“Spit it out, man!” Sarah yells.
“He’s Cora’s ex.”
Sarah gasps like she’s in one of our favourite telenovelas.
“What?” I ask, deathly low.
Cora, Caleb’s older sister, is the spawn of Satan. We’ve often joked that Caleb is such a good guy because there was no evil DNA left once she left the womb. Cora told Sarah she lookedtiredonher wedding day. She also asks me to remind her of my nameeverytime we’re at the same event, even though I’ve been an adjacent part of their family for the better part of fifteen years.
Other than her beguiling personality, all that I’ve heard about her in the last few years is that she was recently engaged to anddumpedby a man named…Robert.
“Why is he using so many identities?” Sarah asks what I’m wondering out loud, her voice barely audible. “Why did you tell me about aRobbieand not aRobert?”
“Robert is RobbieandBo,” Caleb clarifies, as if we haven’t put that together. “Cora insisted on calling him Robert. My dad started calling him Robbie, so I did too. I think he mostly goes by Bo these days.”
“Sothisis Robert who left his fiancée out of the blue? That Robert?” Sarah asks, pacing in small circles.
Caleb grimaces but nods.
“Cool, cool, great. So what I’mhearingis that my baby daddy is known to fall in love with women who seemingly enjoy hunting children for sport”—I inhale sharply, my voice cutting out—“andthenproceeds to drop them like they’re hot garbage?”
“Well, I mean,” Sarah says, crouching closer to me across the counter, “somewomenarehot garbage.”
“That’s my sister!” Caleb protests.
“You know who she is,” Sarah fires back from behind gritted teeth.
“How did you not know?” I shout at her.
“I avoid Cora like the plague. You know that! I never even met the guy!”
“I feel like I’m going to be sick,” I say, nausea climbing. But no one is listening. Sarah and Caleb are squared off with each other. Sarah is poking his chest as he backs away slowly.
“Why thefuckwould you try to set Win up with Cora’s ex?”
“It’s not as bad as it sounds. Robbie is a good guy. He’s—”
“This is why you have to run all of your decisions past your wife!”
“Wait…” I say, far too quietly for them to hear as I press my palm into the clammy skin on my forehead.
“I didn’t think he’d even come to the party. But he and Win are very similar. Clearly I was right!”
“Oh, because they’re both disabled? You prick.”
No one else seems to notice that the room is spinning on a tilted axis. I walk over to the tap and try to splash cold water on my face.
“Obviously notjustthat!”
“So what? What would possess you to do this?”
I’m actually, very much, definitely going to be sick.
“Like Isaid;he’s a good guy! It’s only the Cora thing. It’s not—”
Caleb and Sarah are interrupted by the sound of me barfing into their kitchen sink.
CHAPTER 7
