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She gives me a confused look. ‘What does that mean?’
Annie returns to the kitchen before I can reply to rinse out the cloth.
‘What’s wrong?’ Bridget asks her.
Annie glances over her shoulder. Not at me, of course. ‘Nothing. I’m just surprised to see Hunter this far north—at your barbeque.’
Bridget continues to look between us, like she’s trying to put pieces together. ‘He moved up here last year and reached out. We’ve been hanging out, like you guys used to.’
Annie glares in my direction. ‘Is that right?’
‘Not like we used to,’ I clarify.
Annie grabs the spray from under the sink. ‘I need to finish cleaning up before it stains.’
When I look back at Bridget, she’s staring hard at me. ‘What?’
‘Don’t “what” me.’ She lowers her voice. ‘Did you hook up with my sister?’
I shake my head. ‘It’s not like that.’
‘So that’s a no?’
I draw a breath. ‘Not in the way you think.’ I’m sweating from running up six flights of stairs—and other reasons. ‘Look, I don’t want to ruin your birthday. I’ll just leave.’
‘But you just got here.’ When Annie re-enters the kitchen, Bridget says to her, ‘Hunter says he’s going to leave. Do you want him to go?’
Annie folds the cloth, hangs it over the tap, then turns to face me. ‘Stay. Go. Makes no difference to me.’
Bridget touches a hand to her forehead. ‘You know what? I think I’ll leave you guys to figure this out. Not my business.’ With that, she retreats to the terrace.
Annie and I stand awkwardly at opposite ends of the kitchen, looking at each other without looking at each other.
‘What are you doing here?’ I ask.
She holds on to the sink behind her. ‘I live here.’
‘Since when?’
‘Since yesterday.’ She doesn’t appear to be joking.
‘I don’t understand.’
‘Nothing new there.’
I press my teeth together. ‘Why are you here?’ My frustration is creeping into my voice.
There’s a long silence before she says, ‘I left.’
My mind is buzzing. ‘What do you mean, you left?’
‘My job, my home.’ She swallows. ‘And the religion. I left it all.’
I raise a hand, trying to process this. ‘Sammy told me you got baptised.’
‘You still speak to Sammy?’ She looks so wounded by that.
I wait for her to answer my original question.
