We aren’t really sleeping together.
I should have set her straight, right? Should have told her that she’s not the type of girl I fuck, let alone date.
Except I did fuck her.
Well, half fucked. I didn’t take off my pants.
The yard in front of her parents’ house is freshly tilled, the scent of topsoil and fertilizer filling the air with an earthy smell.
Mandy clutches the wine in front of her like a shield as we make our way up the walkway.
Before I can reach out to ring the doorbell, Mandy has already pushed the door open.
“There you are.” Her mother hurries over to her and immediately reaches over to pull on the waistband of her skirt.
“Mom!”
“Salinger doesn’t want to be seen with you if your skirt’s riding down that low. It needs to sit at your natural waistline. Salinger!” Gale motions me down so she can kiss my cheek. “You look dashing as always, and you brought wine. You didn’t have to do that. Mandy, why did you let him bring this wine?” Gale pulls the bottle out of the bag. “It looks expensive. Mandy, is this expensive?”
“You’re worth it,” I assure Gale, who beams at me.
“Keep that away from Mandy’s grandmother.” She lowers her voice and hands the bottle back to me. “She can’t handle it. Oh, Amy.” She turns to her youngest daughter, who is in the middle of the sunken living room screaming at a teenage girl in a crop top and pink sweatpants. “Think of your baby. You have to manage your stress levels.”
“I’m going to be your stepmother, Isabella!” Amy insists. “You listen to me and put that phone away right now.”
The girl is ignoring Mandy’s sister and instead entranced by her image in the phone screen. “Hey, girlies, it’s Isabella! We’re back here live with the next episode of the Williams family telenovela. Your girl is here with the ex-stepgirlfriendie, there in the back, and the new stepbitchy. Say hi, Amy! Can you believe”—the teenager pouts at the phone screen—“that she and I are almost the same age?”
“I can.” Mandy’s grandmother waves to the phone. “The gene pool really needs more lifeguards.”
“Shout out to Granny Evelyn! Go on, girl, with your trendy name. Can you do the sponsor shout-out today?”
I slide past them to the wet bar, where Mandy’s father stands with a thousand-yard stare, looking out the window to his lawn.
“Shut the front door!” Isabella yells at me and fans herself dramatically for the camera. “Youguys, who is that?”
“Isn’t he hot?” Gran whoops. “Look at that man. And”—she pulls a phone out of her bra—“I have a photo of him shirtless.”
“Gran, Isabella, stop that right now.” Mandy rushes over.
Her mom chases after her with a safety pin, calling, “You’re gaping, Mandy!”
“Be proud of that hot piece of man-ass you’re banging!” Gran whoops.
I set the bottle of wine on the polished wood of the wet bar.
“Supposed to rain tonight,” Mandy’s dad says.
“Get a load of this chest,” Granny Evelyn tells the camera. “Mandy, you get the whole cow at home, so let us have this. Don’t mind my granddaughter there in the back.”
“Looks like she needs some of that hair serum from today’s sponsor.” Isabella blows a kiss to the camera.
“Worried about the rain washing out the topsoil.” Patrick sighs heavily.
“Ex-stepgirlfriendie!” Isabella chirps at Lauren, who appears with a mug of wine in her hand.
“I just want to tell every one of you out there,” Lauren says, wiping at her makeup-gooped eye, “that even if someone betrays you, even if your dreams are crushed and the person closest to you uses you, you can still rise out of the ashes.”
Mandy’s grandmother starts humming a hymn.
