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“You’re wearing his clothes,” Martha said.
“I know. I know. I bobbed for apples, and then I got wet, and Maeve and Charlotte are geniuses. I was sure my makeup was going to look a mess and I was going to embarrass myself, but it looked great. I mean, I know I’ve got to take care of my eyes.” There were still dark smudges from the eyeliner and the mascara.
“Enough avoiding the question.” Martha sighed. “Tell me what happened?”
“We went to his room, I took a shower. He went to get food. He took a shower, and he changed into just sweatpants.”
“Then what?” Martha asked.
She knew her aunt was going to be so disappointed. “Then we ate, we talked, we danced, we talked some more, and we fell asleep. I woke up and kind of panicked and called a cab to get here.”
Betty pulled away and made her way into the kitchen to see the coffeepot was already on. There was some leftover pumpkin creamer in the fridge, so she grabbed that as well as two mugs.
“Do you want a drink?” she asked.
“You snuck out?” Martha asked, nodding her head and taking a seat at the counter.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because we’d slept together.”
“Honey, you sleep together here all the time. It’s what has gotten you to sleep through the night. That is no different.”
“This felt different,” Betty said.
“So, you had sex?”
“Aunt Martha!”
“What? I’m not oblivious. I was young once and I had men, trust me. I also had a husband for a long time as well. I know what sex is.”
Betty felt her cheeks heating. “We did not have sex.”
“Do you want to?” Martha asked. “I was assuming you and Grim were getting close, but now I am starting to wonder.”
She sighed. “What are you starting to wonder?”
“If you two are even attracted to one another. You know what, scrap that, I know Grim is attracted to you, but are you attracted to him?”
“Grim is not attracted to me. There’s no way you can know that, or even ... know that,” Betty said.
“Actually, you can. It is in the way a man looks at you. It’s all in the eyes and the body language. It is really easy to see, you’ve just got to be willing to look and know what it is.”
Betty looked toward her aunt and shook her head. “It’s not like that.”
“Tell me, Betty, would you like it to be like that?” Martha asked.
“With Grim?” Betty asked.
“No, with the imaginary ghost, of course I’m talking about Grim. Stop trying to change the subject.”
She smiled at her aunt and sighed. “I guess, yes.” She shrugged. “It would be nice.” She frowned. “But you can’t say anything to him. He’s my friend and I absolutely love spending time with him, and I don’t want anything to spoil it.” She glared at her aunt, then handed her a mug of coffee with a nice large splash of coffee creamer.
“You don’t want me to play matchmaker?”
“Aunt Martha, please don’t. What if you’re wrong? What if he’s just being nice because ... he helped me.”