“Okay. What do you love about Alex? Have you ever been married before? Engaged? What do your finances look like? Health insurance? Is your family wealthy or poor? Has Alex met your family? How did that go? He’s not Jewish and you are—is that going to be a problem for you? How will you raise your children? We’re not really churchgoers, but we believe in sweet little baby Jesus. Do you even want kids? How many? Have you talked to Alex about it? Because it’s kind of important to get that stuff figured out. You know that Alex isn’t going to be in the Army forever, right? I mean, it’s great for now, but eventually, he’ll want to move home and help his brother and Trev with the family business. Are you cool with that? How do you feel about living closer to family? We’re kind of all up in each other’s shit, but we also are a huge help when you need it, flip sides to the same coin.”

I stared at her in shock, my mouth hanging open.

“You wanted the hard questions,” Morgan said with a chuckle.

I took a deep breath. “I’ve never been married or engaged. I have health insurance through the company I work for; it sucks, but I have it. My finances are shit, but I’m not in a crazy amount of debt. My family isn’t wealthy or poor—they’re somewhere in between. I’m not sure why that matters—I pay my own bills and have since I moved out. I was raised Jewish, but I’m no longer practicing, so it doesn’t matter what Alex believes in.” I paused for a moment, then clarified. “Actually, even if I was practicing, I don’t think I’d care.”

I stopped there, mostly because I couldn’t remember exactly everything she’d asked, but also because she was asking a lot of questions about things I hadn’t even discussed with Alex yet.

Ani gave me a small smile. “You’ll do,” she said.

“Found them!” Morgan announced triumphantly, holding up a couple of packages of socks.

“Sweet,” Ani replied, turning toward her cart. “Because the woman on the other side of me has been up my ass for the last five minutes instead of waiting her damn turn.”

My cheeks heated in embarrassment as the woman gasped, and I moved away quickly, following Ani and Morgan as they walked toward the shoe department. When I caught up to them, Morgan was laughing, but Ani was scowling.

“Did you see that?” she asked. “I could literally feel her breath on my neck as she tried to look over my shoulder.”

“Why didn’t you just move?” I asked, eyeing the rain boots on sale. Those wouldn’t stain; you could just spray them off with a hose.