“You’re selling something. What’s going on with you and Joe? I got a contact high standing next to you.” She fanned herself with her hand. “Like sitting in the infield at a Phish concert.”
Hailey’s eyes widened as she glanced between us. “Oh my God. Are you and Joe, like, together now?”
“I…We’re not…I didn’t…He drove me to Chicago.”
“That’s it?”
“Yes. No.” My face flamed. “I stayed with him at his friend’s apartment.”
Zoe patted my arm. “Don’t be embarrassed. When we let ourselves be in touch with our bodies, we can get in touch with our feelings.”
“There was no touching,” I yelped. “No feelings. Nothinghappened. Besides, I’m not ready to…I broke up with my boyfriend a week ago!”
My mother muttered something that sounded like “Good riddance.”
“Which means you’re ripe for a rebound!” Zoe said.
“I don’t think this is an appropriate conversation to have in front of Hailey,” I said in my best teacher voice.
“Don’t mind me,” Hailey said cheerfully. “I always wanted a sister. Not Brittany, obviously, since she broke my brother’s heart. But I like you.”
I managed, heroically, not to pump her for more info about Joe’s ex-wife. The state of his heart was really none of my business. I couldn’t nourish false hope in either of us. “I think you’re great,” I told her. “And your brother is very nice. But—”
She clutched her heart. “Argh! The kiss of death!”
“But I’ve barely seen him since we got back,” I continued doggedly. “It was just the one trip.” One time. One kiss.
Zoe regarded me over her bright red readers. “What happens in Chicago stays in Chicago?”
“Something like that.”
Hailey frowned, disappointed. “So, it’s like a situationship.”
“A friendship,” I said. “We’re friends. Friends is good.” I was proud to be Joe’s friend.
They all exchanged looks.
Time to change the subject. “So…” I turned to Hailey. “Who are you inviting to tea?”
She jerked a shoulder. “I don’t know.”
“I bet there’s someone in your class who—”
“Ugh. Stop.”
“When you two are done playing Queen of England,” my mother intervened, “I need these pots washed.”
“I don’t need you to make playdates for me,” Hailey said afterward as we stood at the wash sink.
“Okay.”
Her chin stuck out. “And I don’t need you to feel sorry for me, either.”
“I wouldn’t dare.”
“Ha.” But she was smiling a little, a sweet curve of the mouth that reminded me poignantly of Joe. She slid me a sidelong look. “Still friends?”
“Bosom buddies,” I assured her, and laughed when she groaned. And then, because I didn’t know when to quit, I added, “You know, people can disagree and still be friends. Just because you have a fight doesn’t mean your friendship is over.”
