He blinks the droplets away, unfazed. “As your ex-lover, I’m entitled to know.”
“We have never been lovers.”
“We’ve been bro-lovers. Brolos.” He tilts his head, thinking. “If you’re going to boink Alex, that makes you and I step-lovers.”
“I’m not boinking anybody.”
“You should, it would give your hair better body. What do you have against volumizing mousse?”
He flits away to go bother Teyonna, and at one point lets himself into the kitchen. It’s astonishing that he doesn’t get kicked out, but, even more astonishing: He returns with a slice of pie for me. I don’t have room, sadly. You could drown somebody in a river by tying this manicotti to their ankle.
I take the opportunity to set him straight. “Trevor, I need you to grasp that if I wanted to have sex with Alex, I would,” I mutter, keeping my volume down. “You don’t get an opinion on it.”
“Ew, it sounds so much worse when you phrase it like that. Ro, as your brolo... yourRobrolo, if you will... I think I should get a vote on your boyfriends, and the reason I bring this up is that Keith thinks you’re cute. He wanted me to pass along that he lays excellent pipe—”
“Keith, the guy with the snake?”
He pauses. “Yeah? I told him you want three kids and twenty cats. He’s cool with it. I mean, you’ll have to be careful with your cats around his snakes, and one of his pythons could potentially try to eat one of your kids, but—”
“Goodbye.”
I get up, searching for a different spot, only to discover with a horrible jolt that Alex has relocated. He’s one chair removed from Trevor now, back ramrod straight, eyes on his untouched dinner. He slowly sets down his fork. Looks up at me. He’s rolled open the doors to his thoughts and is letting a rainstorm out; his eyes sayI was correct all along.
Pulse a painful gallop, my mind drains of all language except forWell, shit.
I trip, lemonade sloshing over the table, and sop it up clumsily with a napkin. The cast is belting out a tune about a woman who was out collecting lavender, then got flattened by a train. I reject the possibility that Alex heard Trevor and me through all this din. I wouldn’t survive the humiliation. The judgment. TheRomina Tempest, you are so pathetic.
“Trevor.” I grab him. “Let’s go.”
“What? The show isn’t over.”
“I need to get out of here, now, and I need someone to drive me away like they’ve just robbed a Tiffany’s. How fast is your Cube?”
He jumps to his feet. “I’m in. Hang on, gotta get T. She rode with me.”
“Hurry.” I bustle toward the door, checking over my shoulder. My stomach flips. Alex has abandoned his seat and is walking up the sloped floor in my direction. Kristin will have to send me a picture of the wedding, because by the time she and Mr. Yoon exchange vows, I’ll be building a new life in Canada. If there’s anything I’m good at, it’s escaping a confrontation!
Trevor tugs along a befuddled Teyonna, and it’s Go Time: We fly across the parking lot, throw the doors open, and jump in, car already shifting gears before I’ve got my door shut.
“Lock ’em, lock ’em!”
Teyonna howls, clicking her seatbelt. “Aghh! Who’d you kill?”
“My pride! Hurry, hurry!” I grip the back of the passenger headrest hard, and we peel out of the lot, around the corner. I am exhilarated, electrified, terrified. A wobbling pair of headlights in the dusk swings toward us, twin stars rapidly approaching, rebounding off our mirrors. I detect a dark shape in the driver’s seat wearing a ball cap, left arm draped out the window, idly tapping the metal body of the car.
Trevor presses the gas until the engine keens, peering over his shoulder. “What’d you do to him? Is this a sex thing? Do you like to be chased? I did not consent to participate in your kinky shit, Romina.”
“I’m pretty sure he overheard us talking.”
“I don’t remember what we were talking about. Anything good?”
“It was clear from our conversation that we’re not dating.”
Teyonnaoooohhhs. “Alex still doesn’t know?”
“I was planning to take the secret to my grave.”
The speed limit marker changes, and Trevor’s a bullet from a barrel, firing ahead—the road out of town is barren, nothing but empty, winding highway flanked by forest, wildflowers bleeding into navy pools. I check for exits we could take, then turn around to monitor Alex’s location. Teyonna shrieks with laughter. “What’s he doing? Where are we even going?”
