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I close the door behind me and walk through the house to leave, saying goodbye to Max’s unsurprised parents on the way out.

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

AUDREY

Willa is awake and sitting up in bed looking at her phone when I try to sneak into the room we’re sharing. She looks at me over the top of her glasses.

“Well, at least it was a short walk of shame.”

I chuckle. “No shame here at all,” I say.

“That good?”

I let out a slow breath. “Beyond good. Stratospheric.”

Willa raises her eyebrows. “So things are going to be weird and awkward today. Got it. Merry Christmas Eve, by the way.” She returns her attention to her phone.

“Merry Christmas Eve to you, too.” I don’t need to have a special mental connection with my twin to see, and feel, that something is wrong.

“Why are you awake?”

“Watching cleaning videos.”

“What level cleaning?”

“Hoarders.”

Oh no. If she’s watching hoarder houses be emptied and cleaned that means she’s already been through the power-washing, rug-cleaning, and car-detailing videos. Transformation videos like these calm Willa when something in her life has grown into an unavoidable problem. The bigger the mess cleaned, the bigger her problem.

“What’s wrong?” I ask.

“Nothing,” she replies.

“What happened?”

She drops her phone, takes off her glasses, and sighs. “You slept with Toni, and now everything is going to be all weird.”

“No, it won’t.”

“You two will either be all lovey-dovey or you’ll pretend to ignore each other. Either way, it will be weird and we have six more months of this shit.”

“Where is this coming from? I thought you liked Toni.”

“I do, but I’m not going to distract Greta so you two can go fuck in the supply closet at work.”

“Willa, Jesus. That’s not going to happen. One, that’s totally unprofessional. Two, Toni and I are just having fun.”

Willa’s mouth drops open. “Audrey, I know you aren’t that stupid. Though maybe you are. Toni’s in love with you—and don’t look all shocked when I say that, you know it’s true. I didn’t expect her to be strong enough to give you lots of time, but I really didn’t expect you to try to seduce her so soon.”

“I didn’t seduce her. It was mutual, trust me.”

“You’re in love with her, too?”

“God, no. I didn’t say that. It’s way too early for love. Why are you suddenly so against this?”

“The first time I criticize you and you try to turn it back around on me. Maybe you learned a little too much from being with Shae.”

“Hey! That’s unfair. I’m not turning it back around on you. From the very first day in the office you talked about me bending Toni over a table. I never asked you to distract Greta and I didn’t even know for sure that’s what you were doing. In fact, you seemed to enjoy it quite a bit.”