Two sides of the same coin watched each other and everyone else watched them.
She watched her sister measure her weight here. She was a guest and Bess was a teenager. A teenager with a wicked ability to call people on their bullshit.
Fae's elegant face, her scrutinizing eyes finally looked away from Bess's stare.
"Well, listen, we have some amazing food. I made a grilled peach and mozzarella spinach salad with balsamic vinaigrette." Ursula used the wooden salad tongs to put a bunch in Fae's bowl as Eloise poured her wine.
They took seats joining them and Tilly felt Fae's discomfort but it was drowned out by the kind welcome from her friends.Bess watched her sister quietly as she took bites of her sandwich nonchalantly.
She wondered what it would have been like to walk through teenage years with that kind of gumption. She had tiptoed, hoping she didn't make too much noise. She slid into empty rooms and sometimes dark closets to hide where she wouldn't have to add herself to the scale of equilibrium and possibly tilt it.
Even now, she caught herself holding her breath when walking into certain rooms in hopes that she didn't alter the atmosphere and be noticed.
Dr. Sarah once asked her why she thought she felt anxious around new people and new places. And it took Tilly a few sessions and quietly deep moments alone with a cup of coffee to realize that she was afraid to be known. The people who should have made her comfortable with who she was, her core people, taught her that she was not safe to be herself.
Sometimes she was even punished for it.
So every new person she came across was, in a way, an unsafe person until they proved differently.
She had grown in the last few years of her life, shedding the assumption that others were ready to weigh and measure her. Most were just trying to bungle their way through an imperfect life with an imperfect map just like her. And there was comfort in that.
"So what do you do, Fae?" Bess's question pulled Tilly from her memories.
Fae shifted in her seat. Her back and shoulders were painfully straight and Tilly wondered when her sister ever relaxed.
She couldn't even imagine her sister relaxing into a passionate kiss.
Like the one she'd shared with the chief. The memory burned, as it had been doing since the kiss, leaving a delicious, sizzling sensation in her belly.
"I organize events for various groups and help raise funds for local causes."
"That's your job?"
Fae paused, and Tilly watched in fascination as her sister seemed to struggle. "Well, in a sense. It's how I spend my time."
Bess smiled in understanding. "Ah, you're a trophy wife."
"Bess," Ursula reprimanded.
Fae's stiff shoulders stiffened even more. She looked impossibly difficult to move and even she could see that her sister was uncomfortable. Seeing her sister uncomfortable was rare.
"May I use your bathroom?" Fae suddenly stood.
"Uh, yeah. It's inside, third door down the hallway."
Bess shrugged nonchalantly. "What? I didn't say being a trophy wife was bad."
Eloise and Ursula gave her a look.
"I also didn'tnotsay it wa-," Bess said under her breath, but at the same time, and as the last word was leaving her mouth Eloise shoved Bess's sandwich into the teen's mouth garbling her words. She gave Eloise a wide-eyed stare telling her she couldn't believe she'd done that. They ate silently for a few minutes until Fae came back with a concerned look on her face.
"There's a tree growing in your bathroom? Like, a real tree."
"Oh," Ursula looked to Eloise as they tried to communicate. The tree only appeared when needed for calm nights and seemed the house was acting up.
Eloise nodded. "The house was built around it. Salem charm, am I right?" She laughed.
Fae frowned.
