Page 25

“Mia,” she said. “You obviously don’t hate her as much as you thought you did.”

“My opinions on her haven’t changed, Ing. She’s still one of the most annoying people I’ve ever met.” If anything, my annoyance at Tenley had only deepened.

“Okay,” Ingrid said. She definitely didn’t believe me. “I’m stuck on something else, though. If she’s completely straight, why didn’t she find a guy to make her ex jealous?”

“I was kind of right there, so I think I was in the wrong place at the right time,” I said.

“Huh,” she said in the same tone of voice Lark had used when we’d talked about this part of the plan.

“She doesn’t care what people think of her, which has always been Tenley,” I said.

Ingrid snorted. “If you really think that, then I don’t even know what to say.”

“What do you mean?” This conversation was really going downhill.

“The reason that Tenley has maintained her popular girl status all these years is because she cares way, way too much what other people think and has created herself to be pleasing to others.”

I had to sit with that for a second. I didn’t think it was true, but it was something to think about. During my high school career, I’d definitely tried to make myself palatable to the popular people, but no matter what I’d done, nothing had worked. Maybe Tenley was just better at doing it than I was.

“I can’t believe my sister is pretending to be straight. I didn’t come out of the closet first for you to march right back in,” she said, but she was laughing.

Ingrid had first come out as bisexual in high school and then later as a lesbian. She set the bar high for being out, and it made things hard when I decided to wait until college to come out. She’d been supportive, but deep down, I knew she’d judged me a little bit for it, even if she wasn’t aware that she had.

“I’m staring at pictures of shirtless men right now, oh my god, men are soooooo hot,” I said and that made her burst out laughing.

“Don’t catch the straight from your fake girlfriend,” she said. “That’s how they get you.”

“The fact that I told her I was straight, and she didn’t immediately call bullshit was truly shocking to me,” I said.

“Shoulda been gayer,” Ingrid said.

“I’ll work on it,” I said.

* * *

On Tuesday, Tenley looked very different when she walked into Common Grounds. Before she could even open her mouth to order, I spoke.

“Are you okay?” She didn’t look as devastated as the day of the breakup, but her eyes were red, and she looked completely wilted.

“Yeah,” she said, her voice rough. She rubbed her eyes as if she hadn’t gotten any sleep. “I don’t know what I want.” Her voice was hollow.

“It’s okay. I know what you like,” I said, punching in an order.

Tenley nodded and tried to give me a smile. “Thanks.”

“Someone’s having a rough day,” Lark said, shoveling ice into a cup for an iced coffee order.

“Yeah, I bet it has something to do with her ex. I wish she’d get over him. He’s not worth all this,” I said.

“For real,” she said, shaking her head.

I called out Tenley’s order and she came over to get it.

“I thought you might need a cupcake,” I said when she saw the additional cupcake on the plate with her croissant.

Tenley picked up the plate and gave me a real smile. It was weak, but it was there.

“I did, thank you,” she said. “Did you start the book?”