“Hello lovebirds!” She was clearly wired again from being up all night and I had thought maybe she’d have crashed, but no such luck.
“Hi, Sloane,” I said, trying to give her The Signal with my eyes.
“What’s wrong with your eyes?” she said, completely missing The Signal. So much for that.
“Okay, well Lucah has to go home, so I’m just going to get him his stuff and then he’s going to go. I’ll be right back.” I poked Sloane as I passed her.
“Ow!”
“Be nice!” I said as I hurried to my bedroom for his stuff.
“So, you’re banging my best friend, huh?” Ugh! Did she not hear what I just said?
“Sloane!” I yelled.
“What? It’s a legitimate question. And we’re all adults here. Oh, and how did you like the steak? I wasn’t sure if it was going to turn out because the asparagus hasn’t been very good this year, but it turned out okay, right?”
I hung back for just a second, listening.
“It was wonderful, thank you so much for doing that. You’re a great friend to Rory, and any friend of hers is a friend of mine.”
“Uh huh,” she said and I could tell by the tone of her voice that she was still evaluating him. It was time to dash in and rescue Lucah.
“Here you go,” I said, coming out and shoving his bag at him. “I’ll see you tomorrow at the place?”
“See you tomorrow, Sunshine.” He didn’t kiss me good-bye, because we’d agreed no kisses good-bye after our nights now. He walked down the hall and waved before taking his hat out of the bag and putting it on his head.
I smiled and closed the door.
“Oh my God, you have got the fever, Rory.” Sloane fanned herself.
“I do not.”
“You are so totally and completely in love with him.”
“I am not,” I said, walking into the living room and avoiding eye contact with her. She just followed me, grabbed my shoulders and sat me down on the couch facing her.
“You love him, Rory.” This was a statement, not a question.
“No. Not yet. But . . .”
“Yeah, you do. Admit it. You wanna marry him and make little ginger babies and continue the ginger species. They’re dying out you know, which means you’re probably going to have to have at least ten. Come on. You can admit it to me. I won’t tell anyone, I swear. Scout’s honor.” Sloane hadn’t been a scout either, so she just gave me a peace sign with her fingers.
“Sloane,” I said. “Just don’t push, okay? I’ve got a lot to figure out right now and I really don’t want to talk about it.” She searched my face, and she knew me well enough to know when I shouldn’t be pushed. This was another quality that made her such good friend material.
“Okay, Rory. You got it. But I still want details about what you did.” So I talked about the night and the sticky notes and going to the museum and before I could stop myself I told her about the phone call and the brother.
“A brother? A bad boy brother? I wonder if he’s got red hair as well . . .” She stared off into space as if she was trying to conjure the brother with her mind.
“Sloane.” I snapped my fingers in front of her face.
“What? I was just thinking. Anyway, so it was good? You’re happy? You seem happy. I catch you smiling all the time. You didn’t smile that much with King Douchebag. And at least this guy hasn’t made you cry.”
Yet.
I rolled my eyes and went to take a shower before I headed over to my parents’.
Twenty-one