“Well, hello there,” Sloane said. I turned and saw her in the doorway. She’d been a lot better with the knocking and respecting our boundaries since she’d gotten together with Ryder. She also had less free time now to be bored and bother us, so that was also a plus.
“What’s up?” I asked as she plopped onto the couch next to me.
“Not much. Ryder’s helping Gil tonight hanging a show so I’m on my own.” Ah, no wonder she’d come over. Sloane wasn’t that good at being alone.
“You got anything to eat?” she asked.
“Um, I’m sure you know more about what’s in my fridge than I do,” I said. She would sometimes break into our apartment and leave things in the fridge. She was determined that we were going to eat well and not just have spaghetti from a box and sauce from a jar. I would be mad, but how could you be mad at that?
“Should I make some popcorn?” Lucah asked. He was such a good sport. It also helped that he genuinely liked her.
“Yes, please do,” Sloane said, snapping her fingers. I gave him a sympathetic look as he went to pop some for us.
“Don’t forget the butter!” Sloane yelled.
“Should he also dress it with truffle oil?” I asked her. She rolled her eyes.
“No, I’m not that high maintenance.” She leaned her head on my shoulder.
“I miss you.” I could tell she was pouting.
“I miss you too. We need to double date more often.” Things between Ryder and Lucah could still be tense every now and then, so it was sometimes a little difficult to get the two of them together. But Ryder was doing so much better now.
“Someday, we’ll buy a duplex and then we can live together again and our kids will be besties and cousins and we’ll be way too involved in each other’s lives.” Well, this was the first I was hearing of this plan. This was also the first time Sloane had ever mentioned wanting kids.
“Um, what did you say about your kids?” She turned her head and looked up at me.
“I don’t know. I was just thinking that Ryder and I would make pretty babies and it would be so much fun to make baby couture.” God, her kids would be the best-dressed kids outside of Hollywood. I laughed when I thought about it.
“What’s so funny? I could have kids.” The first time Sloane had met Gracie and Fiona, she’d flipped out, but the girls had loved her anyway.
“I mean, I think I’d be better with my own kids, you know? And I’d get to make my own maternity clothes and everything.” She was thinking way too much about the clothes aspect of babies and not all the other stuff that went along with them.
“That’s a lot to think about,” I said. What was it with everyone and babies? It was starting to freak me out. Was the universe sending me signals? God, I hoped not.
Lucah came over with the popcorn and Sloane stopped talking about the baby stuff and Lucah asked how Ryder was doing. They talked almost every day, but Lucah couldn’t help himself from keeping tabs on his little brother.
“I think he’s going to start doing his own art now. Gil said he’d give him a corner to display his stuff if he wanted to.”
“He’s not going to make something out of condoms, is he?” Lucah asked. On one of Sloane and Ryder’s first dates, they’d gone to a show at the gallery and had told us about all the strange art that was there, including a piece made from condom wrappers. I guess I didn’t understand modern art.
“God, I hope not. I won’t let him,” she said, reaching for the popcorn bowl. “I’m encouraging him to do whatever he wants. He’s got talent, he just needs to focus it on something.” It was easy for her. She’d known what she wanted to do when she was really young. Granted, so had I, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t understand someone who might not know what they wanted to do. If I didn’t have Clarke Enterprises, I had no idea what I would do with myself. Probably work at another company, but maybe not.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you that Chlo got promoted.” She crunched down on a piece of popcorn and handed me the bowl.
“She did? I thought she was quitting.” Chloe was always quitting her job.
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll believe that when I see it,” she said, licking the butter and salt off her fingers.
“I seriously don’t get it,” I said.
“Me neither.”
~*~*~
I thought Sloane was going to crash with us, but she wandered back down the hall to her place before I had to kick her out.
“She can be exhausting,” Lucah said, leaning his head back on the couch and closing his eyes.