He looks so damn earnest. So hopeful. Telling him the truth would be like sending a kid’s balloon into the wind.
“Yeah,” I say. “It was cool.”
He grins. “You wouldn’t be so wiped if you hadn’t stayed out late with your new girl.”
I tighten my grip on the steering wheel. It’s the first time he’s brought up Piper, and of course he’s being patriarchal about it. “She’s notmine. We’re friends.”
He chuckles. “In my experience, friendships have a way of becoming more.”
Were he and Tati friends before they hooked up?
Of coursehe knows Piper’s sister. There’s one woman in all of Sugar Bay who I’ve got roundabout access to, one woman who might distract Davis long enough to let me enjoy a full night’s sleep and a morning run and a fucking breath, and he’s already bedded her.
We’re almost back to the Towers when he reaches into the glove box. I’m watching the road, so it isn’t until he chucks something small into my lap that I realize it’s a package of condoms.
“Have some fun,” he says. “But for Christ’s sake, be safe.”
I fire a glare in his direction.
Then I shut him out for the rest of the day.
Piper
Tati’s taking the afternoon off for her biannual teeth cleaning. She never misses dental appointments. She never pays bills lateor forgets to get her Volvo’s oil changed. She’s the most disciplined individual I know.
I get home from work not long after she gets home from the dentist. She’s in a foul mood. Apparently, she had to skip lunch because there was a catastrophe with one of the hot water heaters in the east tower. Thanks to her fluoride application, she can’t eat anything for another hour.
Lucky me.
She drags me to Publix, a grocery run I’m hoping will bank me enough sister points to get me out of the next chore on her list. When I was a kid, before Tati moved to Boston, she’d bring me to the store for donuts and Dr Pepper and Cheetos. Today, we fill the buggy by circling the perimeter. She’s always going on about how the aisles are stocked with processed foods that are trash for our bodies. She’s probably right. Still, I slip in NutterButters, a box of Lucky Charms, and a six-pack of Red Bull.
All in all, it’s an uneventful trip, until we’re on our way out.
Gabi’s on her way in with her mom and her twelve-year-old brother, Tyson.
I avoid eye contact like a boss, hoping they’ll go about their business.
They don’t, because Tati and her big-ass mouth call out hello.
Maggie grins and waves. She’s stunning, one of a few Black models to grace the pages of J.Crew catalogs back in the nineties. And she’s so nice. She gives Gabi a nudge like,Go say hi!
Tati has no idea that Gabi and I aren’t talking. Maggie must not either, because she cheerfully bags lemons while her daughter makes a slow shuffle toward us.
“Gabi, hi!” Tati says, pulling her into an embrace. Despite our history of (innocent) troublemaking, she loves Gabi, who gets stellar grades and plays piano concertos for packed halls. Tati has legit accused me of being a negative influence on my best friend. Like I’m capable of forcing Gabi to do anything she doesn’t want to do. Until the Damon incident, she was a willing conspirator in whatever mischief was on the docket. When we were younger, that meant pranking my sister or sneaking out to toilet paper the houses of boys who’d left us jaded. Later it became secret joyrides in Maggie’s BMW or wine guzzled behind my locked bedroom door.
Gabi’s gaze skims my newly darkened hair. I hate myself for wondering if she likes it. Maggie’s putting a bunch of bananas in her cart, and Tyson is poking avocados, looking bored. Hecan be a pain sometimes, but he’s the closest thing I’ve ever had to a brother. And Maggie treats me more like a daughter than Tati ever has. I want to run through the produce section and hug them both.
I resist because holy balls, Gabi looks like she’s about to breathe fire.
“I haven’t seen you since summer break started,” Tati says to her. “What’s been keeping you so busy?”
“Piano,” Gabi tells her. “Same as always.”
She’s been taking lessons since she was four and teaching them since last year. When we were twelve, her dad used the wordvirtuosoafter a recital at the Saenger Theatre in Pensacola, which earned an epic eye roll from his daughter. Gabi never boasts about her talent. For her, playing is the same as breathing: instinctive and sustaining.
My sister smiles. “Next time you and Piper are at our place, be sure to say hello.”
How dense is she?
