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“People were climbing ropes, Sunny. Ropes, hung from the ceiling. And they didn’t have the knots in them. You know, ones you could use to step on to climb up?” She snapped her fingers. “None of that. These people were climbing knotless ropes.”
“You climbed a rope?”
“Of course not. I rappelled myself to the floor and climbed back up again. With a rope in my hands. It was hard.” She held up her hands and showed off what looked like rug burn on her palms.
Sunny eyed her sister’s baggy sweatpants and basketball sweatshirt that dated back to when the Washington Wizards were still named the Bullets. It was thin with age and had a tear at the collar. “What did you wear?”
Constance considered that in silence. “The new shoes you bought me.”
Carefully chosen words and emotions neatly contained. Typical Cici. “And? What else did you wear? Please tell me you didn’t wear that.” Sunny pictured Constance struggling with a rope in her oversize sweats and bit back a grin.
Constance mumbled something around her straw.
“What?”
“I might’ve—” she set the water down “—worn a T-shirt with a unicorn on it.”
“Oh, good Lord. Not—” Sunny traced a horse figure on her chest “—the one from when you were a teenager?”
Constance nodded.
“Mean Green Salad.” Dolores appeared with their order. “And a yummy pizza.” She smiled at Constance as she slid the pie in front of her. “You want Parmesan on that, hon?”
“Of course.”
“Of course,” Dolores agreed. She whipped out a handheld grater and went to town, leaving a fluffy pile of cheese on top of the saucy pie. “Enjoy, ladies.”
“That’s the same look one of the guys had on his face when he saw the shirt,” Constance said as soon as Dolores disappeared. “Kind of amused, but without the horror. That stricken look of horror you’ve got going on there.” Constance waved her fork in a circle near Sunny’s face. “Hey, the unicorn was the only clean shirt that fit. I got really slender during my running days. Even in high school I was thicker. From all the cheerleading.”
“You were definitely really slender when you were running all those miles,” Sunny agreed. “But wait. A dude laughed at your shirt?” She dug into her bed of greens. “That doesn’t sound very friendly.”
“No, he didn’t laugh.” Constance forked in some pizza and chewed thoughtfully. “Not with his voice. He kind of laughed with his eyes. They’re this cool brown color. With a hint of mossy Irish green.” She looked out the window, like she was remembering. “Hazel? Like they’re brownandgreen, but can’t make up their mind.” She turned back to Sunny. “He wasn’t laughing at me. He was just kind of...smiling without smiling. And when I touched him, his energy wasrough. Not rude, like you’re thinking. Just rough. And...” Whatever else Constance was going to say ended in a shrug.
“Uh-huh.” Sunny dabbed her lips with her napkin. She wanted to meet this guy. Pronto. “So, when you going back?”
“Going back?” Constance’s gaze shot up from her plate. “Who said I was going back?”
Sunny stuffed more salad in her face to squelch the gurgling her stomach made at the aroma of Constance’s hot, cheesy pizza. “You seem kind of excited about it.” She chose her words carefully. “In fact, you look a little different.” She wasn’t lying, even though Sunny wasn’t above that sort of thing. But Constance really did have a certain glow about her that she hadn’t seen in a while. When Sunny had walked into the restaurant and spied her sister by the window, she’d attributed the bright skin and tiny smile to the new puppies. Constance always got a little high from a rescue, even though she pretended to be all business about it and acted like she helped the dogs purely for Sunny’s benefit. Now, Sunny wasn’t so sure that glow had anything at all to do with dogs.
“No.” Constance waved her hands over her pizza. “No way. That workout was horrible.”
“Okay.” Sunny shrugged. Unable to stand it anymore, she reached over and stole a slice of Cici’s pizza. Cici didn’t even blink. “But you went,” she pressed as she bit into the cheesy slice. “And you stayed. And you’re kind of glowing.” Sunny chewed and swallowed. “Holy shit, this is good.”
“I am not glowing.” Constance stabbed her fork into Sunny’s salad and stuffed the greens into her mouth.
“Whatever you say.”
They ate in silence for a while, both their own food and each other’s.
When Sunny next spoke, she changed the subject. “I’m going to do the Christmas fundraiser again this year.” She crunched on a crouton and waited until she’d swallowed completely before continuing. “You’re coming, right? I’m going to run the whole thing, like I did before. I’ll need you to massage my biggest donors. The more important they feel, the more they open their wallets.”
Constance laid down her third slice, half-eaten. “Of course. Anything for the dogs.”
Sunny dabbed her lips with her napkin and slid her empty bowl to the edge of the table. Daddy had died midway between Halloween and Thanksgiving last year. Six months ago, Josh had packed up his sorry ass and moved out. The year hadn’t been easy on Constance, and Sunny hadn’t been one hundred percent sure her sister would be on board for the holidays this year. “You don’t have to do the party if you don’t want. Just the massages. You’ll do those, right?”
“I just said I would.”
“I know. It’s just that—” Sunny drew a deep breath “—I know you’ve said you don’t feel like you bring the same energy to your work since Daddy died and since Josh...well.” Sunny pressed her fingers over her mouth. “I was just checking.”
