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“Cut from the same cloth.” Sal shook her head. “I love Bruce, but he’s a real piece of shit.”

“I don’t see how anyone could leave a woman like Helen,” Annie said, looking at her as she talked to one of Sal’s coworkers across the room.

“You don’t say,” Sal said with a small smile. But then someone came up to the bar and asked for another beer, and when she looked for Sal again, she was gone.

Bartending was a good diversion, but the problem was that every time she made a shaker of something, and it was a little too much for the glass, she drank the remainder. By the time it was eleven o’clock, she was drunker than she’d been in a long time.

Sal must have noticed because she shooed her away from the bar. “Go get some air, honey. I’ve got this.”

But what Annie really needed was to pee. The door to the bathroom downstairs was closed, so hanging onto the banister, she carefully climbed to the second floor to find another bathroom. Her face felt numb, and her hands were clammy.

She walked past the bedroom where Ashley and her cousin Gina were playing a video game, staring at the television screen. Kevin was asleep on the bed.

She found an empty bathroom and locked herself in, emptying her bladder with a relieved sigh. As she washed her hands, she studied her reflection in the mirror, looking critically at her skin, her eyes, her hair.

“You’re an idiot,” she said to her reflection.

She dried her hands and turned around, stumbling a bit, then opened the door.

Helen was in the hallway, leaning against the wall. Waiting.

Abruptly, surprising herself, Annie reached out and yanked her inside, locking the door.

“What are you doing?” Helen asked, surprised.

“Technically,” Annie said, “the quarter hasn’t started yet, right?”

Helen went very still for a moment, then breathed, “Annie.”

“Helen,” Annie whispered, pulling her closer until their lips almost touched.

“Oh, what the hell.” Helen kissed her.

Chapter 14

Annie was in the laundryroom just off the kitchen, pawing through a tangled load of clean darks in her white plastic basket. She had pulled on a pair of denim shorts over tights and put on a bra, and now she was looking for a black T-shirt. To hell with looking professional for school, she’d decided. She wore slacks and blouses every other day, but today she was going to her Thursday class in comfortable clothes. Besides, these ones were clean.

She turned around when Helen came in, a look on her face like someone had turned up the gas, like she was about to catch fire.

They couldn’t seem to stop having sex. Following Sal’s party and the days after that, they’d rationalized that the quarter hadn’t officially started, but now it was Thursday, and Helen’s class literally started at four o’clock.

Now Annie was sitting on the kitchen counter and Helen was trying to yank her shorts off in full view of a photo on the refrigerator of the kids at the La Brea tar pits.

“Wait, wait,” Annie said, tearing her mouth away. Helen had abandoned the shorts and was now working on unclasping Annie’s bra. Helen pulled back to look at Annie just as the clasp popped open. Annie quickly held the bra in place.

“What’s the matter?” Helen asked, gasping for breath.

Annie thought about saying they should stop, opened her mouth with every intention of saying those words. Instead she said, “Can we go upstairs?”

Annie had slept in Helen’s bed, cried in it, shared it with Helen and Zach, but this was the first time they were going to have sex in it. They had the house to themselves, but Helen still closed thedoor out of habit. The midmorning light brightened everything in the room.

Helen shimmied out of her clothes and lay back on the bed, spreading her legs in invitation, while Annie pulled off her shorts and tights. She lay on top of Helen and, pressing her thigh between Helen’s legs, parted them. Annie got her off right away, so fast and hard that Helen could only thrash her head around on the pillow. And then Annie made her come again more slowly, drawing it out and teasing her, leaving her on the edge until Helen begged for release, and only then did Annie use her mouth and tongue.

Afterward, Helen pulled her into the shower, turned Annie around to face the wall, and slipped her hand between Annie’s legs under the spray of hot water. Annie whimpered into the tile.

As they lay on the bed wrapped in towels, Helen said carefully, “We’re going to do better.”

“I’m going to drop the class,” Annie said firmly. “I’m not even going to go today.”