Hot Mess

“It makes sense,” I replied. “You’ll always have that degree, and there’s no saying you can’t complete it later.”

“That was my brother-in-law’s reasoning, too. My sister wasn’t really happy about it, but he helped her see sense. Although it looks like I might be doing that sooner rather than later,” she finished dryly. “Given the current circumstances.”

I waited while she put down the water and picked the roller back up. “You really didn’t know?”

She tensed, her shoulders moving up toward her ears. “No,” she said after a moment, relaxing her shoulders. She stared at the wall as she spoke. “I remember the night—it was a party, we were both drunk, and I made a stupid decision. Apparently, it wasn’t as spontaneous as he’d led me to believe, given that it’s on camera. A clear one at that.”

Sympathy balled in the pit of my stomach. There was no denying the truth in her words. As much as I wanted to believe she was a terrible influence, she was clearly someone who’d been wronged by someone she’d trusted. Someone she’d loved.

Nobody—absolutely fucking nobody—spoke with a crack in their voice unless they were genuinely hurt.

“Sorry,” I said. “I didn’t want to upset you.”

“It’s fine. I have to get used to talking about it. I spoke to my lawyer this morning and my sister put me in contact with a friend who’s a private investigator.”

“You’re not going to the police? This is revenge porn, Elle.”

“I know that. He released the video purely to hurt me. The problem is that I don’t trust the police to get to the bottom of it, and my brother-in-law is a cop. My ex is a computer whiz and there’s no doubt he did some techy-techy magic so it would be hard to prove it was him.” She sighed. “But Noelle apparently has a super tech guy who can hack into anything, so even though they’re in Texas, I hope they might be able to do something.”

“You’re paying a private investigator?”

“I’m conservative with money for the most part.” She shrugged, reaching for the water again. “I don’t own my apartment, I rent it. I don’t need a car in New York City, so my sister keeps it in her garage so I don’t have to pay for garage rental.”

“Why do you have a car if you don’t need one?.”

“I live in the city because it’s convenient for work and other things. I’m actually a country girl at heart, and my sister lives quite close to the country. I stay at her place probably once a month, sometimes with her and her husband, sometimes I look after my niece so they can have time alone. They go to my place and stay when they need a quick break.”

“Is that the girl in your videos? Mel?”

She grinned. “Her real name is Amelia. My sister doesn’t mind, and my niece loves it because she gets to keep all the toys we get sent. We can spend an entire weekend filming videos where she’s a superstar like Auntie Elle and it gives me several weeks of content for her.”

“Your sister isn’t worried that you’re exploiting her?”

Elle laughed. “Exploiting her? God, no. Amelia asks to do it. She loves showing off on camera. Any money I get from videos that include her is transferred one hundred percent to her savings account. Well, it’s actually split between a savings account and a college fund. If she ever says she doesn’t want to do a video, it doesn’t happen. We do all kinds of random stuff that has nothing to do with anything, especially when Emily and Ben go away. I’m the fun aunt who buys drum kits for Christmas.”

“As a parent, I can assure you that she does not think you’re the fun aunt for the drum kit.”

She laughed again, shrugging. “I know, but it’s my job. I’m sure she’ll return the favor one day when I have kids. But in my defense, Amelia can already pay for her first year of college, so I think I get a pass on that.”

“I’d let you buy my kid a drum kit if you’d cover a year of her college,” I muttered. “Maybe. As long as I had noise-canceling headphones.”

“That was Emily’s birthday present last year.” She grinned. “See? I’m the fun aunt and a considerate sister.”

I had to give her that one. Aunt Elsie considered herself the ‘fun aunt,’ and since she bought me a drum set when I was five, she did fit the bill.

Not for my parents, though.

And she definitely didn’t buy them headphones.

The only thing close to that that she owned was a megaphone. Most often used in the Conspiracy Krew’s three-woman stakeouts in front of the town hall to demand the truth about aliens.

I was just glad none of them could work Netflix. The last thing they needed was the opportunity to watch all twelve seasons of Ancient Aliens to validate them.