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As he leaves the room, Kaye gives it approximately 0.02 seconds after he shuts the door before announcing, “Do you want to set your stepfather up with my mom? I like him better than Jackson. If you’re okay with it, I’ll give Carrie his number.”
“Over my dead body.”
Chapter 36
Christine
Niccolo’s departure gives us something to talk about. Though Kaye jokes about setting her mother up with my stepfather, she isn’t as upset about Jackson as she was when she first met him.
“Xavier’s looking into him for me,” she announces proudly.
I scrunch my nose in distaste, surprised by the newfound alliance between Xavier and Kaye. “This is all just a ploy to get in your pants,” I caution her. “Xavier has never done anything nice for the sake of being nice.”
Kaye looks unsure. We’ve been saying this for years, but for the first time, it looks like she might not believe it. “I mean, he picked me up from the bar the night I met Jackson,” she mumbles.
That night preceded my entire world blowing up; I like to pretend that it didn’t happen.
“Didn’t he make you throw up?”
“No,” she argues. “It was probably the hangover and the smell of eggs that did it.”
Raising a skeptical eyebrow, I divert my attention back to the Santa-shaped cookie on my plate. “Who’s distributing these anyway?” I inquire with a hint of suspicion.
Kaye shrugs her shoulders nonchalantly. “I don’t know. There was a bunch of them in the lounge with a sign that said‘take me’.”
“So we’re eating cookies from an unknown source?” I tear off Santa’s head, narrowing my eyes at his jolly little smile. “How do we know these aren’t poisoned?”
She chuckles dismissively while popping the Christmas tree-shaped cookie into her mouth. “This is college, Chris. They’re just cookies. Someone’s grandma probably sent them.”
“Oh, so we’re eating someone’s stale re-gifted cookies then. These will be delicious,” I deadpan.
“You’re so dramatic.” Kaye rolls her eyes at me before finishing her cookie. “Do you want to talk about why Nic was here?”
The air catches in my lungs, and I have to counsel myself to confide in my best friend because I know how irritable I become when I don’t. But how do I tell Kaye about Italian traditions even I’m not familiar with? I barely understand them. How is she supposed to?
“So, how are things with your uncle?” she changes her approach. “You met up with him a few days ago, right?”
I nod my head miserably and recount the horrible experience I had with Giovanni, starting with the moment I arrived. “As if his inappropriate behavior towards the waitress wasn’t enough,”I begin, my voice heavy with bitterness, “he had the audacity to tell me that I can’t—“ The words get caught in my throat like glue, refusing to be spoken.
Sensing my distress, Kaye moves closer, sitting beside me on the bed and rubbing my arm up and down in soft, soothing waves. “You can’t what?” She asks gently.
I haven’t said these words out loud yet. I’ve thought about them nonstop, but I haven’t given a voice to my uncle’s orders. I have to force myself to say them, even though my heart hammers in my chest. “He said that I’m getting married in June, and I have to move to Kansas City.”
Her brow furrows in surprise. “Wh-what?” Kaye stops stroking my arm, her hand remaining on my bicep. “What about your education? What about me?”
I’ve been turning this over in my head for days, trying to understand what the ramifications of Giovanni’s words will be. And I still have no clue. “I don’t know,” I slump into the bed, feeling as helpless as I look. “I don’t think anyone cares.”
“I care!” Kaye glares. “Giovanni can’t make you marry a tyrant and move away. Can’t Niccolo do something about this? He kept you here when your uncle wanted you to move a few years ago. Can he say something? He has to be able to stop this.”
Tears burn the back of my eyes, and I struggle to blink them back. “Unfortunately, Nic is part of the problem. Giovanni is doing this because Nic and I have been sort of seeing each other.”
“What!” Her voice raises an octave. “And you didn’t tell me?!”
The term‘seeing each other’is too vague.
“We aren’t dating or anything,” I explain. “But I guess Giovanni heard that we were together at Red Dawg once. And maybe he has a spy in Nic’s class because he knows about Nic asking me to stay after to chat. Gio’s been hearing rumors about our behavior, and that’s part of the reason this is all happening.”
Kaye looks flabbergasted, and I think it’s partly because I haven’t told her about the extent of my relationship with Niccolo. She doesn’t yell at me for keeping secrets, though. Instead, she squeezes my arm and says we’re going to take care of this. “We can’t let your uncle do this. It has to be illegal. We could go to the cops or?—”
