“He did. I rejected the idea at first, but it might work.”
“Work how? I don’t get it. What are you trying to achieve?”
“Boredom.”
“Boredom?” Mila clapped her hand over her mouth. Then she got the giggles.
“It could happen.”
“How often—” She started laughing again but finally managed to get ahold of herself. “How often is he—” She swallowed and cleared her throat. “How often is he… um, dropping by?”
“For one hour each day. No, wait, I blocked out two hours on Friday because that’ll be it. The end.Fini.He wanted to continue the same program next week too, but I?—”
“Oh, he did, did he?” She dabbed at her eyes. “Fancy that.”
“He compared it to the length of a honeymoon.”
“I see.”
“Everybody’s heard the phrasethe honeymoon’s overwhich means the thrill is gone, so two weeks makes some kind of sense, but I don’t think we can chance it. We’d be found out.”
“I don’t know what to say. Except you and Adam are the only two people in the world capable of dreaming up something this nutty.”
“I don’t care if it’s nutty if it works.”
“Am I the only one you’re sharing this with?”
“You can tell Claudette. And maybe he’s already told Luis. He thought he would.”
“Well, no one will hear it from Claudette or me, and Luis won’t squeal, either. But I’m curious. Why did you tell me?”
“I shut you out after the New Year’s Eve thing because I was embarrassed and that was a mistake. No matter what happens with Adam, I’ll do whatever it takes to keep it from coming between us.”
“We won’t let that happen.”
“You mean you and me?”
“I mean all of us — you, me, Adam, Claudette and Luis if he’s in on it. You also need to know that if you and Adam get crossways, I won’t take sides. I’m Switzerland.”
“But he’s your brother. Family is more important than?—”
“I won’t take sides. You’re important to me, too.”
“See, this is why I should never have kissed him. I’ve made everything more complicated.”
“But you did kiss him because you had the perfect opportunity, and you’re human and you’ve been stuck on him for years. Clearly he’s been stuck on you, too.”
“But it would be better for everyone if we got unstuck.”
“That’s debatable.”
“No, it’s not. Logic tells me Claudette’s right that we’re dealing with forbidden fruit syndrome, which means it’s temporary. If we’re lucky it’ll wear off by Friday.”
“Valentine’s Day.”
“I get the irony. It just happened to turn out that way.”
Mila smiled. “Keep telling yourself that.”
