She hates the idea of it sitting around in her room, taunting her, so she leans her body back in the open door and thrusts the package at Cass so suddenly that Cass throws her hands up to defend herself before she realizes what it is, and takes it.

“For me?” she asks.

“Merry Christmas.”

“I didn’t get you anything.”

“I don’t celebrate Christmas,” Lulu reminds her.

“Hm. True. Still.”

“It’s not—it’s just sentimental,” Lulu says. Great. Perfect. That’s definitely gonna make this look casual.

“Can I open it?’

“Of course.”

Lulu loves to watch Cass tear the paper off of something. She doesn’t slide a thumbnail under the Scotch tape to preserve the wrapping. Instead, she rips it all to shreds.

“The Bloody Chamber,” she says. “Angela Carter.” The volume is a slim paperback with a beast’s head drawn on the cover.

“It’s a version of the Bluebeard story,” Lulu says. “It’s supposed to be beautiful.”

“Thank you,” Cass says. “I can’t wait to read it.”

She presses the book to her chest and looks up at Lulu, smiling.

Helpless against herself, Lulu smiles back, and leans in to kiss her.

Lulu keeps expecting Bea to message her, but it keeps not happening. They’ve never fought before, and she doesn’t know how to handle it. Does Bea’s silence mean she’s still mad about their conversation the other night, and Lulu should leave her alone? Or is she taking Lulu’s silence to mean Lulu is mad, and it’s her job to make the first move?

She stews on it through Christmas dinner (delivery from Café Gratitude, so at least it’s edible) and while she and her mom and Naomi watch Love, Actually. Finally she decides Christmas is as good an excuse as any, and sends Bea a picture of herself wearing her Shapiro sweats with the message:

Merry Christmas my goyishe princess!
Happy Jesus!!!!!
Can you believe what my mom made us wear today

Haha, Bea sends back.

Classic.
And happy hanukkah to you

Hanukkah ended a few days ago, but of course Bea doesn’t know that.

Lulu waits for her to say something else—something about how annoying her mom is, or what she’s been up to with her family, but nothing comes. Lulu even puts her phone down, goes into the kitchen, and eats a paleo-brand yogurt (she doesn’t think they had yogurt in the Paleolithic era, but whatever, it tastes fine), and still nothing.

She can’t help herself. She writes, Not to be weird but since when are you and Kiley BFFs?

Bea responds, I thought you guys were cool?

She said you’d been hanging out
At that hotel place