Ash extracted another smoke from the pack on the sink. “I dunno. Do you think you’remaybebeing a bit too hard on the guy?”
Julia stared at her sister in horror. “Firstly, would you stop chaining it? Cancer, Ash,cancer. Secondly, I’ve hated a million shitty guys on your behalf and theone timeI need you to hate someone you tell me to go easy?”
Her big sister grimaced. “I know, I’m sorry, but your cop isveryhandsome and he’s pretty into you. When I slammed the door in his face, he looked completely gutted.”
“Because he can’t score any more workplace pussy.”
Ash lit her smoke. “I don’t think that’s it. I think he’s in love with you. I think he was trying totellme he’s in love with you.”
“He was not!”
“He was and I’ll tell you something else. I’ve never seen you this worked up about a guy before. That makes this cop special, right?”
“He’s not special,” Julia lied. “I’ve just had a crush on him since I was eighteen. It’s a—ahang-up, that’s all. A character flaw. A virus.”
Ash raised her hands in defeat. “Fine, all I’m going to say is that out of all the people in the world, you and Max got locked in a room together. It’s like…fate.”
“Fate?”
“Yeah, like something out of those dumb books you read.”
Julia felt her cheeks heat. “They’re not dumb. And real life isn’t like that.”
“And what’s real life like?”
“It’s…erectile dysfunction and fights about who pays the electric bill and uncomfortable Christmas lunches where the cops show up because mum got caught on camera stealing a bunch of jumpers.”
“I thought they were tracksuit pants?”
“Pants, jumpers, whatever. If life was a romance novel, Max would have swept me off my feet when I was eighteen, not snuck away and married someone else.”
Ash flourished a mascara wand. “Hey, Jules?”
“Yeah?”
“Money.”
Julia’s hands jerked upward and she narrowly avoided glopping whiskey all over her new dress. “What thehell,Ash?”
“Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Stop feeling sorry for how we grew up. We had each other and Grandma and enoughmoneyto get by.”
“Don’t keep saying it!”
Ash rolled her eyes. “Jules, you’re acting like such a butthole. You’re the prettiest, most talented person I know, your fucking video game is about to get made and you’re sitting here bitching because a hot guy, who is clearly into you, didn’t put a ring on it six years ago.”
“He abandoned me in a parking lot.”
“Did you ever think he did the right thing? Youwereonly eighteen. If I’d known, I would have had Kevin beat the shit out of him.”
“Kevin would have punched his own grandma for an apple. He was a complete psychopath.”
“Yeah.” Ash sighed wistfully. “But he was totally hung.”
“Gross.” Julia picked at her frozen up-do and Ash rapped her knuckles. “Don’t touch that. Anyway, my point is stop being all sad about living in a shitty house and having a shitty family. You and I are amazing and we will continue to be amazing.”
The backs of Julia’s eyes prickled. “I know, Ash. I know I seem like an ungrateful knob right now, but I’m so messed up about all thesefeelings.Max could rip me apart if he wanted to.”
Her sister kissed the top of her hair-sprayed head. “He can't, I won’t let him. And trust me, that dude is terrified of me.”