Page 46 of Mac Meyers Needs Me

Fee frowns at her phone. “Crap. I might have to bail on you guys.”

“What’s up?” Cammie asks.

“Hold on.” Fee brings her phone to her ear as it starts ringing. “What’s up, Lexi?”

Her face tells a story as her eyebrows pop, then lower, her bottom lip rolling between her teeth as she nods.

“Yeah. Yeah. It’s okay. I’m done with classes for the day. I can handle it, no problem. I get that you can’t be in two places at once. I’m on my way now. I’ll message Callie and let her know.” A pause follows and her expression softens. “No, really, I get it. I don’t want her navigating public transit when she doesn’t feel good either. I’ll stop at the condo and grab the car, first.” Another pause. “Love you, too. I’ll message when we’re home.”

“Everything okay with your sisters?” I ask when she lowers the phone from her ear.

“No, but yeah? There’s a scheduling conflict and they need someone to pick Callie up from school because she’s not feeling the best.”

“I can drive you,” I offer, already packing up my things. We haven’t been alone together since Chase dragged me out of her hotel bed two days ago. My memory is foggy, but I’m pretty sure we were cuddling when I woke up. I wanted to talk to her about the kiss, but I also didn’t want to make it weird for her, and then I passed out. Now might be a good time to finally have a truthful conversation about my feelings and how I don’t want her to be my fake girlfriend anymore.

“Are you sure? I’ll probably be a few hours and apparently Callie’s feeling pretty green,” Fee hedges.

“I don’t mind.”

“Tell Callie we love her,” Cammie says.

“Give her a hug for me,” Tally adds.

“Will do.” Fee hugs them and we leave the student commons and head for the parking lot. “Thanks for offering to come with.”

“I don’t mind. Maybe we can get in a little study time while we’re waiting for your sister to get home.” And possibly talk about that kiss.

“That’d be great. I love my psych class, but the first couple of quizzes have been all multiple choice and those aren’t my favorite.”

“They always have one trick answer. I probably still have my tests from that course. I know they switch them up every semester, but it doesn’t hurt to take a look,” I offer.

“Any help I can get would be great,” she replies.

We reach my car and she plugs her sister’s school into the GPS before I pull out of the lot.

“You and your sisters are close,” I say as we navigate city traffic.

“Yeah. Even with the big age gaps. Lexi and I weren’t as close when I was Callie’s age, because she was already in university, but then we lost our parents and she stepped in, and yeah.” She shrugs and her smile is a little sad. “Callie and I were always close because we have the same dad, though. It was different for Lexi. She didn’t have the experience we did.”

“How do you mean?” I ask.

“Our mom and her dad split up when she was really young and I think it was hard on her. Mom was angry that it didn’t work and blamed Kristoff for not being present.” She sighs. “He still isn’t. He’s a New York lawyer and work focused.” She taps the armrest. “My mom didn’t openly bad-mouth him to us, but it was obvious she harbored some resentment, if that makes sense.”

“I think so? It’s like my parents, maybe? They fought a lot when they were together. Then they separated, and things weren’t tense all the time anymore.” The worst was the stifling silence that lasted days once the fighting ended.

“How old were you?”

“Like seven.”

“I’m sorry. That must have been so hard,” Fee says gently.

“Parts of it, yeah.” I tap on the steering wheel. “There was some custody stuff that they mostly tried to keep me out of, but once they were living in different houses it got better. I used to get a lot of stomachaches when I was young, and those stopped after they split.” It felt like a big loss at the time, but I still have both my parents and Fee doesn’t.

“Probably anxiety?”

“Yeah, from the fighting,” I agree.

“Divorce is hard,” Fee says empathetically.