Coldhearted Boss

That evening, I make it back to our cabin before Taylor, though I’m not surprised. In fact, if she comes back here at all, I’ll be shocked.

I take a quick shower and change into a pair of lounge pants and a t-shirt. The sun hasn’t set yet, and I owe my sister a call, so I take my phone out onto the front porch of the cabin and sit on the top stair before I dial.

“Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in,” she says, unable to pull off sounding truly menacing.

I smile. “Hey. Did you get that email I forwarded yesterday?”

“Yes. It was hilarious. I sent you back an interesting article I stumbled across during our morning meeting. It’s about pandas. Seems random, but just read it. Trust me.”

I shake my head as she launches into a full summary of the article, therefore making it unnecessary for me to read it myself.

Isla is my twin sister and we’re close, mostly due to her persistence and relentless pursuit of a relationship with me. Growing up, I wanted my distance from her. I wanted my friends to be my friends and my life to be my life. Our parents didn’t think that was necessary. Whatever afterschool activity I did, Isla did too. Track, swimming, basketball—even though she doesn’t have an athletic bone in her body, not to mention she’s only 5’3”. The team photo of the JV basketball team includes a dozen girls close to six feet, and then there’s Isla standing off to the side like someone’s kid sister. I have it framed in my office back home.

By our senior year of high school, I finally realized she’s actually pretty funny and I like being around her. If she weren’t my twin sister, I’d still want to be her friend. We ended up at the same college, and even now, we hang out in the same circle of friends. Her apartment is ten minutes from my house in downtown Austin, which means she routinely shows up unannounced, but I never really mind because she usually brings beer or some kind of dessert. She bakes a lot, which is by far my favorite hobby of hers.

“This sucks that you’re in the middle of freaking nowhere,” she says, shifting gears now that she’s exhausted the panda topic. “Jace and Alice want to go get drinks tomorrow, but I don’t feel like going because you know how they get.”

“I bet they hold hands the whole time.”

She groans. “Handholding is one thing! At dinner the other night, she did this thing where she rubbed his earlobe between her fingers for like for five minutes. It was the weirdest shit I’ve ever seen. They need to get over each other already. Enough with the eternal love crap.”

I smile. Isla functions in extremes when it comes to love and relationships. If she’s in one, true love exists and we’ll all find it. If she’s just broken up with someone, love is a sham and anyone who says otherwise is a brainwashed idiot who needs to turn off the Hallmark channel.

“So Randall didn’t work out?”

“Randall.” She puffs out a breath of air. “Don’t even say his name.”

“How many dates did you guys get to? I forget.”

“Four, and then he told me he’s not really looking to put labels on anything and love isn’t binary and ‘Would it be cool if we kept this unlabeled relationship open to others?’”

I groan. “I knew he sucked. When are you going to give in and just date Tanner?”

She laughs. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Anyway, enough about me. What about you? Does Tinder still work way out there? Maybe you’ll meet a nice country mouse.”

“The closest town is an hour and a half away. I don’t think I’ll be doing much dating.”

“You say that like you do a lot of dating when you’re in Austin.”

“I do,” I say, sounding defensive even to my own ears.

“That’s hilarious.”

“Kayley,” I say as proof, reminding her of the friend she set me up with back in the fall.

“Yes, Kayley, who you took out on two horrible dates. She said during dinner you barely looked up from your phone. Then, you called her Candace when you dropped her off, before giving her a side hug.”

I frown. “That was back in October. I was probably preoccupied with the Zilker project.”

“When are you not preoccupied with a project? Whatever. I’m not setting you up with any more of my friends. Kayley swore she wasn’t bothered that you didn’t seem that into her, but whenever I see her in the office, she bolts in the other direction. Last week, I think she hid from me in the maintenance closet.”

I rub the back of my neck.

“So what I’m saying is,” she continues, “you better sign up for Tinder and get to swipin’ cause I’m not helping you out anymore.”