Page 68 of Stay Away from Him

“God,” Melissa said, seeing it. “This is depressing.”

“Come on,” Amelia said to her. “We can do this.”

Melissa found a TV and set up Bradley in front of it. Kendall and Rhiannon disappeared to their rooms upstairs, and Lawrence and Toby started clearing the table. Amelia and Melissa stationed themselves in the kitchen, scraping food into the garbage, putting some dishes in the dishwasher, washing others in the sink, working wordlessly side by side.

“Can I ask you something?” Melissa asked when they were almost done.

“Sure,” Amelia said.

“What’s the story between you and Thomas?”

“The story?”

“Please don’t be coy with me,” Melissa said. “I can’t take it tonight. There was something between the two of you.”

Amelia sighed, gazing out the window into the dark as she dried a platter.

“We dated ages ago. I think you know that.”

“Yes.”

“But then we stopped, and then suddenly—there was Rose. And that was that.”

Melissa tried to read the emotion in her voice. Regret? Resignation? Relief?

“But you stayed close.”

“We did,” Amelia said. “That was mostly Thomas’s doing, in hindsight. He was the one who kept our friendship going. Seeking me out, calling me. Flirting with me.”

“Flirting? Even when he was married to Rose?”

Amelia glanced at Melissa. “I don’t even know if he knew he was doing it. Thomas pursues people. He woos them. He makes them love him. It’s what he does. He doesn’t know any other way to be.”

Melissa thought about the way he had pursued her. She thought it was because she was special, but maybe not. Maybe Thomas was that way with everyone. Doing whatever it took to make them love him, for some reason of his own.

“And you never thought about getting back together? After Rose disappeared?”

Amelia opened a cupboard, set the platter inside.

“There was one night,” Amelia said. “One night after, where…well. We found each other.”

Melissa held her breath. Was Amelia really saying what she thought she was saying? Confessing that she and Thomas had slepttogether, when Rose’s disappearance—her presumed death—was still fresh?

“But it was a mistake,” Amelia went on. “I knew it right away. And then Thomas and I had a falling out.”

“A falling out? Over what?”

Amelia shook her head. “I’m afraid I can’t say.”

“Can’t? Or don’t want to?”

Amelia bared her teeth in a pained grimace. “It was a hard time, with Rose being gone, and the accusations against Thomas. He wasn’t himself. And I realized that I’d gotten too close to him. Let himkeepme too close. Closer than I wanted to be.”

“But you’re still close today. In spite of your falling out.”

Amelia squinted. “Are we?”

Melissa scoffed in disbelief at Amelia’s confusion. Was she pretending not to know what Melissa was talking about? Or was she being genuine?

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