“I thought she was,” I say. “But she’s not interested so we’re just friends.” I’m not going to let on that I’m still holding on to hope that maybe we’ll be something more. It’s not like I’m expecting anything from Becca. I’m just hoping that in the future, if she ever reconsiders her position on relationships, maybe she’ll consider me as an option.
“Bullshit.”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” she says. “I said bullshit. You’ve got it so bad for that girl.”
“She’s not interested.”
“But you are?”
I walk over to the front step and sit down. Millie isn’t going to let this go until she gets something out of me, so I might as well get comfortable.
“Yes, I am. I’ve never felt this way before.” She raises her eyebrows at me. I get it. I’m like the boy who cried wolf, but instead of a wolf, I keep saying I’ve found the one. “I’m serious. This is nothing at all like any of the other times. I saw Becca from the stage for the first time when she was shooting our last show and I felt like I’d been struck by lightning. I couldn’t fucking look away. Every day that I spend with her as just friends kills me a little more inside. But that’s all she wants, so I’ll take it.”
Millie wraps an arm around me and gives me a little squeeze. “Come on. We’d better go in and make sure she’s alright. She looked a little shell-shocked when Mom hugged her like that. Something tells me she’s not used to having a lot of family around.”
I laugh. “You’re right about that. It’s just her and her mom. And her mom is something else, from what she tells me. It wouldn’t surprise me if Becca said she’d never been hugged before and that’s why Mom’s affection surprised her so much.”
“What on earth have you done to that poor girl by bringing her here? The neighbours call the cops on us when we have family barbecues because we’re so loud and crazy. She has no idea what she’s in for.” Millie laughs, shaking her head as she opens the door to let us in the house. “That girl is going to know the meaning of ‘touched out’ before she gets out of here tonight. Mark my words. Most women don’t learn about that before they have babies climbing all over them.”
I can’t even argue, because as soon as we get inside, I look over to the living room and I find Becca sitting on the couch. She has my mom snuggled up to her on one side, my sister Rose snuggled up on the other side, and she’s holding both Jack, the four-year-old junk ruiner, and his little sister Allie, the baby who just recently turned a year old. And she’s laughing at some story my mom and Rose are telling her.
From the looks of it, it’s a descriptive retelling of Jack’s triumph over me and my testicles last weekend.
Awesome.
