“Ah. Uh, to my mom’s. We only live a few hours away from Lansing.”
“Iknewyour whole thing with River was bullshit.”
She must have been doing an exceedingly bad job of pretending if someone thousands of miles away knew it wasn’t real. That was not ideal. “Audrey told you?”
“No,” Zora laughed. “She was too busy trying to convince herself it was real, but, come on. As if you were just waiting in the wings,desperateto go to the Sinclair shitshow. And she told me what you did for her at breakfast, and, girl, that was not remotely giving platonic.”
Hallie scrunched herself tighter into the blankets she was holding. That was a fair call out. She’d known it at the time and she knew it now. She was simply glad the Sinclairs hadn’tnoticed—of course, that would have required them to pay attention to Audrey’s needs.
When she didn’t respond, Zora hummed. “You’re into her, yeah? Looking after her, diving in to whisk her off to safety… You’re sounding an awful lot like a knight in shining armor here.”
“Audrey doesn’t need someone with a savior complex trying to take over her life.”
“Too right she doesn’t. But she does deserve to be loved by someone who knows it’s a privilege to care for her.”
“And you’re sure that’s not you? I heard her tell you she loves you.”
“Yeah, she does. Just like I love her. Like she’s my family and I will happily destroy anyone who hurts her. Of course, she likes to veto that option, but if I ever see the Sinclairs, they’d better watch themselves.”
Hallie smiled. She didn’t think Zora would do anything to the Sinclairs, but she could appreciate how much she cared about Audrey. “Right.”
“I work at a queer non-profit. We do loads of training on discussing feelings and addressing hurt, and I’m telling you right now, if you put me in a room with them, wewillbe addressing all the hurt they’ve caused.”
“Oh.” Hallie hadn’t quite been expecting that, but that worked too. She was still in the angry phase of thinking Audrey’s family deserved every bad thing karma could send their way, but, actually, Zora had a point. Making them face what they’d done would probably be excruciating and effective.
“I notice you didn’t answer my question.”
“Which one?”
“The one about whether you’ve got a crush on Audrey. Face those feelings, Hallie. It’s healthy.”
She laughed, nervous and awkward. “I mean, it doesn’t really matter, does it? We live super far apart and we’ve only known each other for a few days.”
“First of all, you can know you have a crush on someone the first time you meet them, so that’s not particularly relevant. Second of all, I know you two have spent a lot of time chatting together in an emotionally charged situation and you’ve been living in the same house. That speeds things along and is the equivalent of at least ten dates. By the tenth date, you can have been seeing someone for a while, so, yeah. You can absolutely know you’re into Audrey.”
“And the distance thing?”
“Planes exist, Hallie. I imagine you’ve heard of them.”
She laughed. This whole thing was ridiculous, but she couldn’t deny that she liked Zora. Ironic considering she’d spent the last couple of days being unbearably jealous of the woman. “Yeah, I think I know the concept.”
“Right, so, what’s the problem? I’m in LA right now and we’re talking just fine.”
“Yeah, about that… Why are you calling so early? I only answered because I assumed it must be an emergency.”
“Oh. No. I hadn’t heard from Audrey since early yesterday morning, so I figured things must be bad and set an alarm to call her before her family sank their claws in for the day.” She hesitated. “When things get bad, as I’m sure you’ve been witnessing, she shuts down. It’s not her fault but the way they break her makes it hard to think, to speak, to reach out. So, yeah, I carry the mental and emotional load for a while until she’s better, until she’s safe, and I call her.”
Hallie nodded again. She had seen that yesterday, and she, too, knew it wasn’t Audrey’s fault. It was hard to process when you were traumatized. “She’s lucky to have you.”
“Lucky to have you too, River’s fake girlfriend.”
“Oh, my god.”
“Hey, I’m not judging. I’d have done the same thing in River’s shoes, but I’m glad it’s Audrey you’re into.”
“I didn’t confirm I am.”
“You carry extra cutlery for her, you took her to your mom’s house when she was shutting down, and, as far as I can tell, you were sleeping in the same bed. It doesn’t take a genius to put those pieces together.” She laughed again. “Actually, the closest thing to a genius I know is Audrey, and she’s been working overtime trying to convince us both you aren’t into her.”
