She was not big on her family.
Seriously, I got that.
“Not that bad,” I admitted, staring up at her ceiling. There were little stars everywhere. The kind that would glow in the dark, and there were fairy lights strung on the walls, around some of the pictures and weaving around the posters. They were on, but so was her desk lamp and bedside light. Still, it gave the room a cozy effect. “Marsha’s great. But the new girl is apparently working out really well, and one way or another, I’m gone after May or at least by the end of the summer…”
“And she needs to train the new Frankie,” Rachel guessed. Clearly, she’d been working on homework when I got here, but she twisted the desk chair around to face me. While I was still in jeans, she’d thrown on some cutoffs and a T-shirt. It was a little too chilly for shorts yet. But her place was kind of warm.
The Mannings lived smack in the middle of one of the new developments for our area. New as in it had been built about ten years earlier or so. I was pretty sure Rachel’s family was one of the first ones to move in out here. They had a great view of the green belt and a huge backyard, but no pool.
It wasn’t like I had a pool either. Archie and Ian had pools. Jake didn’t. Well, technically, Coop and I had the pool at the apartment complex, but yeah, we hadn’t gone swimming in it since Ian’s parents had one built in their backyard.
“Yeah,” I said, dragging my wandering attention back to the subject at hand. “So, I can take two shifts of whatever I want, and she’ll get the other two. Marsha even offered to let me just be a floater—you know, fill in when someone is sick if I wanted. That way, I stayed employed but I could have my time back.”
Sometimes, I thought Marsha must be on the far opposite end of the spectrum from Maddy. Kind of a universal balancing effect.
And now I sounded like Coop.
A smile tilted my lips. Guess he really had rubbed off on me, in more ways than one.
A pillow slapped against my head, and I laughed as I blew some of the errant strands of hair out of my face.
“You went all dewy-eyed. Which one of the assholes were you thinking about?”
“Coop,” I admitted. Tucking the pillow beneath me, I rolled onto my stomach and kicked my bare feet up into the air. No one wore shoes in Rachel’s house. Her parents would have a conniption. Shoes didn’t even come in the house. They were set neatly on a stand in the vestibule. Well, guests did anyway, mine were the only shoes there. The family had a stand in the garage.
“Uh huh.”
I glanced past her to where the condom cactus sat in a prominent spot and bit back a smile. I didn’t stare at it too long, ’cause I didn’t want to draw her attention to it. Especially since she’d added a little flag name tag to it that said “Asshat.”
That was adorable.
“Anyway,” I circled us back because the conversation about work was troubling me more than I wanted to admit. “If I’m going to work for Mason’s and for Marsha, I want to actually do my job.”
“And you’ve kind of missed it.” If Rachel was guessing, she was doing an excellent job. Then again, Rachel seemed to get me without a lot of effort on my part.
That was something I planned on changing, which was another reason I’d offered to come over and hang out here rather than invite her back to my place.
Well, that and the four sexy distractions currently occupying my apartment. I loved having them there, but it did make girls’ night challenging. Especially a rather spontaneous and unplanned girls’ night.
“I have missed it,” I admitted. “But not as much as you might think.” Guilt stabbed me on that last bit, and I cut a look at Rachel. “I loved working at Mason’s because Marsha’s great and it can be fun, don’t get me wrong. But it was also brutal, and I ran my ass off. I am honestly okay if I never see another shake again, and it really kind of put a crimp in my love of burgers.”
“Well, anything that damages your love of food,” she teased with a smile that invited me to join her in laughing at me. Which, I could, because yeah, I got it. I liked to eat.
“But I feel bad.”
“Girl, anyone ever tell you that you overthink the shit out of things?”
“I don’t know, Rach, let’s talk about dissecting poetry and planning out a loving campaign with roses and poems and little gifts to brighten someone’s day without getting anything in return.”
“Pfft, I got to enjoy your joy,” she countered. “That was totally something in return.”
“Fine, but you still thought an awful lot about it. So I’m not the only one who overthinks, hesitates, pulls back, reassesses, then plans again.”
Her nose wrinkled, and she cut her gaze skyward as if debating it. Then nodded. “Fair enough. We are a lot alike that way.” The corners of her mouth tilted. “Probably why we could rub each other the wrong way.”
“I thought it was because we locked horns over that writing project in seventh grade.”
Rachel narrowed her eyes at me. “We didn’t lock horns.”
“What do you call it?” I challenged.
“You’re a control freak.” She fired off that answer without missing a beat.
“I’m a control freak?” I snorted. “Me?”
“Yes, you, Frankie Curtis, are a control freak. ‘Here, Rachel, let me break down the assignment so we can just split it in half. Then we can both work at our own pace and neither of us has to rush.’”
“Is that supposed to be how I sounded?” I debated whether I should be offended or not.
“It is how you sounded. Oh my god, Frankie, have you ever listened to yourself? In seventh freaking grade, you had a breathy, soft, butter wouldn’t melt in your mouth voice. Now it’s a little deeper and huskier, but it’s got that bedroom quality to it.”
I shook my head. “Still pretty sure I didn’t sound like that, and we’re straying from the point. Splitting it in half was the best way to go, we’re too competitive and…”
“And you didn’t know at the time if I could keep up, so you figured if you split it in half, you could do both parts and then substitute your work for mine if I sucked.” Arms folded, she propped her feet up on the edge of her bed and stared at me, daring me to disagree.
“Well, I didn’t have to do that.”
Rachel rolled her eyes. “Because I wouldn’t let you just send me off to do my half, I made you stay after school every day with me until we got it done.”
Oh yes, I remembered. Jake, Ian, and Coop had given me hell about it, too. That, and I ended up having to walk home most days after because the bus had already come and gone. Maddy was always at work, so she wouldn’t have time.
To be fair, Rachel’s mom offered to bring me home that first night, but she’d made a face at our apartment complex, and after that, I just would rather skip that experience.
“And you argued with me on every single point we researched, even when I had facts on my side.”
“That part was just fun,” Rachel admitted, and I groaned and flopped on my back.
“You suck.”
“Not as much as you, I’d bet.”
I rolled over and threw the pillow, but she already had her arms up to block it. Thankfully, we were both laughing.