“Do you evenhavea cousin?”
“What are you talking about?” Oona said. “Listen, this doesn’t have to be a big deal.”
Alex stood in the doorway, then, blinking into the light. His Sunday morning flannel shirt, buttoned up tight. “Not a big deal?” he said.
“I just meant…” Oona said patiently. “Alex, I just meant that nothing has to change.”
“I think some things have changed already,” I said.
“For you, Doll,” Oona said. “Nothing has to change for you. I have my place, and Alex has the house, and we’re just taking things as they come.”
“Oh my God,” I said. “That sounds like a realrelationship.”
“Is that what you’re most upset about?” Oona said in a soft voice.
I was upset generally as well as specifically, but I hadn’t had the time to process what bothered me and why. “I thought you were trying to tell me you wanted me to get my act together,” I said to Alex. Then I turned back to Oona. “I thoughtyouwere trying to tell me to get the hell out.”
“You can stay as long as you like,” Oona said.
“I’m the one who owns the building,” Alex said. He turned to me. “You can stay as long as you like.”
Oona blew her bangs with a puff of breath. “Glad that’s sorted.”
“I obviously cannot stay there anymore. How long?” I said. “How long have you been, uh…”
There was a silence that stretched out too long.
“Together,” Alex said.
“Oh, thank goodness,” Oona said, grasping Alex’s arm gratefully. “I almost jumped in with somethingmuchmore graphic.”
“Howlong?” I asked.
“Um…” Oona said. She dropped her hand from Alex and turned to the calendar.
Which, I repeat, was on thecorrect month. How had I not seen the signs? December, the calendar said, so maybe not that long, then—
“Three months, twenty-seven days,” Alex said. He checked the top button on his flannel shirt. Already buttoned.
“Three months, twenty-seven days, I guess,” Oona said. Her eyes were begging me for something, but I wasn’t exactly sure what it was.
“Sounds like a pretty big deal,” I said. “Like something you might have mentioned to, you know, me.”
I was looking to Alex, but it was Oona who answered. “We weren’t sure how you’d take it,” she said.
And this is when I realized why I was upset. Not because I’d had to acknowledge that Oona and Alex were together—gag—sexually, but because it was clear theyhadhad their heads together over me, discussing me behind my back like I was someone who had to be worked around. A child listening to the adults murmuring over her head about how things would go. I’d had enough of that to last me five lifetimes.
“Does everyone at the pub know?” I asked.
“Everyone, who?” Oona said. “I hope not. Alex?”
His brow furrowed as he thought about it. Ofcoursehe would have to think about it and answer honestly and not just reassure me, when really all I wanted was reassurance that the Jims hadn’t been winking behind my back for three months and twenty-sixdays.
“Ned might know,” Alex said. “He saw me leaving the apartment one morning.”
“Oh for—Faith Hill. You’ve been hooking up in the—”
“Before you lived there, Doll,” Oona said quickly. “Since you moved in, Alex hasnotstayed over at the apartment.”
