“Do you ever go up on the roof here?” I asked.
“Hell no. I wouldn’t want to cause someone to call the fire department to get me down. Or worse, get stuck up there.” That made sense.
“Well, you can come and hang out on my roof anytime you want.”
She smiled softly, her cheeks blushing just the smallest amount. Fuck, she was pretty. Too pretty to kiss, too pretty to want, too pretty to have. Too pretty for me.
“Thanks. If you hear any weird noises late one night, it’s not a raccoon on the roof, it’s me.”
Now I was the one laughing. “Will you at least wear your sexy raccoon costume when you do it?”
She nearly choked on a bite and covered her mouth so she wouldn’t spray crumbs everywhere. “No! I don’t have a sexy raccoon costume! You literally just made that up!” Searching around, she found a decorative pillow and thumped me with it.
One of the kittens let out a loud meow.
“Oh, it’s okay baby. I’m not hurting your mommy. See? She’s okay.” Lea picked up the kitten and passed her to me.
“I’m fine. In spite of a violent pillow attack. I think I’ll rally and recover.” Lea scoffed, rolling her eyes at me.
“I’m going to see you in that sexy raccoon costume one day,” I said.
I had to put my hand up to protect myself from another pillow.
Chapter Seventeen
Lea
HavingVail in my apartment made me feel like I’d had too many glasses of champagne. Bubbly and warm and giddy down to my toes. Everything about her affected me. Seeing her with the kittens didn’t help. She was so careful with them, even when they weren’t at all careful with her in return. Vail just smiled and cooed at them anyway.
We finished our charcuterie boards and the kittens went to sleep again. I had no idea how much cats slept until I’d met Vail’s.
“This is a gorgeous apartment,” she said, looking up at the high ceilings. That and the windows had been one of the main reasons I’d selected the building. It mixed the old with the new in a seamless and beautiful way.
“Your house is lovely too. So different than what I’m used to. Remember what my dad’s house looked like when you moved in?” We seemed to have come to an unspoken agreement of not talking much about our past when we’d lived in the same house. As if we were scared of talking about it.
“Oh god, I know. Wasn’t there a lot of black marble statues? With like, enormous tits?” She cupped her hands in front of her own ample chest to demonstrate.
“Yes. The statues with the nipples. I’m pretty sure those statues are partially responsible for my lesbianism.”
We shared a look and burst out laughing.
“What happened to them all?” she asked when we calmed down.
“I’m not even sure. I just came home from school one day and the entire house was different. Your mother had better taste, but that’s not saying much.”
Vail made a face. “She has no taste. I’ll never forget when I begged to paint my room another color. She argued me down to one wall and I would have to paint it myself. Every single color I picked was ‘vulgar.’” She used air quotes around the last word.
As if she’d conjured her in the room, I could hear Allegra’s voice saying “vulgar.” It was one of her most favorite words in the English language. She knew a bit of French and Italian as well that she could weaponize when she wanted to.
I didn’t remember Vail’s room getting painted.
“What happened?”
“She wouldn’t let me pick any of the colors. So I went out and bought a contraband can of paint and started doing it in the middle of the night. And then I came back from school to find that it had been painted over. We did that routine for at least a week and I just…gave up. Didn’t have the will to fight her. She won that round.”
What a small thing. A teenage girl who wanted to paint her room. So normal. Yet Allegra fought for control over every inch of the house.
“Is that why you started dyeing your hair?”
