“I’ll bet—” Wait. Hold on. What?
“If I knew you worked here, I wouldn’t have come in,” she snapped. “And just… just so you know, I think it’s terrible how you’ve treated your brother.”
A giant fireball exploded inside my head. “Me? What the hell are you talking about? And since when have you talked to Eddie?”
“Since yesterday morning. When he was leaving on a plane.”
I stared at her. “Bullshit!”
“What’s your problem? He’s my boyfriend, and he’s flying halfway around the world, so I wanted to see him. It’s what people do—not that it’s any of your… your… Whatever!”
Shock made me feel momentarily light-headed. “Boyfriend?Boyfriend? Boy-friend?”
She didn’t answer. Maybe because I was acting like a malfunctioning robot. Customers were staring. I just couldn’t wrap my head around it.
I cleared my throat and lowered my voice. “Since when?”
“For a while. Months. I… we… Stop it, Frida!” She untangled the dog, who was running around her legs with the green pirate pickle. “I don’t know! We’ve been talking online since my accident. You probably don’t remember what happened thatnight because you were too drunk, but he was my… my…”
What the hell? Was I in upside-down world?Eddiewas the drunk one that night—not me. And she’d been seeing him for months? Since I’d moved out of my parents’ house.
That piece of rotten garbage shitstain racoon-fucking…
I silently screamed.
“He was my… that thing in armor,” she said weakly. “Shiny. On the horse.”
It took mewaytoo long to realize what she meant.
“Knight?” I gritted my teeth. “Are you fucking kidding me? Eddie, a knight?”
“You’re an agent of chaos. That’s what Eddie told me. Ruiner.”
I pressed a hand to my heart. “Me? Ruiner?”
“You got him kicked out of college.”
“As payback for what he did to me!” I said, nearly shouting again. “He’s a liar, a manipulator, and a con man. He’s Machiavelli with dimples.”
“Um… no,” she said with a bitter chuckle. “Eddie’s many things, but he’s no evil genius.”
“Wanna make a bet? He’s got everybody fooled, even you. The real Eddie isn’t good. The real Eddie stole my girl and got me kicked out of my family home.”
My aunt whistled and gave me peeved look that told me to tone it down. I got that look from her a lot lately, so I just raised my hand to signal that her message was received. I was scaring our customers away.
No one likes an angry sales assistant.
Jane didn’t like it, either. She squared her shoulders as if I’d insulted her. “Well, I don’t see why you expect me to just… believe you.”
“Why?” I was taken aback. Not sure why. It was just so insulting that she would question things I knew to be fact.
“I’m sorry. I know Eddie. I trust him.”
“Oh, do you? Do you really?”
“Yes!” she said loudly. “We’re serious, actually.”
“Ha, doubt that. Maybe you are, but he isn’t. Trust me.”
