Page 56 of A Break in Communications

She beamed. “Well, you said it, not me. I could kill for a cappuccino.”

I sighed, hard, unlocking the door and throwing it open. “Leave once you finish it,” I said, and she walked in with me, awkwardly standing at the door.

“Hey, uh… are you… actually crying? Like, seriously?”

I kicked my shoes off inside the door, hanging my bag up, and it felt a little too real when I said, “Things didn’t work out. With Lucy. After all. So let’s forget the whole thing over the weekend happened.”

And the universe had a bad sense of humor, because she furrowed her brow, put her hands on her hips, and she said, “Are you drunk? You weren’t even dating her, you were just leading her on and fucking her as you liked and telling everyone she was your girlfriend so you could get out of having to explain the real situation.”

I turned and shot her an incredulous look, blinking slowly. She rolled her eyes, turning to tug off her earmuffs, and her beanie, and her jacket, and her scarf, and her next jacket, and… well, so on. It kind of took the seriousness out of the moment when she took off winter clothes like a clown pulling out streamers.

“What are you talking about?” I said, finally, and she snorted, finally stripping her boots off and throwing them into the pile by the door.

“I’m talking about you bringing your fuckbuddy around the family and introducing her as your girlfriend so Mom gets off your case.”

“I just had a breakup, and you decide the best thing to do is to insult our relationship?”

She laughed. “Yeah, get over it. I was already onto you two, and she confirmed it when I asked.”

Son of a bitch. I blinked twice, hard, squeezing my hands. “She did what?”

“Hey, easy. She probably just didn’t want to admit she let it slip because she loves you and wants you to think highly of her. It’s pretty normal.”

“What are you…” I shook my head. “When?”

“At the tree farm, while you were talking to the old man about trees.”

Ugh… I hadn’t seen much of Veronica after that. I guess it made sense. According to Lucy, she’d gone off to have dinner with Kelcey, unfortunately for us all.

Dammit. Veronica was clueless ninety percent of the time and then the most perceptive person I knew the other ten percent. I dropped onto the couch, resting my head back against the wall, looking up at the snowfall outside the window.

“All right, Veronica,” I said, voice raspy. “You win. Yeah, that’s all it was. And then I told her on Monday that we can’tkeep playing those games with each other, so we’ve had a clean break. And I’m not interested in her but it still feels weird that she’s ignoring me and I feel like a shitty person for leading her on so long without even realizing and then breaking her heart, and I kind of wanted to just get home and crash butyou’rehere.”

“Lucky you. Now you get a loving and kind sister to lend you a listening ear.”

Lucky… lucky me indeed. She apparently saw fit to repay herself for her kindness by starting on a coffee.

“Make me one, too,” I muttered.

“Ugh, bossy,” she said, but she grabbed a second mug. “I can’t make them like Luce can, though.”

“Yeah, Iknow,” I said before I could think better of it. She whistled low.

“Regretting the break now that you don’t get her cooking for you?”

I looked away. “Despite everything, I have to give her some credit. She’s good in the kitchen.”

She laughed. “Sure sounded like you think she’s good in another room.”

This whole thing was so far off from the angle I’d wanted. I needed to steer it in the opposite direction. “Veronica, please stop screwing with Kelcey.”

“What?” She set down the portafilter, turning back to me with a horrified look. “Oh my god, you’re going to tell me what to do with my love life?”

“Love lifemy ass. You don’t love her, you’re trying to mooch money off of her, and you’re going to break her heart, and then I’ll have to deal with the fallout.”

She rolled her eyes with a pointed scoff, turning back to the machine. “I’m not just using her for her money.”

“Oh, really. So now you do date women?”

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