My sister was seven years younger than I was and had just finished a nursing degree at Duke. She’d moved in with me after she’d graduated from high school because my mom had kicked her out.
Well, that sounded worse than it was. Our mom was fantastic and loved us both dearly. But she’d gotten pregnant with me at seventeen and raised us girls during her early adulthood. My dad had moved us to Durham for a job when I was three. It was away from my mom’s family in Florida, but he hadn’t given her much choice. He split after Adleigh was born, but by then, I was in school, and we’d established a life. It was just the three of us after that.
Eventually, I moved out and tried college life for a while, but it wasn’t for me. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. And I had always hated school. But I was a hard worker, so I started grinding my way through the restaurant industry. After Craft hired me as the floor manager, I felt like I’d finally landed my first grown-up job.
When Adleigh graduated from high school, my mom decided she wanted to move back home to be with her mom and sister. We visited each other often since Mom had a cute little beach house outside of Pensacola. She hated being away from us as much as she had hated being away from her mom.
She begged us to move close to her, but I loved my life in Durham. And Adleigh had a serious boyfriend and had just gotten her first real job in a hospital. Maybe one day, but not yet.
Especially Adleigh. She finished college at an accelerated rate, having taken classes through every summer semester, and graduated with honors in May. In the past month, she’d gotten a serious job, a serious paycheck, and a serious-ish boyfriend, Shane.
I was still settling into the full-time job I’d had for over five years and had zero boyfriend prospects. It was hard not to feel a twinge of regret when I looked at how put together she was. Why couldn’t I get my life on a similar track toward happily ever after? Yet, mostly, I was just proud of her. I knew what I wanted in life. Or rather, I knew what I didn’t want in life. And the stress and demands of her job weren’t any of them.
I crawled out of bed and stepped into my bathroom. I got busy with skin care, teeth, and getting ready for the day. Adleigh and I had a Pilates class in a little bit, then I wanted to hit my gym before it was time for Saturday errands and chores.
She was in the kitchen when I finally left the sanctuary of my room. Shane must have slept over last night because he was stretched out on the couch, scrolling his phone.
“Mmm, what are you making?” I asked as I started pulling stuff out for my daily protein shake and pre-workout greens mix. I decided I needed a piece of toast too. And maybe some of the eggs Adleigh was scrambling.
“Cottage cheese eggs,” she said, sounding doubtful. “I saw the recipe on TikTok. But they’re kind of runny.”
“More cheese,” I suggested. “When in doubt, add cheese.”
She didn’t look convinced, but she moved over to the fridge. “Isn’t cottage cheese enough cheese?”
I laughed. “I don’t know. I don’t know anything about cottage cheese. It’s gross.”
“High in protein,” she explained, her lip slightly curled back. “It’s good for us.”
“Sure.”
Shane moved over to the kitchen island. He made it seem like he was coming over to chat, but I was pretty sure he was nervous about Adleigh’s viral breakfast attempt. I didn’t blame him.
She tried. I mean, she really tried. But cooking was not a natural talent for the poor girl.
Our apartment was beautiful. Open, airy, and full of natural light. Before Adleigh, I’d lived in a dingy studio that never had hot water. Adleigh and I had moved several times over the past four years. She kept getting higher-paying jobs while working toward a bachelor’s in nursing. And I’d also managed to demand a livable salary from the English siblings.
We’d moved into this place a year ago. The option to renew our lease was coming up, and I knew they were raising our rent, but thankfully, Adleigh could take on more of a fifty-fifty role now that she had a reliable income stream.
“What did you guys do last night?” Before my shift, Adleigh had said they might stop by the bar, but I didn’t see them. “Something fun?”
Adleigh mumbled something about her eggs. Shane said, “It was a good night.” I looked up at him over my peanut butter protein shake that was freaking delicious and noticed a twinkle in his eye.
“Oh, that’s cool.” Sometimes he was a pervert, but I wasn’t getting the double entendre vibe from him right now. “Check out any new spots?”
“Actually, Shane packed a picnic,” Adleigh said flatly, sounding more stressed than her watery eggs called for. “We watched an Alfred Hitchcock movie at the park and gorged on cheese and crackers and wine. Then we went for a late-night stroll. We ended at that cute little wine bar. Uh, the one your friend Miles recommended. The Tangled Vine or something like that. Ten out of ten recommend. It was the cutest ever.”
“Oh wow, Shane. I’m impressed.”
He was grinning. He knew he’d hit it out of the park. Shane was a fifth-year senior because he played basketball for Duke. He wasn’t one of the guys who was always on the court, but he was unmistakably an athlete. He’d red-shirted his freshman year or something, so he had one more to go to get his exercise science degree before he went on to get his doctorate in physical therapy.
Adleigh had met him at a party freshman year. They’d been good friends for a long time and then started dating two years ago. She never expected things to get serious because she’d made a lot of bad assumptions about him at first. Mainly because he was a Duke athlete, which carried a certain reputation. But he’d been smitten with her from day one.
He leaned forward and stretched out his arms. He was insanely tall, and even though he was sitting on a kitchen stool, his knees seemed to reach up to his ears. Adleigh and I were on the incredibly short side of the height spectrum. He towered over my sister by more than a foot.
“Every once in a while, I get my shit together and impress your sister,” he said proudly. “Which is not easy to do.”
“Don’t I know it,” I said, laughing. Adleigh continued to stir her watery eggs. Their vibes were so off. Shane was like the cat who ate the canary, but Adleigh was taking her scrambled eggs very seriously. “You okay, Ad?”
