“Funny story about that, actually.”
Ten minutes later, Isabella’s eyes are wide, her jaw slack with surprise. She’s been frozen like that for Alice’s entire story, her breakfast forgotten and her coffee growing cold. “Jiminy cremini, this is the craziest ship I’ve ever heard in my life.”
Alice grimaces. “It’s…um. Well. Definitely the mostconfusing situation I’ve ever been in, that’s for sure.”
“So, okay,” Isabella says, rubbing at her forehead. “Let me make sure I got this right. You’ve literally never spoken to this man, and his whole enormous family thinks you’re his, like, serious girlfriend, and you’re just…faking it and hoping you don’t get found out?”
“I mean, when you say it like that it sounds insane.”
Isabella laughs, something high and almost hysterical. “How else could you put it?”
Alice shrugs. “I guess I figured…they were so happy to think that he was settling down, that he was with someone who cared about him. I didn’t…I didn’t want to make any of this harder on them. If it makes them feel good to believe that, I guess I hoped it wasn’t hurting anyone.”
Isabella’s eyes get softer, some of the wild energy draining out of her. “I get that,” she says, her voice caring now, something maternal in it. She drops her hand on top of Alice’s and squeezes. “I do. But what about if he wakes up?”
Alice breaks her bacon into tiny pieces. “Originally, I figured they’d be so happy he was alive that they wouldn’t really care about me. But now…” Her lips twist up. “Now I don’t know. We’ve gotten closer than I thought we would. Especially me and Van. I don’t know, I think she’d be…it kind of feels like she, sort of…” She trails off, grimacing. She’s not sure how to say this. “I think she, like…cares.”
Isabella’s voice is gentle. “About you?”
Alice nods. “Yeah. Like, separate from my relationship to Nolan, or whatever. You know? Like, his mom cares about me because of what she thinks I meant to him, but for Van, maybe…it’s not about him. Or not all of it. I think some of it’s aboutme.”
Isabella almost laughs, shaking her head. “Holyeverything, Al. I mean, I know my life is basically a boring suburban mom cosplay right now, but, wow. This is all…holy ships,you know?”
Alice chuckles, taking a bite of bacon. “Tell me about it. A whole mucking flotilla of ships.”
After a couple more plates of bacon and one toddler meltdown, Alice finds herself led into the living room to sit on the floor with Hazel and Isabella. Hazel is playing with magnetic tiles while Sebastian is enjoying screen time, so mesmerized by some show on his iPad that Alice is pretty sure he hasn’t blinked in literal minutes.
Isabella has spent the last five minutes incessantly demanding that Alice show her a picture of Nolan, which has resulted in Alice trying to figure out Marie’s Instagram handle.
“I wonder why he doesn’t have an account,” Isabella says, leaning over Alice’s shoulder to look while half-heartedly stacking some tiles.
“Probably to keep all of the women in his life from finding out about each other,” Alice mumbles.
“Woof. Nice boyfriend you’ve got there, Rue Rue.”
“Tell me about it. You should have seen the receptionist at his—Oh! That’s her. Okay.” She clicks on Marie’s profile, and bless her oversharing generation, it’s public. Alice only has to scroll for a minute or two before she sees familiar faces. She clicks on the picture, and yup. There they all are. It’s everyone she’s grown to know in the last five days, and honestly it’s weird to see Nolan standing up among them instead of lying silently between them. Van had mentioned Chanukah, but it seems like they must celebrate both, since in the picture they’re all wearing thick Christmas sweaters, posed in front of a decorated tree.
“That’s him,” she says, handing the phone to Isabella.
“Daaaaaamn, girl,” Isabella says, grinning. “Your fake-boyfriend is hot!”
“Thank you. I picked him out myself.”
Isabella zooms in on Van and Marie, standing side by side. “That’s the sister?” she asks, pointing at Marie.
“Yeah. Both sisters.”
“Where is—Oh. I see. Sorry, I thought that one was a dude.”
Alice tries not to ruin things by getting frustrated. Straight people can be so freaking narrow sometimes. “That’s Van.”
“Huh,” Isabella says. Then, after a beat, “She’s hot too.”
Alice swallows, something in her throat suddenly thick. “Yeah.”
Isabella hands the phone back, but there’s something pointed and knowing in her face that Alice is absolutely sure is going to become very, very dangerous in the future.
Only a couple minutes later, when Alice is focused on making the magnetic tiles into a star, Isabella seems to get uncomfortable, some of the nervous energy from before popping back up. She’s shifting more than is warranted by the soft living room rug underneath them. “Hey, I, um…” Isabella looks down at the tiles in her hands, putting them together with way more focus than is required. She lets out a loud, long breath, and then she finally looks up at Alice. “I have to apologize.”
