“I’m not sure she wants to get to know me,” she said finally. She pictured Juliet’s face right before she’d stalked out of the kitchen. Lucy had never seen such an expression of resentment and loathing before. Her mother might have used her as publicity fodder, and her boyfriend of three years might have broken up with her with no more than a shrug of apology, but neither of them had looked at her as Juliet had.
“She invited you,” Chloe protested reasonably. “So she must want you there.”
“That’s what I thought.” Lucy tried for a laugh and didn’t quite succeed. “But honestly? I have no idea why she invited me. She certainly isn’t acting like she wants me here. At all.”
“Then maybe you should ask her. Get to the bottom of this.”
Which would, of course, be Chloe’s advice. Chloe was confrontational, even aggressive. She’d faced down their smarmy landlord when the loft conversion they’d rented in South Boston during college hadn’t actually been all that converted. Lucy had hidden behind a stack of old copper piping and watched a huge rat waddle across the floor of their stripped apartment.
“I can’t,” she said.
“Why not? What have you got to lose?”
“A place to live? Seriously, Chloe. I think Juliet is more than half-inclined to boot me out.”
“Why? What happened?”
“It’s . . . just a feeling,” Lucy said, knowing she was being lame. On the screen Chloe’s image had unfrozen and then frozen again, so she was stuck in mid–eye roll. She should have known better than to expect unquestioning sympathy from Chloe. “It’ll get better, I suppose,” she said with absolutely no conviction.
“It will if you try,” Chloe said. “Maybe this is a chance for you to get to know your sister properly.”
“I thought that when I came, but honestly, Chloe, she’s not—”
“Get to the bottom of what happened between you two—”
“Nothinghappened.Before I came here, we had maybe five conversations total.”
“And why was that?” Chloe pressed, and Lucy slumped back against the bed, a pillow clutched to her chest.
“Because I don’t think Juliet was ever interested in knowing me.”
“But she invited you, so something must have changed. Maybe there’s some tension, but there’s also opportunity.”
Chloe always saw opportunity. They’d been friends since they were eighteen and as the years had gone on, Lucy had fallen further and further behind in the opportunity stakes. Chloe had graduated from Boston University summa cum laude; Lucy had barely scraped a 3.0. Chloe had gone to grad school; Lucy had started as a barista. And now Chloe had some high-flying job in marketing and her own office, and Lucy had . . .
A temporary job and a sister who hated her.
“All I’m saying,” Chloe persevered, “is try to see the bright side—”
“I’ve been seeing the bright side my whole life,” Lucy cut across her. “Youknowthat. But maybe there isn’t one here. Maybe I’m stuck in the middle of nowhere, England, with a sisterand a boss who hate me. And it’s freezing here, by the way. And it rains. Constantly.”
Chloe cocked her head. “Finished?”
“No, I haven’t mentioned the wind. It is so windy I am doomed to have a bad hair day for the next four months.”
“Now,thatsucks.”
Lucy let out a little laugh. She couldn’t hold on to her self-pity for long. “Yes, it does suck. Majorly.”
Chloe was silent for a moment, and Lucy wasn’t sure it was due to the lag in the Internet connection. “You don’t think things could get better with Juliet?” she finally asked.
“I don’t know if I want to try.” Chloe’s image had unfrozen again and she saw her glance at her watch. Lucy straightened and tossed the pillow she’d been clutching back on the bed. “I know you have to go. Thanks for listening.”
“Okay. Hang in there. Skype me on Saturday. I’ll only be at the office until lunchtime.”
“Right.” When the call had ended and Chloe’s image faded to black, Lucy felt the silent emptiness of the house around her once more. She hugged her knees to her chest as she considered, reluctantly, what Chloe had suggested.
Could she talk to Juliet about what had happened with their mother? Should she apologize?
