“Not that honorary shit boot,” Iris said, holding up a hand. “Because honestly, Josh is gonna Josh, and we’ve got you and Ruby, and we always will.”
Claire frowned. “Then what are you talking about?”
Iris glanced at the ceiling, her mouth moving as though whispering a prayer to the gods for help, before leveling Claire with wide eyes. “Delilah, my darling, lovesick best friend. Delilah Green.”
Claire shook her head. “Nothing. There’s nothing to do about her.”
Iris and Astrid eyed each other over Claire’s head.
“What?” she said. “There’s not. And I’m not lovesick. I’m just...” She looked around at her melancholy nest, all the signs of a devastating breakup littering her living room. “It doesn’t matter. Delilah’s gone.”
“Oh, honey,” Iris said. “If you think that woman isn’t completely in love with you, you’re even more clueless than I thought.”
“What?” Claire said. “No. She’s not. It was just sex.”
“Claire, you don’t dojust sex,” Astrid said softly. “And you never have.”
“But she does. She made a bet,” Claire said, ignoring Astrid’s observation. “She made abetthat she could sleep with me, you said so yourself, and—”
“No one who’s only out to piss off their stepsister looks at someone they’re already sleeping with the way Delilah looked at you,” Iris said. “On the camping trip? At the vineyard? Hell, even at Vivian’s, she couldn’t take her eyes off you.”
Claire shook her head. “No. No, she doesn’t care about me. Sheleft.”
Astrid sighed. “She left because she doesn’t think anyone here wanted her to stay.”
“I told her,” Claire said, tears finally welling up and spilling over. “I told her to stay.”
Neither of her best friends said anything after that. What wasthere to say? Delilah was gone; it didn’t matter what Claire felt for her, or what she might have felt for Claire. New York might as well have been a universe away.
Claire knocked back the rest of her wine, but before she could get up to offer everyone another round, her phone exploded in a flurry of text messages.
All of them from Josh.
Hey I’m heading out of town for a few days. I’ll be back on Friday, I promise.
What the hell? What are all these texts from you? Didn’t you get my text?
Shit, you didn’t. It has one of those little red exclamation points next to it. Shit!
Ruby’s texted me a million times. I didn’t get them until now.
Claire, I’m sorry.
I’m on my way to your house right now.
I’m thirty minutes out.
I’m pulling onto your street.
Ruby won’t answer her phone. Is it dead?
Shit, shit, shit.
I’m here.
Claire leaped up, eyes wide on her phone. “Oh my god.”
“What?” Iris said, standing too. “Is it Delilah?”
