Page 21 of Let's Talk About Love

Oh, hey everyone, some person would say as they introduced her,this is Alice. She’s asexual. Sorry if you had any plans for her. She won’t ever desire you, regardless of how much she likes you.

Was it really anyone’s business that Alice didn’t feel sexual attraction when the rest of the world did? It was Alice’s secret. She could guard it like Smaug hoarding gold if she wanted to.

Her phone rang—Aisha.

She resisted the terrified urge to throw it against the wall. A deep breath and prayer to Jesus later, she answered in her sweetest voice. “Hello, sister dear.”

“If youever, in this life, ignore my calls again,” Aisha hissed. The threat didn’t need to be finished. (They never did.) “Do you hear me?”

“Technically, Feenie did that. Not me.”

“Alice.”

“Yes, I hear you, I’m sorry.” She frowned. “Dictator,” she mumbled.

“What was that?”

“Nothing. So what’s up? What’s so important?” Alice crawled under her blankets, covering her head.

“I talked to Mom today. I signed you up for a seminar.”

“Awhat?Why?” She kicked her legs out in a tiny tantrum.

“Watch your tone,” Aisha warned. “Because Mom is worrying herself sick over you. You’re going to law school. Hurry up and make your peace with it so she’ll leave me alone.”

“Ah, so this is about you. I feel so loved.”

“That’s not all you’re going to feel. Keep on testing me.”

God, she even talked like their mom now. Alice would always remember the moment her mom and her sister had their huge blowout. It was awful—Aisha stayed away from home for nearly three years, didn’t come home for Thanksgiving or Christmas. But once she came back, she began to take thelike mother, like daughtersentiment to new heights and then surpassed them.

“Fine. I will. What makes you think you can tell me what to do? If Mom can’t make me do it, what makes you think you can?”

The silence on the other end of the line set Alice’s bones on edge. She shivered and pulled her blanket tighter around her.

“Because I’m ten times scarier than she is,” Aisha said with deadly calm. “You do what I say or else.”

Alice knew firsthand thator elsewas a frightful terror to behold. “This is exactly why Adam is my favorite. He wouldn’t treat me like this.”

“I don’t care. Don’t waste my money. Go to the damn seminar.”

CHAPTER

10

Alice’s heart pumped faster than the 4/4 beat of the song she was listening to, and it had nothing to do with breaking out into a full run from the bus stop to the elevator. Feenie’s plan burned in the back of her mind. Be normal. Act normal. Everything was fine. She wasn’t attracted to Takumi at all. He was a normal level of cute. Alice was used to cute. Cute she could handle.

(Hell, cute was what she worshipped.)

Then two things happened at once: the elevator door opened and her phone rang.

Adam, her brother. He almost never called her, preferring to e-mail for some reason, but he was one of the few people she would willingly answer the phone for.

He cut her off as soon as she answered.

“Why do you mouth off to Aisha? Jesus Christ, Alice.”

“In my defense, she deserved it.” She ducked into a dead-end hall and leaned against the wall.