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I laughed. “Don’t. You’ll just sprain your brain.”
“Has she always been like that?”
“Sorta? She’s gotten worse over the last two years.” I led him to the couch and sat. “Greer has always been fucking perfect. Perfect appearance. Perfect grades. Perfect university. Perfect career. Perfect husband. The one imperfect thing in her life is her younger half-sister.”
“Ahh. Little Zelda is the mess she can’t fix.”
“The stain on her record.”
“The fly in the ointment.”
“Ew.”
He laughed. “I think you’re the perfect one.”
“I know. And I think you’re deranged.” I snuggled against him. “The thing is, I tried to be her idea of perfect. I followed her advice to fix myself and my life, but nothing ever got fixed. Which made her nuts, so she kept stepping in to do things for me. Even after I made it clear that I wanted her to butt out.”
“She just can’t leave it alone.”
“Nope. I used to get a rundown of everything that was imperfect about me every morning before I left for school. ‘Zelda, fix your hair like mine. It’s perfect. Zelda, eat this, not that, then your figure will be perfect. Zelda, wear this skirt not that one. Then your outfit will be perfect.’”
“Fuck.” Drew cringed. “Aithan’s right about me being a bully. I showed up and did that to you. I went through your closet like a self-righteous dick.”
“Yeah, you did. But you were right.” I pressed his hand to my lips. “You undid some of the damage that she inflicted and I’ve nursed for decades. I was letting it hold me back. Appearance-wise, I was sabotaging myself to punish Greer.”
“I still feel like a dick.”
“Because you are one, but you’remydick.”
He grinned. “It’s true. My dick is yours.”
I sighed. “The thing is, I still feel the same nervousness when she shows up. That I’m not good enough and I’ll never be good enough.”
Aithan opened the front door. “So dinner plans ….” His gaze sharpened. “Am I interrupting something?”
“No,” I replied, “I was just feeling a weird mixture of self-pity and irritation.”
“Ah. Greer stopped by?” he guessed.
Drew nodded. “Bingo. Zel’s playing the comparison game again.”
Aithan closed the door and crouched before me. “Don’t do that, beautiful. It’s not fair to her. She can’t compete.”
Aww. I tucked my hair behind my ears. “I know I shouldn’t, but it’s like muscle memory. She walks in and I start doing it and I always feel like I’m coming up short. The only way I know how to stop is to get really bitchy. And that’s not good for anyone.”
He stood and pulled me to my feet. “We’re going out for dinner.”
“We are?” Mom hated going to restaurants during the holidays because they were always so crowded.
“Yup. I talked to Undine. She has nothing special planned for this evening and is fine with us taking you out.”
Drew stood too. He kissed my cheek. “I bet she knows you need to stay away from the Bay Area Bitch.”
That made me laugh.
“Is there a local restaurant that’s safe for you?” Aithan asked.
“Yeah. Seats. It’s down on the waterfront and I know the owner. He’ll hook me up with clean food.”
