I point my fork at her. “Because he likes you?”
“You don’t think it’s a”—she sticks her fork in a meatball, crushes it—“a trick?”
“A trick?”
She shrugs. “To embarrass me.”
“I don’t follow…”
“What if Crystal put him up to it? What if I say yes, and it’s all a joke? Everyone will think I’m desperate.”
“First off, that’s crazy, but exceedingly creative of you. Second off, do you want to go out with him?”
“Maybe.”
“Maybe yes or maybe no?”
“Maybe yes.”
“Then say yes!”
A smile flits over her lips. “Dad will never let me go to the movies unchaperoned.”
“I’ll go with you. I’ll sit in the back.”
“That won’t be weird at all.”
I smile. “What if I drag your brother along?”
“You mean as your date?”
“What? No! As a friend.” I stuff a huge meatball in my mouth, feeling like all the radiators in the house have suddenly turned on.
“You’re red.”
“Shut up.”
Nev giggles.
I glare at her.
She just laughs some more.
I pinch her side. “Stop it. It’s really not like that between your brother and me.”
“Uh-huh.”
She finally stops laughing, but her shiny eyes stick to me as we rinse our bowls and slot them into the dishwasher.
“Want another blondie?” Nev asks before we return upstairs.
“Maybe later.”
Stomach full of pasta and butterflies, I trail her back to her girlie den. We watch two more hours of TV, and then I play grown-up and tell her she needs to go to bed.
“Can you stay in my room until I fall asleep?” she asks after climbing into her canopy bed.
“Won’t budge from the beanbag.” I pull out my phone and browse Mona’s Instagram feed until I’m all caught up on the happenings in her life, and then I read the millions of messages on the senior WhatsApp.
