Page 99 of These Summer Storms

“Yeah. So it doesn’t matter that the sex was great.”

“It was! I knew it!”

“You literally said you bet it wasn’t.”

“Irrelevant. The point is,youdidn’t know who he was, so plausible deniability is in play here.”

“Thanks, counselor.”

“Getting back to it, then—when we say, personally messy…is that because you had some great sex and now it remains…something you want to do?”

Alice heaved a giant sigh. “I have terrible taste in men.”

“Agreed.”

“And this man is not ideal.”

“For, like, a dozen different reasons. Including the fact that he lied about knowing who you were. Did he tell you why he did that? Why he didn’t come clean right away?”

I wanted to fuck you.

Alice swallowed. She wasn’t going to tell Gabi that. “I kind of urged him to…keep it anonymous.”

“Filthy,” Gabi said in a way that made it sound not at all filthy. “Did you tie this man up? Was he rendered speechless in some way, as you are such a smokeshow?”

“Me being a smokeshow never came into it.”

“Devastating.”

“I didn’t want it to be more than one night,” Alice said. “At least, not then.”

“And now?”

“Having a friend who is a star in the courtroom isn’t so fun sometimes, you know.”

“I know. Answer the question.”

“Yes. I want to do it again.”

Gabi nodded, as though she’d known it all along. “No further questions.”

It wasn’t as funny as it should have been, because it really did feel like Alice had confessed something damning. “He’s a very bad decision.”

Gabi tilted her head. “Maybe you don’t need a good decision thisweek. Maybe this week is about bad decisions. You know, stay with your family, sleep with the wrong guy…” She pointed to the water below. “Is this the cliff we jumped off of when we were in college?”

Alice nodded. “I haven’t done it in, I don’t know, a decade?”

“Well, maybe you should try it again. It’s safe, right?”

That was the question, wasn’t it?Safedidn’t feel like it did when they were young and invincible and there were people to hold her hand when she jumped. Gabi. Her sisters. Her dad.

That tightness in her chest was back.

“Does he feel safe?” Gabi asked, pointedly.

Alice was saved from having to answer by the sound of laughter behind them. They turned to find Roxanne and Claudia headed toward them.

“We’ve been found.” They turned to watch the duo clinging to each other and making their way down the slope.