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“You think that excuses it? I went to the same school, you know, and I didn't torture anyone.”
“Well, good for you.” He rose abruptly to his feet. “Good for you, Sari. You weren't mean at all to anyone back in high school.” He shoved his hands in his pockets and looked down at her.“No, you just waited another ten years or so before you decided to ruin an autsistic kid's life.”
“I’ve spent the last six years of my life helping these kids,” she said.
“Five minutes ago, my kid was screaming because they wouldn't let him see you,” Jason said. “I may have been a jerk in high school, but I know I never made your brother-or anyone else-scream like that.” And he turned on his heel, crossed the room, kicked open the front door to the clinic, and was gone.
There was silence.
After a moment, Shayda came over to where Sari sat, unmoving, on the sofa. “Do you need me to get Ellen or anything?” she asked.
Sari stared at her blankly. “Ellen?”
“Yeah. Is everything okay? I mean, what just happened here?”
“I’m not sure,” Sari said.
The last thing she wanted was to see Ellen or anyone else for that matter, but she still had several clients to see before the end of the day, so she couldn't just vanish. She was able to swear Shayda to secrecy, though, by telling her she'd been stupid enough to get a little bit involved with Zack's dad before realizing she needed to call it off and that he was kind of upset about the breakup. She made a big show of how she was too embarrassed to have anyone else at the clinic know how dumb she'd been.
“He's really good-looking,” Shayda said, clearly thrilled by the whiff of scandal. “I don't blame you.”
Sari didn't trust herself to reply to that, so she just reminded Shayda not to tell anyone and then excused herself.
III
Hey,” Kathleen said, early that evening, poking her head into the office in the back of Sam's apartment. “Can I talk to you?”
Sam was sitting at his desk. He jumped at the sound of her voice and turned. “Jesus. Don't sneak up on me like that.”
“I knocked at the kitchen for a while and you didn't answer, so I just came in.”
“I’ve got to remember to keep that door locked.”
“You want me to go?”
He got up from his desk with a sigh. “No, now that you're here, I might as well take a break.” He rubbed his eyes. “I’m supposed to stop every half hour, according to my ophthalmologist-if I stare at the computer too long, I get headaches. One of these days, she's going to admit that we're dealing with a malignant brain tumor.” He moved past her. “I could use a cup of tea. You?”
“Sure,” she said and followed him back into the kitchen.
He picked up the teakettle and carried it over to the sink. “Where have you been lately?” he said, as he ran the filtered water into it. “I haven't seen you around.”
“Hawaii. Why don't you use the insta-hot? It's faster.”
“Water that's actually boiling makes better tea.” He turned the faucet off. “What were you doing in Hawaii?”
She hesitated for a moment then said, “Breaking up with Kevin Porter.”
He set the kettle on the stove. “You picked a nice place to do it.” He turned on the burner, then moved to the cupboard and got out two cups and two saucers. He arranged them on the counter so the handles on the cups were facing in the exact same direction. “Darjeeling or Earl Grey?”
Kathleen waved her hand impatiently. “Do you really think I know the difference?”
He smiled and shook his head and plucked out two teabags from a jar on the counter.
“So,” Kathleen said, after another moment of silence, “it's ended. Me and Kevin Porter.”
“So you already said. And more grammatically. How did he take it?”
“He's fine, I think.” She hoped no one-especially not Sam-would ever find out that she had agreed to marry Kevin right before breaking up with him. Sari and Lucy knew, but they didn't count.
Sam gave her a hard look. “Are you saying that because you really think so, Kathleen, or because you don't want to feel guilty?”
She smiled sheepishly. “Both.”
The kettle whistled. Sam took a blue-and-white pot holder out of a drawer and carefully wrapped it around the teakettle's handle, then poured the water into the cups. Steam rose up in puffs around his hand. He had boiled exactly the right amount of water for two cups. “I’ve got to admit I’m surprised.” He put the kettle back on the stove and the pot holder back in its drawer before turning to her again. “Just a few weeks ago, you told me you were going to marry Kevin and live off his fortune for the rest of your life.”
“I never said I was definitely going to do that-I just said it was an interesting possibility.”
“One that you seemed very invested in pursuing. What happened?”
“Nothing happened.” She shifted, pressing the flat of her back against the counter. “I guess I just got bored.”
“What happened to the young woman with plans and forethought? The one who wasn't going to be like her mother and throw her life away on some loser? The budding philanthropist?”
“They got bored, too.”
“I see.” He dunked the two teabags, then got a clean mug out of the cupboard and deposited the used teabags inside. He put that mug in the sink. “Do you want milk or sugar?”
“Sugar. A lot.”
“Are you sure you wouldn't just prefer a tea-flavored cup of sugar?
“Are you offering?”
“Sit down, Kathleen.” She sat while he doctored the tea and then he joined her at the table and slid a cup and saucer across to her.
She picked up the cup and put it to her lips. “Fuck,” she said, dropping it down onto the saucer with a clatter. “It's really hot.” She put her fingers to her burned lip.
“Brilliant,” Sam said. “You watched me boil and pour the water with your own eyes, but you had to burn yourself to realize it was hot?”
“Whatever.”
“Try thinking before you do things, Kathleen. You'll get hurt a lot less.”
“But will I have as much fun?” And suddenly-crazily-she thought of leaning forward and kissing him. And immediately rejected the idea. Kiss Sam? Who was stern and disapproving and usually a
Distracted by the thought, she took another sip of tea and immediately scorched her lips again, but this time suppressedthe curse that rose to her tongue, so Sam wouldn't know she had been stupid not once but twice.
Sam was stirring his tea slowly with a spoon. “You said you wanted to talk to me about something. Was it just to tell me about Kevin?”
She brought herself back to the conversation. “Sort of. It's co
“And you've already used up and discarded the boss's son, so what's the point?”
“Shut up.”
He didn't. “Jackson has two more sons, you know. There's no reason to quit yet. They're married, of course, but I think you and I both know that marriages aren't necessarily permanent. You could even argue that the extra obstacle will make it a more exciting challenge, couldn't you?” She didn't answer, just glared at him, so he shrugged and went on, still stirring his tea. “Actually, I think you made a mistake going after Kevin in the first place, Kathleen. His brothers are bigger players than he'll ever be.”
“I didn't go after him. It wasn't like that.”
He stopped stirring and looked across the table at her, his eyes flat and unreadable. “Oh, please. You can tell anyone else that. But not me.”
She couldn't meet his look. “All right,” she said after a moment. “Maybe it was like that.” She poked, defeated, at the handle on her teacup.