Page 10 of Love, Luck & Clusterf*ck

Hmm… I actually considered it a second. “And how would you feel being alone in a room with him?” She responded with a shudder. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. I’m not going to put you in that situation. And it probably wouldn’t work anyway. He’d just turn it all around and say he knew we were trying to set him up. No, it has to be completely random.”

“Yeah, that makes sense.”

I reached over and grabbed her hand. “But thanks for offering to do something so repulsive to help out.”

“No problem.”

She was silent once again for another several miles, taking me back to my original question. “So, if your mood has nothing to do with Paul, what is bothering you?”

Christa let out a loud breath. “I’m not sure if I should bring this up, but it does kinda fit in with the theme.”

“Uh, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“The cheating theme.”

“Still no clue, Christa.”

“Did Dre really ask you to move in with him?”

“Yeah, he did. I guess it was part of our whole ‘trying to be an exclusive couple’ package. But don’t worry, I told him no. I have no intentions of moving out.”

“Oh okay. That’s good.”

I turned off the radio. I could barely hear her as it was; she was talking so quietly. “And what does any of that have to do with cheating?”

“I just worry about you and Dre being in a similar situation. I’ve heard things about him too.”

I started laughing, then looked at her and stopped. Oh. She was actually serious? “Dre and I aren’t even in the same universe as Sam and Paul, much less in the same situation. And you do know it’s not cheating when the other person consents to it, right?” Of course, she knew. She knew exactly the kind of arrangement Dre and I had shared all these years. He could no more be considered a cheater than me.

“A girl I work with at the clinic, she belongs to Dre’s gym. She told me about this trainer there—can’t remember the skank’s name—but she and your, um, boyfriend seem to have been pretty chummy.”

“So?”

“So, how do you think that’s all going to play out now?”

“Not sure what you’re getting at, Christa. Who cares what he did before?” I took a second to let what I’d just said sink in. And why didn’t I care? It seemed like there should’ve been something wrong with that, but there just… wasn’t. “We only officially decided to change the terms of our relationship yesterday.”

“I’m just having a hard time figuring out how it’s going to work. I’m not sure you guys are meant to only be with each other.”

I gave her a funny look. “You don’t think I can do the monogamy thing?”

“I’m not talking about you. Remember what happened that summer right before tenth grade? That girl, um… Lila?”

“Lena.”

“Yeah, Lena. You told me you made a pact and then she not only broke that, but also ratted you out and got you into deeper shit.”

“Okay?”

Lena and I had discovered how fun it was sneak out and party over at the older neighbor’s house. We’d sometimes stay out until morning, and we swore to each other that if one of us got busted, we wouldn’t get the other in trouble. Well, Lena got her ass caught halfway out her window one night and ended up spilling everything. Even about the bottles I’d swipe from the liquor cabinet, refilling with colored water later.

But I failed to see what a girl whom I had nothing to do with anymore had to do with my current boyfriend. I scrunched up my face. Boyfriend, really? That just sounded weird. I’d have to come up with a different title to describe him.

“Don’t you see, Perry? Just because you agree to do something doesn’t mean the other person is going to follow through. I believe that you can do this, but I’m not convinced that Dre can too. You know that ho-bag at the gym is just one of many.”

I reached over and squeezed her hand again. “You’re a good friend, Christa.” She just didn’t want me to get hurt. “It’ll be fine. He was the one who came to me, remember?”

A gurgle sounded in her throat. “Whatever. I won’t say anything more about it, then. Unless I find out that he’s not sticking to his end of the bargain.”

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