Most of my friends were exuberant in their jealousy, their happiness for me; his friends told me he was “a keeper.” I didn’t introduce him to the rest of my family, but Kaia met him by chance when we were out getting dinner and didn’t like him because she thought that maybe he was like this with every girlfriend. I didn’t want to hear it. Something about him nagged at her, so she started nagging at me. Which I thought was ridiculous, because I’m the older sister, which means I know better than she does. I defended him until I was blue in the face, even though my gut feeling was that she was right. Lucas told me that in previous relationships, he’d thought he was in love, but in retrospect, he actually hadn’t been. It was like . . . if he was in a relationship and it ended, he canceled out the whole experience and decided it had no value. Wasn’t real. This way, his next relationship going forward would be pure, and the new girlfriend would be the special, lucky girl to finally win his heart after a long string of users and fakers.

About a month in, paparazzi snapped pictures of him going to a private appointment at Cartier, and Kaia called me, freaking out. She was terrified he was shopping around for engagement rings and that I’d end up in his freezer. She said a lot of really bad things about Lucas that she’d been holding back, because she didn’t know how to put it and didn’t want to alienate me. I insisted we had the perfect relationship, that he was an outstanding boyfriend, more generous and complimentary than anyone else in existence. She asked one thing of me, one small request.

“Tell him you’re going away with me for my birthday weekend.”

I did, even though I felt sick with dread about how that would play out. Lucas did not want me to go. He volleyed back and forth between a few different manipulations: I’ll miss you too much. Can I come, too? If I can’t come, then that means Kaia doesn’t like me. And if Kaia doesn’t support our relationship, she’ll try to get you to break up with me. Kaia is against us being together. Kaia is a bad sister. Come to think of it, here’s a bullet list of X, Y, and Z reasons why you should cut her out of your life. For starters, I think she’s using you for attention because you’re more famous than she is, like everybody but me always tries to use you. She knows I see through her bullshit, which is why she’s trying to cut me out of the picture. Don’t let her do it, Bettie. Don’t let her manipulate you.

I assured him I wouldn’t be around any other men for the weekend. I assured him I wouldn’t drink. I would keep my phone on me at all times. I would text him every half hour—actually, even better, I would stay on the phone with him the whole time. Yeah, it sucked that we were apart, and I didn’t really want to go. I didn’t want to leave him behind. I loved him so much! More than anyone.