“Emotional…” He stopped halfway down the stairs. ”It was Holly, wasn’t it? That damn kid.” He scrubbed a hand through his hair, shaking his head, his expression so exasperated that she had to laugh.
“She had a whole theory about you.”
They hurried the rest of the way down the stairs. “I’m sure she does. Do not tell me what it is.”
“Oh hell no. That’s Holly’s thing.”
“What’s Holly’s thing?” The girl herself popped her head over the railing as they reached the turn in the stairway. Her cheeks were pink with sunburn, her hair windblown. She must have just gotten off her bike. She’d signed up for an inordinate number of summer courses, which Jason said was unusual.
“Jesus,” Jason said. “I thought you were at debate class.”
“I demolished the competition in record time. There’s just no good argument for continuing the patriarchy.”
Kendra searched for an excuse for being upstairs with Jason. “Hi Holly. I was helping Jason pick out a suit for tonight’s town meeting. What do you think?”
“I think it’s a pretty good story to come up with off the top of your head.” Holly grinned mischievously at them and took a bite from a green apple. “But it doesn’t explain why your hair is messed up.”
“It’s not messed up. This is a style. A Black girl style, so don’t be casting doubt.”
“Are you seriously pulling the Black hair card on me? You must really not want me to know that you guys are hooking up. Too bad. I already know.” She took another bite, then stepped aside to let Jason pass by. He tweaked her ponytail on the way past.
Kendra followed, wrapping her dignity around her like a cloak. Holly was going to find out sooner or later, even though they’d tried to keep it quiet.
“For the record, I’m not mad about it,” Holly called as she followed them.
“For the record, no one cares.” Jason ushered Kendra to the front door.
“Then why are you being so secretive? Chloe said she saw you making out in the alley behind the SweetBitter. She was feeding a stray cat, not spying, by the way. I had to pretend like I knew all about it, and do you know how humiliating that was for me? I’m the one who’s supposed to know things!”
“Well, maybe you should step down as queen gossip bee. You might let something slip that’s supposed to be private.”
Jason was already out the door, but Kendra hung back. She’d caught an expression on Holly’s face that alarmed her.
“Have a good meeting, Jason,” she called after him, sounding about as casual as a person could when they’d just been caught coming out of someone’s bedroom. “Work that suit, baby.”
She closed the door and faced Holly, who munched her apple as she returned Kendra’s gaze. She was wearing ripped jeans that were mostly threads held together by patches of fabric, and an off-the-shoulder top. The girl’s usual bubbly manner was nowhere to be seen.
“Let slip something private…is he talking about you-know-what?”
“I’m sorry I ratted you out. I didn’t mean to.”
The girl gave a gloomy shrug. “Whatever.”
“Are you all right?”
“I don’t want to talk about it. Let’s talk about you and Jason. What’s up with that?”
Kendra didn’t answer the question directly. Sometimes it felt more real than her past relationships, but they still agreed that it wasn’t “serious.” “We’re having fun.”
Holly let out a sigh and stared at her apple. “Oh well. It’d be nice to have more feminine energy around.”
“I’m here now. Why don’t you tell me what’s wrong? I feel like I wasn’t that much help last time, and I want to do better.”
“So it’s all about you, then?”
Kendra sighed and spread open her hands. “Take it or leave it, kid. Do you want a friendly grownup to vent to, or don’t you? I have about ten minutes before I have to get back to the Blue Drake.”
Holly tossed her apple core into the nearest waste basket, then crouched down next to Rusty, who affectionately pushed his snout into her hand. She snuggled with him for a moment, causing the dog’s back leg to thump happily on the floor, as it always did. “It’s…well, it’s a situation that I don’t know how to handle. And that really never happens, so it’s confusing.”
“Can you tell me more?” Kendra kneeled on the floor next to Holly and Rusty. “ I’m not good with comforting, but I’m a badass when it comes to handling things.”
Holly shook her head, pulling her lower lip between her teeth. “I can’t. No.”
“Is it more social media drama?”
“Not exactly.”
The fact that Holly wasn’t spilling all the tea was unusual. “Can you talk to Jason about it?”
“No. He might freak out for no reason. Don’t say anything to him.”
“Like what? You haven’t told me anything.”
“It’s a first, right? Well, I’ve been accused by certain friends of being unable to keep my mouth shut. So I’m trying. But it’s hard.” Holly rubbed her cheek into Rusty’s ruff of fur.
“You’re doing great.”
The girl spoke in a rush of words. “You don’t understand how hard it is. It’s on my mind all the time, I can’t think about anything else.”
“Aw honey.” She was very curious now, but didn’t think she could press any further. Her best guess was that Holly was suffering from an unrequited crush. Those were the absolute worst. She patted Holly’s upper back. “You have to distract yourself.”
“Why do you think I’m taking all these summer courses?” Holly groaned. “It’s not helping.”
“That’s a good start, though. How about a new sport? Want to start jogging around the lake in the mornings? How about yoga? There’s a new class starting up that I wanted to try. You could come with me. You could start thinking about college too. One more year and you’ll be on your own. You’re going to meet so many people, and you might fall in love.”
“Love sucks.”
Ah-ha! Maybe she’d guessed right about the crush. “Ain’t that the truth.”
Holly lifted her head, showing the first real signs of interest. “That sounds juicy. Is it the rich guy who dumped you?”
“The memory on you. Wow.”
Holly sat on her heels, curious gaze fixed on Kendra. At least she’d dragged her out of her despair. “What happened?”
“Bottom line, he screwed me over. We were business partners, but he abandoned all our plans and dumped me and took off for London.”
“Why don’t you get a new partner?”
She decided to keep her answer simple. “Because we have a contract. My options are limited.”
Holly put her hands on her hips and fixed Kendra with her shining blue eyes, so like Jason’s, but lighter and fiercer, somehow. “Why are you just giving up?”
“Excuse me?”
“You know what I mean. Are you just going to sit back and let him ruin all your hard work? That doesn’t sound like Kendra to me.”