“I don’t know.” I sighed down the phone. “I really don’t know.”
“What happened?” Mila sighed. “Hold on, I’m going to go and sit down.”
“Yeah, you should do that.” I sighed as well and closed my eyes. “I don’t even know what is going on with Sally? I don’t understand her, Mila. I don’t understand what she wants or doesn’t want.”
“Start from the beginning.” Mila said softly.
“I’m sure you know we’ve had sex. Don’t lecture me, I know it was foolish of me.” I said, even though I knew I would have done it again in a heartbeat, if I had to.
“I’m not even going to comment.” Mila said. “I’m assuming you guys copulated again this afternoon.”
“Don’t make it sound so crude.”
“I’m not making it sound anything.” She said snidely. “Just continue.”
“I thought we were on the same page. I apologized to her about hurting her feelings. Told her I thought she’d been ignoring me, but she told me that she’d just been busy. I guess with that fool, Luke.”
“He’s not a fool. He’s a nice guy.”
“Uh huh, did you know that they’d kissed?” I said angrily, feeling a spark of jealousy running through my stomach again and I clenched my fists.
“Yes.” She said simply. “How do you know?”
“I saw his text.”
“He text her?” She sounded surprised. “What did he say?”
“How am I supposed to know? All I saw was a text saying how all he could think about was their passionate kiss.” I said bitterly.
“Wow, he said that?”
“Mila!” I almost shouted. “He didn’t use those exact words. I can’t remember what he said exactly. Who the fuck cares? This is about me, not about this schmuck? Whose brother are you?”
“I’m no ones brother?” She laughed.
“Ugh, you know what I mean. Whose sister are you?”
“You know I always have your back, Cody.” She said softly. “I take it you’re upset that Sally kissed Luke. Is this what this call is about? Did you guys argue about the kiss? And how did you see the text message on her phone? Were you creeping through her texts?”
“I would never snoop through someone’s phone.” I said with a sigh. “She was getting upset with me and acting all irrationally and shouting at me and her phone beeped, so I very kindly went to get it for her and I found it stuffed under the sheets and saw his name and text on her phone. She’d been texting with him in the bed that we’d just made love.”
“Really?” Mila’s voice was dubious. “That doesn’t sound like Sally.”
“Well maybe you don’t really know, Sally. Maybe I don’t really know Sally. Who knew she was a player?”
“Sally isn’t a player.” Mila said. “You know that.”
“How am I supposed to know that?” I said. “She’s in my bed texting another guy.”
“Okay, Cody, what help do you want from me?” Mila sighed in frustration. “I’m not sure exactly what you called me for, you don’t seem to want to listen to what I have to say.”
“I want to know what Sally’s problem is? What game is she playing with me? I want to know what I’m supposed to do now. Am I supposed to text her? Call her? Am I supposed to just go on with Luke? Ignore her? Go back to being friends and pretend everything is okay?”
“What do you want to do?”
“I don’t know.” I snapped. “I don’t know. I don’t know what game she’s playing with me. I don’t know what she wants from me.”
“What do you want, Cody?”
“I don’t know.” My heart started thudding. “I want to be with her. I want to spend time with her. I want to kiss her. I want to hold her hand. I want to talk to her. I want to be her shoulder to lean on. I want her to come to me when she’s sad. I just, I don’t know...” My voice trailed off. “What’s happening to me, Mila?”
“You have to figure it out yourself, Cody.” Mila said softly. “I think you’ll get there, but you need to figure it out yourself.”
“I need to talk to Sally.” I sighed. “I just don’t even know why she was so upset.”
“Do you really not know?” Mila cleared her throat. “You’re my brother and I love you, but you cannot be this dense. I know you can’t be this dense.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know Sally had a crush on you when we were younger.” Mila suddenly snapped. “I know that you know because TJ and I have talked about it before.”
“Yeah, so.”
“So have you never considered the fact that her crush never really faded? Be honest now, bro. Come on now.”