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“It’s a gift for a new resident,” Joy said, and then she had to get back to work.
“She’s very kind,” Everly said after Joy had left.
“I know. She keeps trying to help me be a better person.” I pretended to shudder and Everly laughed.
“From what I’ve seen, you’re a pretty good person,” she said.
“Oh no, that’s not good. I need to disabuse you of that immediately,” I said.
Everly just kept laughing as she went to the back to pack some more orders.
* * *
“Valentine’s Day is coming up,”Lark said that night as we sat down to dinner on the couch. She’d made one of Layne’s easy sheet-pan recipes of chili lime salmon with veggies and rice, and I couldn’t get enough, so I had to pause in the act of shoveling food into my face.
“It is,” I said, not sure where this was going. I set my fork down and studied her. Lark just kept eating, but the vibe in the room had changed.
She didn’t elaborate.
“Is there a reason you brought it up?” I asked.
“Not really, I was just thinking about it,” she said, shrugging one shoulder.
“Oh, okay,” I said. Why bring it up if she was just thinking about it, though? Perplexing.
“Did you want to do something?” I asked. Was Lark assuming that we’d do that holiday as a couple, even though we were just doing a casual thing?
“Oh, no.” She shook her head. “That’s really a couple’s holiday and we’re not.”
No, we weren’t. We’d agreed that we weren’t. I was still confused.
“Did you want to do something?” I asked.
“I mean, no. Since we’re not a couple, that would be weird,” she said.
“Right,” I agreed. “Sooooo we’re not doing something for Valentine’s Day.” I just wanted to confirm with her.
“Because we’re not a couple,” she said.
“Okay,” I said.
Lark didn’t say anything else until after we’d finished dinner, put away the leftovers, and had loaded the dishwasher.
“I’m going to read in my room. I’m really tired tonight,” she said, pulling away from me when I leaned in to kiss her.
“Everything okay?” I asked.
“Yup,” she said, not meeting my eyes.
Obviously, everything wasn’t okay, and she had decided to be passive-aggressive instead of talking to me.
“You sure?” I asked one more time.
“Uh huh,” she said, heading toward her room.
“Okay,” I said, letting her go.
If she were Joy, I would have sat her down on the couch and made her talk this out. Normally I had no qualms about confronting people and getting all our shit out in the open.
