Page 70 of Let's Talk About Love

“You talked to her?”

“She called me today.”

“So it’s over?” she asked gently.

“Permanently.”

“Are you okay?”

“I will be,” he said. “I tried to speed up the being-okay process by drinking, which was really stupid.”

“It wasn’t, because if you hadn’t, you wouldn’t have called me and we wouldn’t be having this life-affirming conversation right now in our fabulous onesies. Ryan thinks everything happens for a reason and happens exactly the way it’s supposed to. Sometimes, like now, I agree.”

He leaned over and placed his forehead on hers. She scrunched up her face to keep herself from laughing. When he pulled back, she straightened his hood, tucking the wispy strands of hair that had escaped into it. His sweet smile as she did it made her feel so happy.

(So wanted.)

“Is it your turn yet?”

“Nah,” she said, knowing exactly what he meant. “Tonight is for you. I don’t want to intrude with my tales of woe.”

“It’s not intruding. It’s sharing. It’s what we do.”

“Fine.” She took a deep breath. “I’m not ready to share. I don’t want to tell you.”

It was his turn to fix her hood. (He knew not to touch her hair.) “Okay,” he said. “You don’t ever have to tell me anything you don’t want to.”

But part of herdidwant to. Her secret shouldn’t even have been one—it should have been a nonissue. Why couldn’t being asexual just be accepted?

Why did she have to spend the rest of her life coming out over and over and over…? And once she did, would peoplealwaysexpect her to talk about it? It would always be a huge deal, she would always be subjected to questions, and she would always have to defend herself.

Would it ever stop feeling like A Thing, a barrier, between her and everyone else?

“You know what? We look ridiculous,” he said. “We should take a picture.”

“We look adorable,” she corrected. “And yes, we should.”

Takumi jumped up and sprinted for his spare bedroom. When he returned, he sat next to Alice and put one arm across her shoulders. “In close. Faces together.” He held the camera out in front of them.

“Are we smiling?” she asked, leaning into him. “Or should we act scared to commemorate watching this awful movie?”

“Smile first. We can always take more later.”

(We.)

Alice gave the photo her best and brightest smile.

CHAPTER

24

Alice’s hand trembled as she unlocked the door. Thirty minutes later and she still hadn’t recovered.

“Ah! Get back here!” She chased Glory down the pathway, picking her up before she got too far. Glory liked to run for her life when she got a whiff of the outside world, often getting lost until she settled down in one spot, howling at the top of her kitty lungs for someone to come find her.

(The management and neighbors were getting real sick of Glory’s shit.)

“Hey,” Alice said to Feenie, who sat on the couch with Alice’s purple comforter wrapped around her.