“You can’t do this, Andrew!”
“I found three listings. That’s all I did.”
“You’ve been apartment hunting for me?”
“Room hunting.”
“You can’t throw me out!”
“I’m not.”
She spun toward me, clutching the towel with one hand and his phone with the other.
“Amanda. Are you really going to let your husband kick me out of your house?”
“He isn’t kicking you out,” I said quietly. “But ‘temporary’ has to end somewhere.”
“Because I wore a towel?”
I slid the toast off the hot pan before it could burn, buying myself a second to steady my voice.
“Because I asked you not to do something in my home, and you decided I had to prove my reason was good enough before you’d listen.”
She hitched the towel tighter under her arm.
“So this is a punishment.”
“No. If I wanted to punish you, I’d have let you keep eating Andrew’s cereal. He buys the awful kind.”
Andrew pointed at me without looking up.
“Uncalled for.”
Kayla didn’t laugh. Her chin was trembling now.
“My heart is broken, Amanda. I have no money. I don’t even have a job.”
“I know.”
“And you’re giving me a deadline?”
“I’m giving us a plan.”
“That’s the same thing.”
“It isn’t.”
She rounded on Andrew.
“And you. You’ve been treating me like some kind of predator all week.”
He picked up his coffee again.
“No, I haven’t.”
“You walk out every single time I come in.”
“The first time, I left because it was awkward,” he said. “After Amanda asked you to stop, I left because I refused to be part of it anymore.”
“Part of what?”
“Whatever experiment you thought you were running. You kept trying to cast me as a character in a fight with my wife. I wasn’t going to play the role.”
For once, Kayla had nothing ready.
Then her eyes narrowed at me.
“You told him to say that.”
I shook my head slowly.
“I didn’t even know he’d been looking.”
Andrew glanced at me, sheepish.
“I probably should’ve mentioned it.”
“Yes. You should have.”
“I thought staying out of it meant saying, ‘She’s your sister.’” He ran his thumb along the handle of his mug. “But really, I just left you holding a line that was supposed to be both of ours.”
I looked at him, and something tight in my chest loosened. I hadn’t expected him to see that. I hadn’t expected him to say it out loud.
Kayla let out a brittle laugh.
“Wonderful. Couples therapy’s over. Can I go get dressed now?”
“Please,” I said.
She turned for the stairs.
“And Kayla?”
She stopped, one foot on the bottom step.
“One of those rooms is available now. The woman renting it can show it this afternoon.”
She whipped around.
