Page 19 of Rumor Has It

“That’s a brilliant idea. Let’s do that,” Katie teased. She nodded towards their living room, her shaggy brown hair shifting with the motion. “Couch time.”

Becky sighed and took a big gulp of her coffee, but she didn’t argue. She helped Katie shuffle the pancakes and coffee to the coffee table.

Katie, who was truly just an incredibly tiny woman, opted to sit on the floor opposite the couch, tucking her legs under the coffee table. She reached across the small, two person Ikea table and grabbed Becky’s free hand. “Becky, you know you don’t have to tell me anything, right?”

Becky chuckled, but she nodded. She was fully prepared to give Katie every gory detail she asked for, but she really just didn’t know where to start. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know. You ask, I’ll answer.”

Katie bit her bottom lip, clearly fighting back her excitement at the concept of Becky sharing anything and everything for once. In her defense, Becky had never been in a relationship. She had hooked up with a few women in college, but none of them had felt right. It had always felt like something was missing. As much as she hated to admit it, none of them had ever compared to Wren Eames, so she had never bothered taking any of them seriously. Maybe she would keep that bit to herself.

Their two plates, plus the plate of pancakes, two mugs, and a bottle of Canadian Maple Syrup were definitely more than the tiny coffee table was meant to hold, but they made it work. As Becky snagged the top three pancakes, Katie cleared her throat, clearly wanting to get down to business. “When you said in your text message that you were completely wrong, what did you mean?”

Becky told her all about how she’d found Wren’s socials, what she’d seen, and how she’d interpreted it. “But you have to understand, it looked bad,” she added at the end, knowing it was a weak defense.

“Okay, fair,” Katie said, giving Becky the benefit of the doubt. But she didn’t add anything else. She just patiently started eating her pancakes and waited for Becky to continue.

Despite being hit with an unfamiliar wave of regret, she forced herself to continue. “As you can imagine, at sixteen, seeing her with someone else made me feel…”

“Used?” Katie offered when Becky couldn’t find the word.

“God, it was so much worse than that. Betrayed? Lied to? Devastated? I mean, I didn’t exactly have a really high sex IQ at sixteen, you know? It was my first time, but I hadn’t asked if it was hers. And not to scar you for life, but that week is still the best sex I have ever had. Admittedly, I had just assumed it wasn’t her first time, but I really hadn’t wanted to hear that she was more experienced, you know? So, I just never asked about her past. And when I got back and saw all of that, I just broke. Like, full-blown panic attack train wreck. Because, her having an ex was one thing, but her having a current…” Becky stopped her story long enough to shovel a massive bite of pancake into her mouth.

“And now you’ve learned that the girl in all her photos wasn’t her girlfriend.”

Becky took a bigger drink of coffee than necessary to prolong the next bit. “No, I learned last week that it was not her girlfriend. It was her best friend. Her best friend who has been with the same BOY since they were in the fifth grade. They’ve never even so much as kissed. And I blocked her on everything: socials, her phone number. Completely blocked.”

“Yikes.” Katie flinched. Becky wasn’t sure if Katie flinched because of her blunt response or because of Becky’s actions. Either way, it was a completely fair reaction.

“Yep.”

“Okay, well, what about the sleazy “I can sleep with a super model” bet?” Katie asked, clearly trying to come to Becky’s defense.

Becky groaned and hid her face in her hands. “She’s been dating a woman for the past year who is literally a Victoria’s Secret model.”

Katie’s jaw dropped. “You’re kidding.”

“Nope. Andrea Santorini. And worse, she’s a total bitch!”

Katie frowned. “Do we think she’s a bitch because she’s dating Wren? It’s cool if that’s the answer. I just want to be on board correctly.”

“No. Look at her Instagram.” Becky sighed. Wren was supposed to have a big talk with her last night and ask her to take the photo down. On one hand, she hoped the photo had been taken down for Wren’s sake. On the other—and it was only a very small hope—Becky hoped the photo was still up so Katie would see it and understand why Becky’s feelings towards Andrea were justified.

Katie pulled her phone out and pulled up Andrea Santorini’s Instagram page. A few posts back was her coming out post. Katie swiped through the pictures, her thick eyebrows disappearing behind her bangs in shock. Becky let out a small sigh of relief that she wasn’t going to have to explain, calmly, why Andrea Santorini was such a bitch. But her heart also ached for Wren at the fact that the photo was still up.

“Jesus. You can count her abs. Has she always been this hot? I’ve never really looked at her in any other way than the enemy, trademarked.”

Becky rolled her eyes, but she could feel the blush creeping across her cheeks. “Um, yes. She’s always been that hot. And she’s specifically asked Andy to take that picture down, and Andy hasn’t.”

“I mean, I can see why she doesn’t want it up. This is…. spicy.”

“Right?” Becky tried to not sound so damn thirsty about it, but Katie shot her a look that told her she would need to tone it down if she was going to make it through the rest of this conversation without having to address how she was feeling about everything now that she knew that Wren wasn’t a shitty person like she had always thought she was. Instead, she was actually kind of lovely—the way that she had a whole photo album dedicated to her stepsister and their adventures, how vulnerable she had let herself be about the photo incident, the fact that she had waited on Becky before they went out even though they weren’t on good terms at the time, and how she always asked if Becky needed to use the restroom before she had taken a shower.

“So, what now?” Katie asked, delicately.

Becky shrugged. “I mean, this last week was honestly kind of nice. I think after everything, we’ll be able to be friends.”

“Hm,” Katie said rather nonchalantly, seeming to drop the whole conversation entirely. “Good for you. I hope I get to meet her sometime.”

Becky nodded. “I’m sure at some point, you will.” She could tell Katie wanted to say more, but she also knew that Katie could read her like a book and that she probably had started to look a bit like a cornered cat. She was thankful for Katie in ways she would never be able to express, and in that moment, she was reminded of every single one.