Rowan glowers at me and waves a hand to the collection of cheap boxes in the corner of our open kitchen.
“Oh, I thought it went without saying that it would be incredibly un-special and probably a little pathetic in comparison to what Tina would make in her shop.”
“Sign me up,” Tina says brightly. Then she loops her arm through mine and starts leading me into the kitchen.
“What is this?” I ask. “Are we doing the women serve the men thing? Isn’t that incredibly sexist?”
“Yep,” she says. “We’re doing it anyway. I need to talk to you.”
My interest is piqued, so I let her lead me away as Rowan and Harry fall into a somewhat stilted conversation about the recycling schedule.
Once we’re in the kitchen (i.e., over the open threshold), I fill the kettle and put it on a burner. I’m taking mugs out when Tina says, in a whisper that’s not particularly quiet, “You had sex. I can always tell. It’s my super power.”
I fumble one of the mugs but get it onto the counter before it falls. Then I glance into the other room. From Rowan’s Dulcolax expression, I’m guessing he heard her. He’s still rambling on about recycling, and Harry is probably getting the impression he’s going to be a real hardass about getting our bins down to the curb.
“Are you sure you don’t just know because you saw me wearing a man’s sweatpants and shirt last night?” I ask, turning back to Tina. “Because that was a dead giveaway.”
Tina shakes her head. “No, this was more recent.”
I glance down to check whether my jacket has magically come unzipped. It hasn’t, but the sides of my shirt are gaping in a way that strongly suggests it doesn’t connect in the middle. So much for tying it at the bottom to keep it together.
“I’m on to you,” I tell her as I attempt to adjust the shirt to a higher level of respectability. “You’re way less psychic than you’d like everyone to think.” I can’t help but laugh. This explains why Rowan has been acting like a psychopath.
“So, you and Cole,” Tina says, waggling her brows. She’s so dramatic in everything she does. In some people it would be annoying or feel put on, but it doesn’t with her.
I can hear him telling me, “We should keep it to ourselves for now.”
“I’m going to have to take the fifth, temporarily,” I say. “And also ask you to keep it to yourself.”
She mimes zipping her lips, then shrugs. “Don’t keep it quiet forever, though. Secrets are no good in relationships. Trust me. You know…I met Zach because he was looking for someone to pose as his fake girlfriend with his family. It really fucking sucked when he had to admit it to everyone, but we got through it.”
“No shit,” I say as I sort through the boxes of tea. It looks like a good half of them are empty, but I find a couple of chai and a couple of berry blends that look all right, so I put them in the mugs. I hadn’t heard about that. “So his family didn’t mind?”
“Oh, the vast majority of them disowned him.”
“How about his sister?” I ask, surprised. I hadn’t heard any of this.
“Nah, she’s one of the good ones. We kept the ones we like.”
I shoot her agive it to me straightlook. “Harry told me she’s doing the show for the right reasons.”
She gives a big, bawdy laugh. “He told you, huh? Not a steel trap, my friend.”
Oops. I make a face. “Sorry.”
Her response is to wave a hand, almost swatting me. “It’s okay, though, it’s hardly a secret when millions of people are about to find out in a matter of days. As for Kennedy’s reasons…I guess it depends what you think the right reasons are. She certainly isn’t delusional enough to think she’s going to fall in love with some rich jackass.”
I nod, because that’s fair, and also because it sounds like Kennedy has her priorities in check.
Tina sneaks a look at me. “But falling in love isn’t the kind of thing you can plan, Holly Mayberry, whatever your grandmother might say to the contrary.”
“Oh, don’t get started on me with your mystical speak,” I say, forcing a laugh.
She lifts her hands. “I won’t,” she says, but there’s a twinkle in her eyes that says otherwise. “But you should know that I saw a heart in Cole Garrison’s leaves three weeks ago.”
Three weeks ago…back when I first started running into him regularly. I don’t react. I don’t want her to think I buy into any of this, even if the thought is satisfying.
“Are you sure it wasn’t a meteor plummeting toward Earth?”
