Still, my hand drifted up to my throat, where the necklace I wasn’t wearing felt heavy in its absence.
I thought we were friends, too.
Wasn’t that the bare minimum of what I hoped to mean to him? If we weren’t even friends, then what was I doing?
Drawing closer to one of the tires, I saw a fat, heavy fly land on the bright red mouth of a Venus fly trap. The fly turned slightly to the right, then to the left.
And then the mouth closed around it, the fly disappearing behind the plant’s sawtoothed grin.
Poor thing never saw it coming.
Chapter Twelve
“I can understand why you’d feel left out.” Roger steepled his hands and leaned back in his chair on the small screen of my phone.
“I’m not sure I can,” I said, brushing my hair out of my face and trying not to see the extra pastel streaks I’d added while attempting to add some pizzazz to my cupcakes after Horst dropped me off at the café the night before.
I guess I needed his fairy dust to make my magic work, after all.
“I know he’s been friends with Cass for longer than he’s been friends with me. That’s not the problem.”
“But...?”
“It’s just...” I turned to look out of the window of my apartment. From there, I could see the harbor, the water sparkling with the early rays of the sun as it lapped against the harbor wall. The faint cries of seagulls drifted in.
“You’re afraid she also got a BFF necklace from him?”
I laughed. “No, nothing like that.” Although I didn’t know that for certain, did I? Horst could be out there doling out little half-heart necklaces like there was no tomorrow for all I knew. He certainly wasn’t wearing his half of the necklace he’d given me. “I just wish he would tell me what’s going on.”
“Have you tried using your big-girl words and asking him?”
“Yes.” I swallowed. “Sort of.”
“Ooh. I do like a good ‘sort of’ answer.”
“I mean, I did ask him if everything was okay.” I watched a small sailboat set off from the harbor, the people onboard just little colorful dots from my vantage point. “I didn’t say, ‘Hey, I know you’re super worried about some dastardly average-height, average-hair color dude in a cape, so why don’t you tell me what’s going on.’”
“Hmmm.” On the screen, Roger pursed his lips, deep in thought. “Why do you think you’re letting him get away with not telling you more?”
I turned away from the window and made my way over to the couch. “I guess I wanted him to want to tell me about it, you know? Because that would mean he felt like he could confide in me.”
And that was the problem. He knew something was going on. I knew something was going on. But if he wasn’t ready to share his burdens with me, were we even really friends? Or was whatever was between us just about sex?
“I want to go back to your feelings about seeing Cass with her sister,” Roger said. “Because I think that’s important.”
