"Okay," she repeated, weaker this time. I wished she sounded more confident, but really it was my job to make sure she could, and that was just what I was going to do.
Chapter Twenty
Veronica
I pulled into Tiffany's driveway, parking behind her car. I sucked down what remained of my iced tea, making the ice rattle against
the sides of the wet cup. I had passed on grabbing something to eat on the way here because Tiff and I were getting lunch a little later. The iced tea sloshing in my stomach would hold me over till then. Wasn't that how digestion worked?
I got out and knocked at the door. She answered quickly since she had been expecting me.
"Ready to leave?" I asked immediately.
"What? No, you just got here. Sit," she invited me in. She walked to the living room while I took a detour to the kitchen. I tossed my to-go cup and reflexively opened the fridge.
"I'm starving, what's the holdup?" I shouted. She walked into the kitchen and leaned against the doorframe.
"You think you can have a date with my brother and then not tell me everything?" she asked, smirking.
"What's there to tell? I already said it was good," I said lightly. "Can I have this applesauce?"
"Go ahead," she said. I gratefully ripped the lid off the container and started looking for a spoon to eat it with.
"So?" she said. I shoveled cold applesauce into my mouth innocently.
"So what?" I played dumb. "The date was good. The kind of good I don't think you want to hear about as his sister. I told you already."
"You guys don't talk outside of dates? You haven't called him? He hasn't called you?" she asked. I shrugged.
"We're just starting up again. Besides, we used to go out; this isn't a new relationship where we can't stand to be apart for longer than a night."
"It could be, though. Don't you want that?"
"Tiff, I say this with love," I started, eating some more applesauce, "but have you ever thought that maybe being this interested in your brother's love life might not be all the way normal?"
"You're my best friend, and it's your love life, too. Why? Did something happen?"
"No, nothing happened... At least it... I hope it's nothing."
"I knew something was up. What happened?"
"Can we still sit?" I asked. We made our way back to the living room. She had been leafing through one of the left books we had gotten together at the store the other day, and she moved it to make room for me on the couch.
"Okay, spill."
"Like I said, I don’t think it's a thing."
"But?"
"But last night, he showed up at my apartment. I was happy to see him, of course, after that amazing date we had had. He came because he wanted to talk to me. I was scared. Like, what was it he couldn't say over the phone?"
"What was it?"
"You know that he's trying to play football again, right?"
"Yeah, and?"
"And, he talked to his old coach about it. He said he could get him into a combine next month."