Page 52 of Fire Island
My life is good. Full, almost. But it’s like the last three years included one thing I can’t put my finger on. The one thing that would fill the void that’s been growing since I got home with Eveat arm’s length. I’m grateful for her company. She’s no trouble, having slipped into the way of life and routine easy enough.
And it will be too quiet when she leaves.
Em pulls the truck over at the café, and I climb out, sending him off with a wave. I cross the sidewalk and push through the front door. Iris meets me at the door. “You should stay the night. Em’s going to be hours and then he’ll be exhausted. Stay, please?” Her hands are pressed together in a prayer-like position.
Good lord, Irry.
“You don’t have a sofa, Iris. Where are we supposed to sleep?”
“Eve can snuggle up with me again.”
She tilts her head, smiling up at me like that will make me agree.
“Fine.”
“Yay! Dinner’s on me. We’ll get takeout, save cooking. I’ll see if Em wants to come over.”
She whizzes back into the kitchen, bubbling something to Eve. She talks fast when she’s excited, always has.
Em arrives hours later as the sun is setting, and we are sent to collect the takeaway.Nicely played, little sister.We stand outside Bay Shore’s only Chinese restaurant in a comfortable silence. So, I decide to obliterate it.
“You and the author, hey?” I ask.
Em looks up from his phone. Something like shock fills his face before he schools it back to aloofness. “Nah, just being a good friend, is all.”
“I mean, she’s a little young for you, bud.” I hold his gaze.
“You could say that.”
“How’s Iris feel about it?”
Now his face falls, the slight amusement that it held over the past minute fading.
I raise an eyebrow. “She’s her friend, isn’t she?”
Let the inquisition commence.
“No.” He shakes his head now. Seriousness claims his face.
“No, they’re not friends or no, you and Eve aren’t a thing?”
“We—”
“Order up!” the little lady in the takeout window calls. Em frowns as he turns back to collect the food, thanking the woman.
“Drop it, Cal.” Em’s mood has swung like the weather on the open seas.
So, they are a thing?
Well, fuck.
I can’t help the slither of jealousy as it heats its way down my spine. Dammit.
Not getting attached.
Back at Iris’s, we sit at the table as she dishes out takeout onto our plates like the mother hen she is. Em sits by her side opposite Eve and me.
“The wine,” I blurt out.
