Jill laughed. “That’s sweet of you, dear.”
Audrey knew that tone all too well. They’d pulled it out on other people’s partners more than once. The wholearen’t you a sweetheart for trying to include the family reject?
Some things never changed, no matter how many members of the family did.
Audrey smiled stiffly, the move not even close to reaching her eyes as she stepped back from the group. “That’s my cue. I’m going to go check out the cheese selection.”
“Oh, your parents were just there,” Jill said in that unforgivable tone again. “So, if you need a friend, you won’t be alone.”
Yes, because that’s clearly something I’m concerned about.
She strode quickly away. Perhaps if she ever learned to say things like that aloud to her family, their jabs would stop. As it stood, she had no idea how to get there. This was just the way things worked in her family.
If she ever did meet someone she could imagine spending her life with, she kind of hoped they came with a nice family, a good excuse to miss Sinclair events in favor of her partner’s. Maybe if someone loved her like that, she wouldn’t feel the need to keep coming around her own family. Although, she couldn’t practically imagine how any of that would work. Zora’s family welcomed her in but she forever felt like an outsider, like she couldn’t be there for the big days, the family events. Perhaps she should have been wishing for someone who didn’t spend the holidays with their family, someone who just wanted to spend time as the two of them. Maybe she’d be able to handle that.
She made it to the cheese section, delighted to see her parents had moved on, and carefully avoided one of her other uncles at the opposite end of the large fridges. She was eternally grateful they’d come to Horrocks while it was busy.
For several moments, she made a good show of pretending to be interested. Ample practice had demonstrated that she was perfectly capable of appearing present, even as her mind fixated or shut down.
But even she wasn’t good enough not to panic and jolt when a body appeared beside her and Hallie’s quiet voice said, “Your family’s interesting.”
Audrey ran the nails of her free hand over the pad of her thumb, trying to calm the way her pulse was thudding in her skull, making her needlessly dizzy. “That’s one word for it.” She sighed. “Sorry for… all the comments you’re about to witness. All of the comments you’ve undoubtedly already heard.”
Hallie frowned. “You’re apologizing for your family’s behavior?”
Audrey almost laughed. How many times had Zora called her out for doing that? “I guess I am, yeah.”
“Pretty sure that’s not your job.”
“Pretty sure it is,” she muttered, looking around. “No River?”
Hallie looked her over, and, again, her eyes were far too penetrating. Some cool, icy blue that just seemed… piercing. “She’s with Jill and Rob, picking coffee.”
Audrey laughed. “She’s picking hot chocolate.”
“Sorry?”
“River. She doesn’t drink coffee. She’ll be picking hot chocolate.”
“Oh.” Hallie grimaced like she’d never known that, which felt a little odd. How fast did you have to be speedrunning a relationship to not know your girlfriend didn’t drink coffee? “Good to know, I guess.”
Audrey fought the urge to furrow her brow. Something really was off with these two. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to… ruin things if she’s been… I don’t know, pretending to be a coffee connoisseur for you.”
Hallie snorted, relaxing again. “Nothing like that. I’ve just never noticed she doesn’t drink coffee. Though, to be fair, I do love it, so I guess… uh, well, I guess she might not have… brought it up so we seemed more… compatible?”
“Right…” Audrey was going to murder Zora. If she hadn’t planted the idea in Audrey’s head, she might have been able tohave this conversation without hearing a million unsaid things in every pause. She didn’t know Hallie nearly well enough to hearanythingin those pauses. What on earth was she doing? “Do you want cheese?”
“Oh, I see you’ve read that guide on fascinating women. Makes sense. I did hear you’re a doctor.”
Audrey laughed. “I’m an entomologist. It’s not exactly required reading for that…”
Hallie walked around her, smirking up at her. “Ah, so you’re not interested in mesmerizing women? Just bugs? Do they like cheese?”
“Do you want me to answer that while we’re actively shopping for cheese?”
“Hm.” She wrinkled her nose. “Yeah, maybe not. I’m going to assume all the bugs in the world know cheese is high in fat and they shouldn’t eat it. You know, like how you shouldn’t give it to your cat.”
“I think that’s also because a lot of cats are lactose intolerant.”
