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Whatever. Let her think jealousy was the issue.
And maybe it was, if I was being totally honest.
Just not in the way she thought.
“Well,” she proclaimed, like she was delivering the final word on the subject, “it’s natural to have rivalry between siblings.”
I choked on my coffee. Mom stared at me as I noisily cleared my throat and rallied my composure.
Okay, let me be clear about this.
Crystal. Fucking. Clear.
“Shane Madrigal and I arenotsiblings.”
And no matter how many times my mother married his father, we never would be.
* * *
After the super enjoyable pedicure, Mom headed off for her manicure and I decided to skip it, opting instead to crash out on one of the lounge chairs on the little rooftop patio. No one was up there, so I had the place to myself.
Until Alyssa came striding out and loomed over me.
“You’re blocking my sun, yo.”
She was absolutely gaping at me. “Girl. I need details.”
“Sun. Please. I’m wasting away here.”
She sat down on the chair next to me with a sigh. “So sorry. We wouldn’t want you to lose your California tan.”
“Thank you.”
“You slept with him?”
“Yup. Well, minus the sleeping part.”
She frowned.
“It’s okay though,” I assured her. “It’s all good. Because this time I chose to have sex with him, you know,him, knowing his whole name and everything, and he’s not a stranger, right? We agreed, upfront, not to get emotionally involved. We were both very clear about it.”
“Jolie.” My best friend shook her head at me. “Are you fucking kidding? You’re already emotionally involved.”
“What? No I’m not.”
“You’ve been emotionally involved with that man for four years. Or at least with the memory of him and that night. Now that he’s in your life… in your bed… you don’t think that’s gonna get worse? If you start sleeping with him all the time?”
“First of all, he’s not in my life. I’m only here for four more weeks.”
She frowned at me because she hated it when I reminded her of that.
“Second, he’s not in my bed. He was never in my bed and he’s never going to be. We did it at his place.”
“Great argument.”
“Third, it’s not happening ‘all the time.’ It’s not happening again at all. It was a one nighter.”
Why was she looking at me like she didn’t even believe me? My best friend was supposed to believe me, right?
