Page 23 of What Happened Last Night

“Who’s this boss of yours Mom is talking about?” Tanner asked at dinner, after we were done our chores. Dad had cooked a feast, though there would barely be two bites left by the time we were all done. “Are you hooking up with a married guy?”

Mack and Jay were instantly on high alert. “Give me his name,” Mack said ominously.

“He’s dead meat,” Jay added.

“Oh, my god.” I put my fork down. “I’m not talking to you about my boss. I’m not hooking up with anyone. And even if I was, I’m thirty.”

Tanner pulled out his phone. “What’s this guy’s name? I’m going to look him up.”

“I’m not telling you anything,” I nearly shouted.

It made no difference. My brothers talked over me as if I wasn’t there, pooling their limited brain power to figure out who my boss might be. I was glad I’d never mentioned Will’s name in their presence. Mom chipped in, too, while Dad tried to referee. It worked in my favor that even though they had no boundaries, none of them had paid close attention when I talked about my career. They didn’t know what band I worked for. I didn’t know if they’d even heard of the Road Kings.

Mom called Aunt Reggie, right there at the table. Reggie said she’d never seen my boss and didn’t know his name. She also said she wasn’t aware of me being out overnight recently. I was fervently glad I hadn’t taken Katie’s advice and introduced Will to my aunt.

Mack got a look in his eyes that I didn’t trust, so I quickly pulled out my phone—if Mom could make a call at the dinner table, screw manners—and texted Katie. SOS, code red, do not tell them anything. NOTHING.

Katie was obviously part of my family, because she needed no context to this message. She’d been in the hot seat herself plenty of times. She texted back a thumbs up.

Mack was already dialing Katie’s number. When she answered, he said, “Katie. Who is Luna’s boss? Is he married? Is she hooking up with him? Do I need to kill him? What’s going on?”

“This isn’t fair,” I shouted while Katie stonewalled my brother. “Why aren’t we talking about all the women Jay picks up at the ski hill? Or the woman from the golf course that Mack is sleeping with?”

I wasn’t up to date on my brothers’ love lives, but both of those were educated guesses. Jay always picked up women at the ski hill. And Mack had met every woman he’d ever dated through the golf course. Mack’s girlfriends were always sunburnt and outdoorsy, with minimal body fat, perfectly white teeth, and visors on their heads.

“You leave her out of this,” Mack said, pointing at me. Katie was forgotten on the phone. Knowing Katie, she’d taken the opportunity to quickly hang up.

“You want to know what band I work for?” I asked, navigating to my music app. “Here, I’ll play them for you. They’re really good.”

I turned the volume all the way up, then played “Africa” by Toto.

It worked.

My family went silent as the most annoying song in pop history played from my phone. My brothers looked confused, then annoyed. Finally, Tanner put his hands over his ears. “You’re fucking with us. Turn it off.”

“Not until we change the subject,” I shouted. “The song plays on repeat until we talk about something else.”

“Make it stop!” Jay shouted. “We’ll change the subject. Make it stop!”

I turned the song off, silently thanking Axel de Vries for the Toto Torture idea. I owed him a present.

* * *

I usually stayed the night at my parents’ place, but tonight I wasn’t in the mood. The conversation had strayed away from my sex life during dinner, but the volume hadn’t gone down, and neither had the intensity. Opinions had been shot into the air nonstop, about everything from the running of the inn, to my brothers’ haircuts and eating habits, to Dad’s cooking versus Mom’s, to whether we should all switch to natural peanut butter and whether Tanner should get a dog.

I loved my family a lot, but my temples were throbbing and my shoulders were tense as I got in my car. I’d had to argue with everyone for twenty minutes, asserting that I really wasn’t too tired to make the drive and that I didn’t need to stay over. My brothers each lived no more than thirty minutes away, so they’d stay late and wander home whenever they felt like it. Sometimes they’d take advantage of the free breakfast Mom and Dad would cook tomorrow and stay over, even though they could easily go home.

It was great to have close family. It was fun. But it also felt like…

Like you’re not growing up into your own adult and making your own life, Will had said. I get it.

I missed Will suddenly like a stab to the center of my ribcage. It made no sense, because he’d only been gone for a few days. We weren’t all that close in the scheme of life—we were acquaintances, coworkers, two people who had crossed paths in the random pattern of living. I didn’t think that because Will had said a few insightful things about me, he must have a deep window into my soul. There was no reason for me to check my phone for the hundredth time and see that he hadn’t called or texted me today.

I started my car and pulled out of my parents’ driveway, because if I sat here too long, someone would notice and come out to drag me back into the house. Will hadn’t contacted me today because it was Saturday, because he respected my personal life and my personal time even when he was working all weekend. It would be wrong of him to text me late on a Saturday evening. He was behaving correctly, kindly, considerately. Like the gentleman he was.

The logic was clear in my head. I still felt the stab of disappointment.

With some distance from my crush, I missed Will’s calm presence, his quiet wit, his ridiculous brain. I missed the opaque parts of him that I hadn’t figured out yet. My mind went back to the FaceTime call, in which—for once—I’d had the excuse to stare straight at him without looking like a creeper. I’d never seen him wearing a T-shirt before, and I’d found it more fascinating than it had any reason to be. When he lifted a hand and casually scratched his bare collarbone while thinking hard, I’d been hypnotized. I’d wanted to be in that hotel room with him. I’d nearly leaned in and tried to smell my screen.

---