Page 22 of Let's Talk About Love

“Shealwaysdeserves it, but you’re not supposed to do it. How many times do I have to tell you that?”

“You do it,” Alice replied.

“I’m not almost twenty years younger than she is. You are. She called me, screeching about you and how you’re disrespecting her, and this shit with Mom and law school. What in the hell are you doing down there?”

She laughed. “I like to think I’m living my best life.”

Adam sighed.

“Why aren’t you taking my side?”

“I did. She told me to stop enabling you and hung up in my face.” He paused. “I will never not be on your side. You know that.”

“Thanks.” She picked at a loose string on her bag. “What did Mom say?”

“Oh, she didn’tsayanything. She’s passive-aggressively leaving me notes to call you.”

“Why?”

“She thinks that you think you’ll have to be a DA, and she wants me to reassure you that there are multiple careers someone with a law degree can select from. She also wants me to convince you to quit the library. There’s an internship opening at De Tablan & Prince out there. She met them at a fund-raiser and talked you up.”

“Unpaid? Sorry. I can’t. I need money.”

“Yeah. I tried to explain that to her, and just so you know, the notes intensified. She left one on the bathroom mirror about how it’s very rude and ungrateful of me to assumeshewouldn’t financially support you.”

“Which is the entire point.” Alice stared at the ceiling and tried not to sigh. “I need to do this myself.”

“I know. Aisha knows but doesn’t want to fight with Mom again.I think on some level even Dad knows. But Mom—” Adam paused. “If you really don’t want to go to law school, figure out what you want to do instead. Quickly. In the meantime, just go to the seminar and whatever else they want you to do.”

“I’d really rather not.”

“I hear you, okay? I’ll do what I can on my end, but you have to meet me halfway. Go to the seminar. I mean it.”

“Fine.” She grinned. “And I’ll text Aisha and Mom to give you all the credit so you can rub it in their faces.”

“That’s all I ask.”

“I’m not quitting my job.”

“Of course you aren’t. That’d be dumb.”

She hung up and tilted her head back against the wall. Her brain felt stuffed—it was already chock-full of anxiety over how the next four hours would go and now… this. Summer was supposed to be chill—it had been in high school anyway. Why did things have to change so drastically from one year to the next?

(And why hadn’t time travel been invented yet?)

(Forward or backward—anywhere but now would do.)

A deep breath later, she walked toward the break room. Her hand clutched the strap to her satchel tight enough to make her palms tingle.

And there went her calm.

Alice’s gaze darted to the ground. More deep breaths—in through her nose and out through her mouth. She wasn’t ready to look at him. Not yet. If she wished hard enough, maybe she could spontaneously develop the power of invisibility before they spotted her and—

“Hey, you,” Essie called, smiling.

“Hi,” she replied. Alice’s simple black dress with the pretty crocheted hem and plain black flats provided a stark contrast to Essie’s look: a dazzling orange-and-white dress that flowed in all the right ways andplaces with a small white knit shrug. One said life while the other said funeral.

“What’s wrong?” Essie asked.