Page 28
His face flits to puzzlement. “Guy?” he says slowly.
“Because you…I was…” I look down at myself, then back up, into Fox’s clear and clearly confused eyes.
“I thought you were gay,” I say, point blank. “I mean, I didn’t think you were until then. But you wanted to kiss, uh, me. So—”
“I’m not gay,” Fox says. “I mean, I didn’t…I wasn’t…I’m not sure that that…”
“Hey, Tink?” A little voice drifts in from the shop area.
“Wendy?”
“Wendy!” Fox gasps, almost like he’s equal parts alarmed and relieved that she’s just burst in. “Hey, look, Tink, it’s Wendy.”
“I…see,” I say, tipping my head at her. “What’s up?”
“Nothing,” Wendy says slowly, her brows drawing together as she darts her eyes from Fox to me to Fox again. “Are you guys—”
“Nothing,” Fox says hastily. “I mean, we’re not doing nothing. Anything. Just hanging out in the kitchen, you know? What’s up with you?”
Dear God, Fox, I think, shut up.
“Are you hungry?” I ask her, more to the point. I seem to be regaining my sense of reason faster than Fox.
Wendy shakes her head. “No, I just um. I made this for you?”
She hands it to me—a piece of paper.
“Like you asked,” she says. “Um, let me know if you need anything else.”
With that, Wendy darts back out of the kitchen. Then comes back, snatches a banana from the fruit bowl, and scampers off for good.
I just stand there, clutching her page of notes.
“That was weird,” Fox says, craning his neck like he wants to make sure Wendy’s gone.
I snap back to life. “Yeah,” I agree. It was weird. Wasn’t it just yesterday that she was so hardcore about revenge? “Mood swings, I guess.” She’s got the hormone cycle going, at least.
Fox looks affronted. “Isn’t that kind of sexist?”
I hadn’t really thought of that. “Probably,” I acknowledge. “But it might still be true.”
I smooth the sheet down onto the counter and survey what we’ve got. The word INFORMATION marches across the top of the page in the purple letters of Wendy’s neat, slightly curving handwriting, bordered in a pink box.
Michael Darling
D.O.B.: May 8
27 years old
John Darling
AKA JD
D.O.B.: October 6
24 or 25 years old (not sure)
Wendy Darling
