“Like the country Thailand?” Simone asks.

“Yesssss!” Amy hops in circles now.

“Cool. When would you be going?”

“Next weekend. Luckily, my passport’s in order since I went to France with my family last summer. But can you believe it? Thailand!”

“Is this with the JD Lee you’ve been talking about?”

“Of course!!” Amy’s eyes widen with a realization. “I’ve got to go shopping!”

She grabs a slice from the open box of pizza between me and Simone before rushing off to our room.

Simone looks at me in some disbelief. “Thailand? Next weekend? That’s short notice, but this guy must be serious about Amy. By the way, how did it go with your guy?”

My cheeks become warm. After Darren left, unable to focus on my paper, I went to see if Simone was up for watching The Wire and found she had fallen asleep. I channel flipped for a while, eventually dozing off on the sofa with CNN playing in the background.

“Good, I think,” I respond. “I got invited to Thailand, too.”

Simone’s bottom lip dropped. “I am so missing out! Are you guys for real?”

“I don’t know how serious Darren’s invitation was.”

“Darren is the cousin of Amy’s guy?”

I nod and take a sip of my morning orange juice. Not the best beverage pairing with pizza.

“Damn,” Simone sighs. “These guys must be loaded if their idea of a next date is Thailand! Is there another cousin I can date?”

“Julie okay with that?” I tease, referring to a woman whom Simone, who’s bi, has been seeing.

“I think she’d understand if I get to jet off to Thailand at a moment’s notice,” Simone joked. “These guys must be serious about you and Amy.”

I shake my head. “Just because they can afford to take someone to Thailand doesn’t mean a thing.”

I suddenly wonder what costs Darren expects me to cover. I certainly can’t afford the plane ticket.

“I bet guys with money like to show off to anyone and everyone,” I add. I think about the designer clothes Darren wears, the fancy nightclub he owns, and the Porsche Pana-whatever car he drives that he and I joked about as a penis extension.

Simone reaches for another slice of pizza topped with mushroom and pineapple. I had thought it an odd combination at first, but to my surprise, it works. “So you don’t see it as serious?”

“Definitely not. We don’t know each other that well. He’s not even my type.”

“What’s your type?”

“Someone non-glamorous who wouldn’t be caught dead at a fundraiser for Drumm.”

“You were at one.”

“I didn’t know it was a fundraiser for him! Did I tell you Darren’s ex is dating Drumm’s son, Eric?”

“She sounds like a bitch.”

I reach for a second slice of pizza for myself. “She’s not wrong when she says that Darren is ‘slumming’ it—”

“Bitch.”

“—but I’m not his type in other ways, too. I’m opinionated, politically progressive, not a lingerie model…”