Page 62 of The Roommate Lie

Alice still looks emotional, and I bump her shoulder playfully. She smiles, bumping me back, and I don’t realize Dottie is watching us at first. That she’s the kind of woman who can do a good deed and gather intel at the same time.

When I look over, she gives me a tiny grandmotherly smirk, and I glance away.

Before she leaves, Dottie hugs Alice goodbye. As I walk her to the door, she aims one last sweet smile at my temporary roommate. “Enjoy it, dear. Many happy returns.”

And that must be some kind of dad-worthy typewriter joke because they both cackle with glee.

After I usher her outside, Dottie’s grandmother act fades. Just a little. Just for me. “I saw that shoulder bump,” she singsongs.

“You don’t know what you saw, Hawkins.”

But I’m not fooling anyone. Least of all her.

Chapter Thirty-Two

ALICE

Now this is a lucky typewriter.

I decide to call her Little Red, and I dote over that typewriter in the guest room for a good ten minutes before I realize there are other things I should be doing. I haven’t talked to my family all day—or yesterday—and I always check in when I’m out of town. Which means it’s time to right my wrongs.

I stick with my siblings, opening the text thread I started for us a few years ago.

Alice:I hope everyone’s having a good day!

It’s just supposed to be a warmup message, a greeting to get us started, but once I hit send, I realize I’ve done this all wrong. My tone is off, for starters. Super Cheerful Alice has struck again, but that’s not my biggest mistake.

There’s nothing to respond to.

When it comes to my sisters and brother, questions work best. Or sharing news right off the bat. Anything that gives them a reason to respond, a natural reaction besides the bland thumbs up I get from Marcus and Nicki.

Though I guess that’s better than what I get from Emma: silence.

Before I can try again, my anxiety gets the better of me. Are they busy? Am I bothering them?Does everybody hate me?

I don’t usually feel this nervous about my siblings, but everything is different between us since I helped Nicki hide her eye condition. Especially with my sisters. But I don’t give up. Most days, if I didn’t text first, I’d never hear from them at all.

I switch to their individual text threads. Reaching out one by one to ask how they’re doing because it feels less intimidating that way. The responses I get are basically interchangeable.

Marcus:Busy.

Nicki:Fine.

Again, Emma doesn’t say anything…until she does. Proving once and for all that there’s something far worse than silence.

Emma:Stop texting me.

That one stings. Emma is the only person I know who could cut me to my core in three words or less, and I close my text app for good. At least for now.

I’m not sure what to do after that. The response I got from Emma sits with me longer than it should. Even messing around on my new typewriter doesn’t cheer me up.

It’s time for a reset.

I’m good at these. My mother likes to joke that my sisters know how to go to war, but I know how to rally. So that’s what I do.

I start by opening all the windows in the guest room. It’s a beautiful day outside, the mountain air cooler than you’dexpect. But the best part is the sound of the creek in the distance, the one that runs along the back edge of Charlie’s property. The faint babble of water soothes me instantly.

I’m off to a good start, but I know how to make this reset even better.It’s clawfoot-tub time.

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