She gives me a mischievous grin. “Itispretty exciting. I feel sexy, and dangerous. Like now that I’ve had sex with a woman, what other unexpected thing can Ido?”
It strikes me that in all the years I’ve known Carrie and had a front row seat to her dating adventures, I’ve never really seen her anything other than completely composed. She rarely gets excited about the guys she’s seeing, and almost always maintains the upper hand. This is new forher.
“I thought for sure you knew,” Carrie admits. “You’ve been so obsessed with my love life recently.”
I think back over the last couple of months, how wrong Iwas about everything. She’s never going to let me live this down. But one confession deserves another.
“I’ve…been trying to set you up with Ben.”
She bursts out laughing.
“I get it—you’re dating a computer nerd, so we all should too, is thatit?”
“Something like that,” I mumble.
She hesitates. “You’re not mad that I didn’t tell you?”
I shake my head. “I mean, if anything, this works out better for me than anyone. But fair warning, if you two go down in flames and she kicks me out of the apartment, you’re taking mein.”
“That’s fair. If me and Sam get serious, it’ll be me kicking you out.”
I pull Carrie into a hug. “Bitch,” I say into her shoulder.
“Love you too.” She squeezes back.
It’s unexpected, but I can see it. Sam is not who I’d have pictured Carrie with, but something about it just makes sense. I send up a silent wish for this to somehow just work between them, for theirs to be that against-the-odds love story that bolts from the blue.
—
It might actually be me who’s the most bashful when the three of us reconvene in the living room. It feels like I’ve just caught my parents kissing. We’ve hung out like this a million times before, but there’s a new vibe now, and we’re all settling into it.
Sam is surprised, then indignant, when she emerges from the shower and sees that I’ve come home. Her hair is wrapped up in a towel, her skin all pink, no sign of the sharp eyeliner that’s part of her uniform when she’s dressed to go out for theday.
She looks the way I felt after that night at Connor’s—shiny, and happy, and like the world is a brand-new place and she’s visiting it for the first time. It’s so rare to see Sam without her armor. The fact that she was comfortable enough to reveal herself tells me all I need to know.
“So,” Sam says a few minutes later, re-emerging from her room looking like a goth therapist. “Are we ready to discuss the fact Carrie fired you?”
I look up. Her entire face is a dare.
Fine.
“You suck for that,” I say, turning toward Carrie.
She’s racing to apologize before I’ve even finished the sentence.
“I know,” she says. “I’m sorry. I’m really, really sorry. It was such a mess, honestly. Brad wanted to fire you personally, he was so, so pissed off, and Connor was trying to salvage it, I think, and said it had to be done by HR because of company policy, and they were both in my office arguing about itforeverand there was no way I could warn you without him seeing, and then I finally got rid of Brad but he said Connor had to stay and I just wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible before he showed back up with security.”
God. That is a mess.
“OK,” I sigh.
“Don’t be mad,” she begs, throwing her arms around my shoulders.
“I’m not anymore,” I promise. I don’t have the energy to be. “That does sound shitty.”
“It was,” she says, still squeezingme.
“Good. Next,” Sam says. “What’s going on with Conrad?”
