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“It’s a different kind of pizza than that, but good. You won’t feel like you’re missing out.”
“Well, everything does look good.”
“You teach a graphic novel course at the university, so why also the drink and draw?” he asked.
“Levi!” said a surprised and pleased voice walking past their table. His neck tensed in apprehension as his sister turned to face them.
“Brook, hi.” He tried to sound excited to see her, but her reaction to Mina was unlikely to be pleasant. They’d texted a couple of times since their phone conversation but never actually addressed his neighbor and her HIV. Or Brook’s judgmental reaction.
The only way out was through. “Brook, this is my neighbor and my date, Mina,” he said, putting an emphasis on the word date.
“Mina, this is my sister, Brook.”
“Nice to meet you,” Mina said, her hand out in greeting. She was a handshaker; it was one of the things he liked about her. Had liked about her since she stood on his porch babbling about being new in town and he felt both irritated that she’d interrupted his morning and that he didn’t want her to go away.
Brook was pulling her hand out from her side and the introductions seemed like they would go smoothly when his sister’s palm stopped at her hip. Seconds seemed to pass, even if it was only the blink of an eye, before his sister stuck out her hand for Mina to shake. Mina’s smile froze on her face, a chill rising to her eyes and extinguishing the life in them.
His sister did shake Mina’s hand. Eventually. But no one watching the interaction could have any doubt that there had been a moment when Brook had thought about putting her hand back down, leaving Mina’s hand unshaken. And an insincere “Nice to meet you, too,” hadn’t helped.
“Did I overhear that you work at the university?” Brook asked, her voice tinny.
“I’m a professor of Russian language and literature. I also teach a course on graphic novels.” Mina’s entire body turned from the warm, lithe thing it had been before into peach-colored and thin, brittle glass. Like if he tapped her, she’d shatter into a million little pieces.
“Do their parents know?”
“Brook. I’m on a date. You shouldn’t be doing this.” The fake innocence in her voice made his skin crawl, and he wanted her gone. “I’ll call you tomorrow.”
“I assume their parents know that their kids are taking a graphic novel course,” Mina said, staring intently at his sister, her tone leaving no doubt that she knew exactly what Brook had asked about and didn’t think it worth her time to acknowledge. “But with college kids, you never know. Was taking a frivolous class the worst thing you did in college?”
“Brook,” Levi said again, his voice low with warning. “We’ll talk tomorrow.”
“Fine. Call me tonight, if you get a chance,” his sister said. She lifted her chin, and a hard smile spread over her face. “I’ll be home early.”
“I won’t be.”
At that goodbye, Brook pursed her lips, straightened her shoulders and walked off to meet her friends for dinner.
“I’m sorry about my sister,” Levi said, as soon as Brook was out of earshot. “She...” An excuse for the way his sister had behaved hung on the edge of his lips, but he swallowed before he could rationalize away how mean Brook had been.
Mina shrugged, her attempted indifference barely able to make her shoulders rise a fraction of an inch. “It’s okay.” The bright tone in her voice was just as fake as his sister’s had been and more heartbreaking.
“It’s not. If I hadn’t told her, she would have been so excited I was on a date that she would have greeted you with a hug.”
Mina shrugged again. He wished she would stop, because she wasn’t able to cover up her hurt with the movement, and he would feel more comfortable if she would just stop trying. He didn’t say anything about it, though. His comfort was not Mina’s problem right now.
“I’ve gotten worse,” she said, her tone throwing away her pain before he could catch it.
“That doesn’t make me less sorry.”
