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“I was so focused on my exams I missed the email reminding me to file my end of termpaperwork.”
Unbelievable. Lil’s always been the brain of our family, but when her head’s not in a book, it’s in theclouds.
“Call the financial aid office. Talk tothem.”
“I did. I explained what happened. They wouldn't reconsider.” Her eyes are big and round like she knows she fucked up. “I’msorry.”
I don’t even know who she’s apologizing to. “It’s okay. I’ll figure itout.”
It’s one more weight on me on this already critical day, but I feel partlyresponsible.
Vi, Lil, and I might be sisters, but we were always distinctive. Vi was the popular one. Lil’s the smartone.
After Vi up and left in college with zero notice, my parents were as shocked as I was, only they blamed me, deciding I must have done something to drive her away. As a result, Lil got shortchanged, dealing with the awfulness plus my parents’ disappointment anddistraction.
I’m trying to make up for it. When Lil finished her first year at Columbia, I suggested she live with me. I don’t charge herrent.
As I rummage through the front hall console table, Lil asks, “What’re you doing the spastic gopherfor?”
“My bracelet. I can’t find it. I don’t want to pitch withoutit.”
Even though my sister left, I kept the one thing we always had in common—the matching Tiffany bracelets Vi got us when we were eighteen. She saved an entire summer for them, which was so unlike her I never forgotit.
“Did you have it afterbrunch?”
I frown. “I don’tremember.”
“You seemed weird when you got home,” she goeson.
I give up, reaching for my black strappyheels.
She moves between the door and me. “Did something happen at brunch? Like the waitress dropped her tray because she was checking out Logan again? You need to let me hang out with yourfriends.”
Lil might be so focused on one thing she misses all else, but she will dig until she learns thetruth.
I answer as honestly as I can. “Ben was nominated for this big award and asked me to be his date for the gala nextmonth.”
Lil’s face slackens. “Bougie crowd, uncomfortable shoes, pretentious types… but good armcandy.”
“He wants me to pretend to be hisgirlfriend.”
She grabs my arms, a dreamy smile spreading across her face. “You have to doit.”
That stopsme.
I think of how persistent he was yesterday, how stunned when I’d saidno.
None of it matters. I’m trying to put boundaries on our relationship—boundaries that are long overdue, especially if I’m entertaining the idea of an actual relationship with someone else—not get indeeper.
“You realize if you don’t do it, he’ll get someone else,” Lily points out as I reach for the door. “He’ll smile at her and kiss her and grab herass—”
“There won’t be assgrabbing."
“All new relationships involve ass grabbing,” she calls after me as I start down the hall. “It's a well-documentedfact!”
The entire way to the office, I try to focus on my pitch, rubbing my hand over my wrist where my missing braceletgoes.
Getting to the office always comforts me, because it’s mine. I created it from nothing. Sure, the building was here before, but all the activity in it started withme.
