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“I can see now why you’re angry.”
“Oh, I’m not just mad, I’m livid.”
“And how does Shane feel about it?”
“What does he care?”
“Well, it’s his mother in the middle of this, too. I’m sure he has strong feelings about who his mother marries.”
“I don’t know if Shane has a strong feeling about anything other than himself, Violet. I’m not sure he’s even capable of feeling anything outside of what happens on that ice and in his boxer shorts.”
“Ah, okay.”
No need to argue with her about a topic that she is probably way more knowledgeable about than me. She’s been at VCU longer and knows those guys better.
I can hear her angry breathing over the phone and decide to distract her with a random piece of information she might find amusing.
“We got a Christmas tree,” I blurt out.
“What?”
“A Christmas tree.”
“I thought you couldn’t stomach the whole idea of decorations because of, well, you know.”
“It’s not a huge tree or anything. It’s a small thing covered in one string of lights and a few random gold Christmas balls.”
I stare at Neo’s little gift, which I’ve since placed on the island counter of our kitchen, and find myself smirking. How the heck did that guy get a decorated Christmas tree, leave it for me, and leave the apartment without me hearing a thing? Talk about James Bond.
“Facetime me. I want to see it.”
We hang up our cell phones and I call Kennedy right back. Her eyes are slightly sunken in, like she has had little sleep. This thing between her dad and Shane’s mom must be really taking a toll on her.
“See.”
“Aww, it’s kind of cute in a very Charlie Brown Christmas kind of way. I’m so proud of you. Where’d you buy it?”
“Well, that’s the thing.”
“What?”
“I didn’t buy it.”
“Explain yourself, love,” she says in a faux British accent again.
For a moment, I consider telling Kennedy that it was Neo who left the tree but then I’d have to explain how that came to be, and I’m not too sure she’d be happy to hear that I had lunch over at the ice house and then ended up here where I let him spend the night. It goes against every one of her “we don’t go anywhere solo” safety rules.
And she’d be one hundred percent right.
Out of sheer curiosity, I violated the girl code.
So I decide to keep my mouth shut.
“I found it.”
“So it’s like a little abandoned tree that you rescued? How sweet.”
“Yeah,” I look away guiltily from her face. “Something like that.”
