“Beth is here,” Cory says.
“Hey, hoe. Get up,” she says as she sits beside me and smacks my ass.
“Ow, you bitch,” I laugh.
“Do you guys have plans today?” Cory asks.
“We do. I’m making her come to the mall with me,” she says. “Maybe she can buy some sexy outfits for whoever this mystery man is that she’s been fucking.”
“What?” I roll over and ask.
“Oh, don’t play dumb. You’ve been happier the last few weeks than I’ve ever seen you. Also, you frequently walk funny now. Clearly, someone’s railing you really well,” she says happily. I don’t know what to say to that, so I just stare at her and she laughs. “You’ll tell me when you’re ready. I know you are very secretive about things involving sex. I don’t even know how many partners you’ve had.”
“Anyway,” I say. “Let me get dressed and I’ll be out there.”
“Okay,” she says happily. “I’m going to go make your brother make me coffee.”
“You don’t have to make me. I’ll make you some coffee. Would you like a cup, Bella?”
“Please,” I smile.
I get up and get dressed before joining the others. We drink our coffee and make small talk for a moment. I’m able to distract her for long enough that Cory can grab me and pull me into our room. He kisses me hard before cupping my cheek.
“Tell her,” he says.
“I’ll try,” I say.
We are in the food court and we find a table to sit. I lay my food down and Beth gives it a weird face. “What?” I ask.
“Since when do you eat pickles?” she asks
“Oh. Few weeks, I guess,” I say. “Cory forced me to eat one when he was making something and now I like them.”
“Hmm,” she says.
“You’re being weird," I say. I start eating my burger with an ungodly amount of pickles on it. I don’t know why, but they just hit the spot today.
“How’s work?” she asks.
“Good. I’m realizing just how much work Cory does. He downplayed a lot of what he does.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah,” I nod. “He gets paid well enough for his job, but he does so much to manage that location.”
“Ever talk to whoever you hooked up with that night you texted me?”
“I ended up not sleeping with him,” I lie. I’d rather lie than have to explain to her that it was Jason because the alternative is telling her that it was a masked man.
“Lame. Should have let him hit it,” she laughs. “So who are you sleeping with? I know it’s someone.”
“No one,” I lie, continuing tokeep my food.
“I don’t believe you,” she says. “Also, you’ve been really weird lately.”
“How so?” I ask.
“Just have,” she says dismissively. I don’t wanna know what she means so I drop it. We finish eating and get up to throw our trash away. “Oh damn. Do you have a tampon? I didn’t bring my bag in.”