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N I N E T E E N
- Maeve -
Maddy stirred her Bloody Mary with the celery stalk sprouting from it. “Quinn and I are going to James’s tonight to play board games if you and Kurt want to come.”
“I know,” I said. “He texted me last night.”
She perked up as if someone had tugged a string attached to her head. “Are you going to come?”
“No.”
Her expression dimmed. “Why not?”
I leaned back in my flimsy café chair. “Because it’s not a sincere invitation. Don’t you remember last time? When you accused me of trying to ‘Monica’ board games night?”
Guilt washed over her face. “I apologized for that, and you were being a stickler about the directions.”
“I wasn’t being a stickler,” I said. “I was just the only one who bothered reading them.”
She shrugged. “It’s supposed to be fun.”
“It’s still fun if you don’t give people pity points for effort.”
“The boys are delicate. They need their egos stroked from time to time.”
My face puckered like I’d licked a lemon. “No, they don’t. You think they stroke each other’s egos when they’re playing poker?”
“No, but Brie and I want board games night to be a safe space. We don’t want it turning into the smack-talk-a-thon that poker night is.”
“No offense, but I’d rather spend the evening talking smack than stroking your boyfriend’s ego.”
“You’re in luck, then,” she said. “We’re playing Balderdash tonight, and everyone knows the rules.”
“Balderdash,” I said cynically.
“You’re not even going to consider it?”
“Nope.”
She feigned a pout, sticking her bottom lip out as far as it would go.
“It’s nothing personal,” I said. “I just already have plans. Plus, Kurt and I broke up.”
“What? When?”
“Good question, but I’m not sure I know the answer.”
Her eyes probed mine. “Go on.”
“Promise to keep this between you and me?”
“Sure.”
I sighed, feeling a little guilty about unloading on my sister. But I craved the opinion of a woman who a) wasn’t a colleague b) wasn’t my mother and c) wasn’t my married best friend who’d never been dumped in her life because she married her childhood sweetheart. “I thought we broke up on New Year’s Eve.”
Her face collapsed like a sad accordion. “Oh, Maeve.”
“Stop making that woeful face or the story ends there.”
