“Do you want to come home with me?”

“So forward. I’m a lady, you know.”

“Rory.”

Then I say what I know I shouldn’t.

I say yes.

—

We make it inside but not up the stairs. His hands are in my hair; mine are unbuttoning his jeans. His lips are on my neck, and I’m not thinking about anything but how good it feels to be with him.

When it’s over, we lie on the rug, listening to each other breathe. He takes my hands in his. I like when his hands swallow up my hands. I like everything about him.

“You want water?” he asks me.

“Mm,” I say. “Thank you.”

He gets up and goes to the kitchen. I put my pants back on and sit on the couch. I pull one of the blankets around my shoulders like a cape.

He comes back and hands me a glass.

“You want to talk about your bad week?” he asks.

Do I?

“Actually, yeah,” I say. “I kind of do. Is that all right?”

“No, I just asked to be polite. I don’t really give a shit,” he says, grinning.

I throw a pillow at him.

“I want to hear,” he says. “I’m relieved you weren’t avoiding me.”

I was avoiding him, but he doesn’t need to know that.

“Well, my mom’s here and our relationship is not great at the moment. I don’t think it was ever great. I just didn’t know better when I was a kid. It’s that thing like when you’re in a cult and you don’t realize you’re in a cult until you’re out of the cult,” I say, stretching my legs over his lap.

He rubs my feet. “Right,” he says. “Are you comparing your mother to Charles Manson?”

“No, I would never,” I say. “Her vibe is way more Heaven’s Gate.”

“I’ve met your mother, and I could see it,” he says, wiggling my toes. “Sorry. I don’t mean to make light of it.”

“No, I know,” I say. “It’s just complicated. Scarlett didn’t have the same experience as I did growing up, so it’s different for her. Their relationship is good. And it just feels like it’s on me, like I’m the problem child.”

“Yeah, I get that.”

I tell him about the baby shower, about Joann showing up, how the whole thing was tense and weird. I tell him I got into arguments with my mom and Scarlett but don’t specify about what. I tell him how no one called me when Scarlett went to the hospital.

He goes rigid. “Wait. What? Is she okay?”

“Everything’s fine. She was taking my mom to the airport, and she had pains or something, so they went to the hospital. And when I show up, the first person I see is Matty.”

“Fuck that guy.”

“That’s what I thought,” I say. “But turns out, so Scarlett told me he left, right? So I’ve been thinking for weeks that this guy bailed on my sister.”