She shrugs, unbothered.
“We’ve failed you,” Cassie says dramatically.
“It’s basically a measure of a story revolving around a man,” I say. “Do two or more female characters have a conversation about something that isn’t about a male character?”
“Do fictional men with wings or horns count? Because that’s exclusively what I’m consuming right now.”
“It’s not a criticism of what you’re reading, Baby. I don’t remember the last time I read for pleasure at all. Wings and horns sound amazing, even attached to men. Butright now, today, we’re going to use it to our advantage with Mom. We are more than the sum of our relationships, and on one of our favourite days of the year, we aren’t going to focus on menfolk.”
Cassie pumps her fist. “Amen.”
I push her out the door. “Let’s go eat. We have trees to sell.”
Jules ruffles my hair. Despite probably getting only three hours sleep, her longer hair looks great. Sleek dark-brown waves spill over her slim shoulders. In comparison, my frizzy shoulder-length bob probably looks frightening, but that’s a problem for after breakfast.
“How are you?” she asks as we follow Cassie down the stairs. “Are you sleeping? You don’t look like you’re sleeping.”
“I slept great last night,” I say, and it’s not even a lie.
“Sleep is the most important health factor that we have complete control over,” she says with all the confidence of a twenty-two year old.
“Tell that to the labouring moms in L&D,” I say lightly, because she’s not wrong. Sleepisimportant. It’s just not something that residents get to do.
I’ll sleep when I’m a consultant. Or maybe when I’m retired.
She makes a worrying sound. “I know how hard it is to get up in the middle of the night.”
“Okay.” I stop at the bottom of the stairs and pin a glare on her. “Getting up for a fussy two-year-old isn’t the same as?—”
“We don’t need to dive right into comparisonitis,” Cassie tries to intervene.
But Jules is already flaring for an indignant fight. “Are you saying my job isn’t hard?”
“Ididn’t?—”
“Do you know hard it is to work for elite talent?”
I roll my eyes.
That only fires her up more. “My job is just as important as yours!”
Garrett appears in the doorway of the kitchen, his broad shoulders a welcome distraction. “Who wants pancakes?”
I slide into the chair closest to where his coffee mug is, and as soon as he puts plates in front of my sisters, he joins me.
His knee bumps mine under the table. “I put extra sausages on your plate, but if you don’t want them, I’ll eat them.”
“Thanks.” I grab the carafe of coffee from the middle of the table and top up my mug, then offer it to him. “More coffee?”
He smiles and holds out his mug. “Now we’re tied.”
“For what?”
“Getting each other coffee.”
“Oh!” I laugh. “I guess we are.”
Jules coughs. “Mini, can you pass the coffee down here when you’re done batting your eyes at Garrett?”
