“I have really good news! First,” she says seriously, “I’m really sorry about Knox.”
“It was high school,” I say dully. “I’m over it.”
“I mean, no wonder you don’t like me.”
“Kathy, of course I like you. You’re my little sister. That’s just high school shit. I’ve moved on.” I rub my eyes.
“You see, Kathy?” Mom fusses over my little sister. “Winnie’s not mad.”
I sip my coffee and try to keep the room from spinning. “I’m going back to sleep.”
“I know you have an awesome life,” Kathy gushes, “and I don’t. So I talked to Fitz and—”
“Fitz bought Kathy a house!” my mom screams.
Kathy’s gleeful, and she and my mom hug and jump around the kitchen. My kitchen that I had to basically kill myself for a decade in private equity to afford because I don’t have a man in my life who just buys me a house.
“He bought you a—”
“You should have told him to buy me a house,” Gran complains.
“It has an in-law suite,” Kathy says, showing photos of the house on her phone. It’s gorgeous.
I had to buy a bit of a fixer-upper and tear out the bad ’70s renovations. This is a huge house, bigger than my house, a beautiful, fancy three-story Craftsman with a carriage house and a pretty garden, a better view, and all the historical pieces still there.
“Whoo!” Gran whoops. “My own digs.”
“We’re just a ten-minute walk away,” Dad says. “So your mom and I can still drop by and take care of your garden. I think you have rats living back there. Isn’t this great news!” My dad hugs me.
“Isn’t Kathy so amazing, getting Fitz to buy her a house?” Mom swoons. “Oh, I can’t wait to decorate.”
“Us a house,” Kathy says modestly.
“You okay, Winnie?” she asks in concern. “I thought you’d be happy. I mean, Fitz is so amazing. He’s, like, the perfect man. He’s thoughtful, and kind, and funny, and—”
“Yeah, he’s something, all right.” I rub myeyes. “So you’re moving out?”
“Yeah! It has some furniture in it already,” Kathy says happily. “We’re all going to go see it. But Fitz is giving us an interior-decorating budget.”
“So we might be living with you a little while longer,” Mom tells me.
“Er, no. He says we can stay in a hotel if there are renovations, but the house is in such good shape it doesn’t need anything.” Kathy gives a pained smile.
Of course it doesn’t. Because people just hand Kathy nice things, and I have to work for them.
“You go.” I wave them away. “I need to shower. Answer emails. I’ll come over later.”
“She’s hungover from alcohol and sex,” Gran says, herding my family out. “Give her a second for her vag to reset.”
I numbly climb the stairs up to my bedroom. Turn on the shower till it’s scalding hot.
A small part of me wanted to believe that it was a big misunderstanding.
I could go confront him, make a scene, but that’s just heaping humiliation on top of humiliation.
I just want to ghost him.
Never see him again.
