was good? I never told you it was good.”
“You didn’t have to. The tone of your voice did.”
Ceci had phoned Pixel the very next day.
Fuck. Why didn’t I just text her? There’s no tone in a text.
Huffing, she turned her back to her friend, only to meet up with Aunt Delilah’s devilish grin.
“It’s a real conundrum,” Pixel said.
Frowning, Ceci swung back to face her friend.
“Because,” explained Pixel, “how are you going to confront him? What if you’re wrong? Can you imagine his reaction?”
Ceci didn’t want to imagine it.
