Page 24 of Picture Perfect

She giggles from our silliness. “Okay, let’s see. There was Doug O’Reilly in sixth grade, who called me a bitch—

“That little punk! I hated that kid. He was what, eleven then? How did he even know those words?”

“Oh, come on, you remember that age, don’t you? You learn all these adult words and don’t know how to use them.” She rolls her eyes. “It’s okay, though. I got him back.”

“How?”

“I pantsed him in the cafeteria.”

“That was you?”

She giggles again. “Yep.”

“Bet he never called another woman that.”

“Hope not.”

A chilling thought came to me. “In five years, Ellie will have boys like Doug calling her names. I don’t think I can take it. That means I’ve got five years to figure out how to intimidate eleven-year-old boys.”

“And seven years before Jonahisone of those boys. But I don’t think he’ll be calling girls that kind of thing. He’ll be too busy running this whole place. That kid wants to grow up too fast and is too smart for his own good.”

I laugh hard. “He’s only four. What makes you say that?”

“I can’t really explain it. Just a feeling.”

That word…I chuckle to myself. “Feelings. Now there’s something I’ve been avoiding.”

“Oof, same. It’s too messy.”

“Definitely. The therapist—

“You see a therapist?”

I shrug. “After Stacy died, I thought it would be good for the kids. Then Dr. McDonald suggested I might benefit from it…I went to a couple of sessions, but it conflicted with work too much.” I sip my wine. “Anyway, she said that avoiding feelings is bad, but I think it works just fine for me. You?”

“I see a therapist once a week.”

“No, I meant about avoiding feelings…?”

“Oh,” she smiles and shrugs, “Dr. Gainsborough says I should embrace my feelings. I don’t know. If I embraced all my feelings, I would have set Mark’s car on fire, so that seems like a dangerous plan.”

I laugh. “Arson is one hell of a way to express your emotions, Autumn.”

“I’d say he earned it. But I think the police would disagree, so his car goes unharmed. For now.”

“But itisfun to think about the things we would do, if there were no consequences.” As the words leave my mouth, I realize what that could sound like.

She looks at me, an eyebrow lifted. “Oh?”

But it was true. “Think about it. What would you do if there were no consequences?”

“I can think of one thing in particular.”

“What’s that?”

Her devilish smirk is going to be the death of me. “Besides setting Mark’s car on fire?”

“Yeah.”

---