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I take a deep breath.
My phone pings again with another message.
Where are you?
Hotel in D.C.. About to have drinks with James Hill.
The billionaire?
Yes. We met at an energy summit a few months ago.
Oh, damn. You can’t wear that. He’ll think it’s a date.
My sister knows all about the arranged marriage situation. Of course. She is part of the family and this has been part of our family’s story since before she was born.
But she doesn’t know the details. Like how I feel about it. I’ve always made sure my family thinks I’m fine. I don’t want them to worry. I also haven’t shared with anyone how Torin feels about it.
She wouldn’t just worry if she knew Torin wasn’t committed to me. She’d tell him exactly what she thought of that. And she would not think—and say—nicethings.
I’m older and have done everything I can to make Alex’s and Astrid’s lives easier. And their own. It’s important to me that they get to make all their own decisions. Where I have had to work to be deferential, I’ve encouraged Astrid to be the opposite. She’s independent, speaks her mind, knows that she is not only right to have her own opinions, but should voice them whenever possible.
She’s taken all of that to heart. Astrid can be a bit of a handful.
So I have not shared with her that things are not smooth sailing in my life. She gets very protective, even being eight years younger than me.
I hesitate, take a breath, then type,
It is a date.
Does Torin know?
It was Torin’s idea.
I’m confused.
I start typing. I type the whole thing out. I cannot tell her this in person or even out loud over the phone. But it feels good to let her in on my secrets. I tell her that Torin doesn’t want to get married, that he thinks I need to date someone else because I’ve never had that chance, and that I am going out with two men while I’m in D.C. for the next few days. I mention Christian as well.
There’s a long pause after I send the paragraphs’ long text.
I could’ve sent it in chunks, but I know Astrid would have responded to each one individually and it would have driven me crazy. I wanted to get it all out at once.
But now I have to wait for my sister to process the information I’ve just given her.
Finally she responds.
Wow.
That’s it. Just three letters. One word.
I chuckle.
Then my phone rings. I was expecting this. But now that I’ve told her everything upfront, this will be easier.
“Hello?”
“This wasTorin’sidea?”
“Yes.”