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“Yeah.” Skye clears her throat and nods. “We did. I actually cooked tonight.”
As if she hasn’t been cooking for me most nights.
“Okay.” Chloe nods, apparently oblivious to the tension in the room. “Can we go out? For a drink?”
“Yeah!” Skye’s smile lights me up. “We’re planning on it.”
Skye disappears to the bathroom to do all the crazy things she thinks she needs when she leaves her place. She fluffs or curls or puts her hair up. Touches up her makeup. Brushes her teeth. Puts on her lipstick.
She doesn’t need any of it. Sometimes, I think she’s the most beautiful when we’re in bed together. Not when we make love, but when we wake up tangled together in her sheets. I like that she enjoys getting cute, as she calls it whenever we leave, though. Her eyes sparkle with excitement, and she wears a frosty pink color on her lips, and I always know her mouth would taste like toothpaste if I were to kiss her.
“So.” Chloe folds her arms over her chest and rests her back on the counter when we’re alone. “You like it? The Hep Cat?”
“I do. It’s…” I hesitate, even though I shouldn’t. Chloe has no idea who I am outside of being her weird little brother who is obsessed with music, but she’s never judged me for that obsession. Never looked down on me because I’m not putting my degree to good use. Not knocking down the big bucks. “It feels like home.”
My words surprise her. She stares at me with big eyes, her eyebrows hidden up under her bangs.
“How’s Wamba doing in the desert?” She clears her throat, knowing to tread lightly with me about what I said. If anyone pushes words like home or settle on me, I’m itching to pack up and leave.
“He likes it,” I tell her. I cup my hand around the back of my neck and roll my head on my shoulders. The last few nights I’ve spent more time than usual at that piano at the Cat. The one where Skye and I did stuff that rocked me more than I want to admit, even to myself. My shoulders and neck are stiff. Skye straddled me last night in bed and gave me a massage that felt great. But now, with Chloe here and this huge secret between me and her best friend, I’m stiff and sore again. “He called two days ago. Planning to come back in two weeks. Pack up his house and move.”
“So, you’re buying?” Chloe asks me. She’s a sales rep for a pharmaceutical company. She bought a house last year. It’s small, but it’s a house, which gives her points in my dad’s book. Sometimes I think Chloe wants my dad’s approval for me more than I do.
“Yeah, I’m gonna meet with some loan officers next week.”
“I know one,” she says with a crooked grin.
Pretty sure I can’t get a loan approved by the woman I’m sleeping with.
“She does mortgage loans, not business loans.”
Chloe laughs softly as Skye joins us. She’s done something to her eyes—refreshed her eye liner, I guess. And added a nude color lip stick. Pulled her hair back in a ponytail. With the skinny jeans and sandals, she wears an oversized red blouse. She looks like America’s sweetheart. Right now she’s mine, and I can’t touch her.
“How’s Mel?” Chloe asks as the three of us leave the apartment and head to the elevator.
Skye laughs softly and shakes her head. “He asked me out again a few weeks ago, but I said no.”
“He’s cute, Skye,” my sister tells her, and I wonder when Chloe saw his picture. I wonder what they’ve shared through the years about their dating experiences. If they share sex stories like other women I know. The thought of Skye telling Chloe about the things we do together makes me uncomfortable.
“Sorry.” Chloe giggles my way. “You don’t wanna hear the girl talk, do you?”
I don’t, but for reasons she can’t imagine. The thought of Skye with any other guy makes me see red.
What do you see?
I don’t know what I expected Skye to do, to say, when I finished “Never Bliss” for her. Maybe I thought she’d say wow. Or that she liked it. Maybe she would acknowledge that I do have some talent.
Instead, she found an open wound, slipped her hand inside, and squeezed ever so gently with her wordswhat do you see?
It still makes me a little uncomfortable that she saw so much more in me, of me, than I expected she would.
