He looked pained. “Oh, come on, Shiloh, you know what it means.”
“Cary and I never dated in high school.”
“Yeah, I know, but I don’t understand why.”
She shrugged. “We were friends.”
“No.” He motioned between them with his fire stick. “Wewere friends. You and Cary were caught up in some sexually charged will-they, won’t-they fuckery.”
“Well,” she said, “I guess the answer is—they won’t.” That was the short answer, anyway.
“So you just danced cheek-to-cheek all night and then had a long platonic talk.”
“Basically.”
He poked at some coals. “What a rip-off.”
“I don’t know what you want to hear...” Shiloh leaned forward with an elbow on her knee. “We’re not teenagers anymore. I’ve got kids, Cary lives on a boat—and all of our shared experiences are from adolescence. Just becauseyoumarriedyourfirst love—”
“Janine isn’t my first love,” Mikey said, quick to correct her.
“Cary told me you secretly dated in high school.”
“We did. And it was nice. We were good friends. But no, we weren’t in love—my first love was in college. She was a complete psychopath who made me sleep in my street clothes. And Janine... Well.” He looked down. “Her first love died of cancer.”
“Oh my god, really?”
“Yeah.” Mikey frowned, breaking his stick off into the fire. “Her first husband. It was tragic.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Me too. If I think too hard about it, I get lost...Heshould probably be here instead of me. But the thing is—I’m really glad to be here.” Mikey growled, frustrated, shaking his head. “Anyway. Janine and I never would have stayed together in high school. We were both only half-baked and double stupid back then. She broke up with me after prom because I didn’t believe in Jesus. Now I paint, like,actualprofanity, and she wants to have babies with me.”
Shiloh was biting her bottom lip and laughing softly. “I feel like this proves my point—high school relationships aren’t magical. They’re not destiny.”
“Pfff,” Mikey said. “Janine and I had nothing on you and Cary back then. You guys were attached at the brain stem.”
“Yeah...”
Shiloh couldn’t disagree. Theywereattached. They had something. But she didn’t think that it meant...anythingnow.
She didn’t want to spend her whole life trying to make it mean something.
“I’m really glad that Cary and I finally talked,” she said. “If you want,you can take credit for that. For resuscitating our friendship. He said maybe we could all hang out when he comes back for Christmas.”
Mikey’s high-beam face lit up again. “Heck yeah! That’d be great. We need to do that! We’re never all three in the same place.”
“I mean, I’m always in Omaha...” Shiloh frowned at him. “Did you really tell Janine that we’re alike?”
“You and Cary?”
“Yeah.”
“Yeah, duh. You’re practically the same person sometimes.”
“Uh,” Shiloh objected, “we couldn’t be more different! He’s in the Navy, and I voted for Ralph Nader.”
Mikey turned on her. “Are you fucking kidding me—did youreallyvote for Nader?”
