My cheeks blushed. I did not want to be the person to explain this to him. “Uh—well, a girlfriend’s kinda like a wife, but not. I mean, Mariana is married to Dominic, and I’m dating Adrian, which is sort of like being married to him, but … not.”
It was a really bad answer, mostly because it didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but Lucian simply nodded once. Then he asked, “Do you play with Adrian?”
“Uh—”
Just then, I heard the telltale whisper of magnets rolling across the ceiling and looked up to find Adrian clinging to a bookcase twenty feet above us.
“Hey,” I said, grateful for his timing.
He hopped down to float next to me. “Lucian,” he said to his brother, “why don’t you go ask Julian how his trip was? He can tell you stories about New York.”
Lucian instantly scrambled over the back of the couch and disappeared. Adrian turned to me. “Sorry about him. He’s got the body of an eleven-year-old and the social skills of a toddler.” Before I could comment, he asked, “How’s the homework going?”
I scrunched my face. “It’s going. Did you and Julian catch up?”
A dark look passed over his face. “You could say that.” He rubbed his hands over his eyes and peered down at the table. I’d never seen him look tired before. “Family dynamics are a little interesting when your siblings are old enough to be your parents or great-great-grandparents. We didn’t get along back then, but I at least knew Julian from when I lived in Paris. I didn’t even meet Mariana until I came here when I was twelve.”
“That’s hard,” I said quietly. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry,” he said with a short, sharp chuckle. “Julian’s an ass, my sister tried to scare the shit out of you, my father’s after you, not to mention psycho-Lucian—I should be the one apologizing.”
Without thinking, I touched his arm and said, “Don’t.” He looked up at me. “Besides Trish, you’re the closest thing I have to a real friend. You have nothing to apologize for.”
He smiled in a painful sort of way, and sat up. “Need some help with the rest of this?”
I nodded, smiling.
*
I muttered angrily.
“What was that?”
“I said I hate money.”
Adrian looked at me strangely. “You hate … money?”
“Okay, I don’t hate money; I hate not having a job, and therefore not having money.”
“That makes more sense.”
I was sitting at my desk, staring dully at my laptop as I searched Craigslist for jobs. Adrian was lying stomach-down on my bed, checking my math homework. The door to my room was, of course, open. I thought Joe was going to have a heart attack when he saw us head upstairs. I’d very intentionally left my door as wide as it would go.
“What kind of work are you looking for?” He sat up and peered over my shoulder at the screen.
“I’m not really sure. I mean, my mom taught me how to sew and knit and crochet and embroider and all that, and I’m pretty good, but what jobs can you get with those skills? It’s a dead art. And even if it wasn’t, what am I going to find in Stony Creek?”
Adrian set his chin on my shoulder and said “hmm” in a deep, rumbling sort of way as I continued my search. The nearest job that I was anywhere near qualified for was over forty miles away.
“What kind of stuff do you sew?” he asked finally.
I shrugged. “All sorts of things. I made that blanket on the bed, with my mom.”
“This?” he said, leaning back and holding up the green quilt. “Wasn’t this your Halloween costume?”
“Yep. I also made the dress I wore that night.”
He looked up. “Really?”
“I’ve got a few other things I made here, but most of it’s packed away in my grandma’s basement. I’ve got whole books full of designs I’ve never made because I can’t afford the materials. The kind of fabric I like to work with is stupidly expensive.”
“Can I see them?”
I shrugged and reached over to my nightstand, pulling out my journals and setting them on the bed next to Adrian. While he opened the top one, I turned back to the computer and glumly continued searching.
“Cait?” I heard him say a few moments later.
“Hmm?”
“Can I borrow these?”
I was preoccupied by the job postings. “Sure. I’m not doing anything with them.”
“Why not?”
I jerked a thumb at the corner of the room. “Pedal’s broken on the sewing machine and I can’t afford to get it fixed.”
A pop-up ad for Christmas-themed greeting cards appeared. I needed to update my malware protection. Which also required money. Which reminded me— “I forgot to tell you, I’m going with some girls from school to Queensbury to shop for Christmas presents.”
He frowned. “That’s forty-five minutes away.”
“Yes, and it’s got a mall.”
He frowned again. “I don’t like it. Too many people.”
I frowned right back at him. “If someone starts trying to seduce me, I’ll pull the fire alarm and scream for the cops and throw holy water on myself.”
He didn’t smile. “It’s not funny, Caitlin.”
I also didn’t smile. “I have to buy presents.”
“I’ll come with you.”
“It’s a girl thing!” I protested. “We said no boys allowed.”