What did you wear to have coffee with the sister you’ve only talked to once—well, twice, if you counted the short phone conversation we’d had setting up the place and time of our meeting. And a few more times, considering the short conversations you had back when you didn’t know you had a sister and she was busy stealing your boyfriend.

I settled on a pair of shorts and a simple top. I’d made sure she understood that it was just to be the two of us. Like a ransom drop. Like a rendezvous.

Tess was already at the cafe when I pulled up to the curb. She was seated at one of the tables, under a wide, red umbrella, drinking an iced coffee and reading the Canton course catalog. She was very punctual, my sister. Very studious. Very, very beautiful.

We didn’t actually look alike. I was slim and leggy and she was…she was a knockout. Curvy hips and a trim waist and sensational boobs and dark hair that didn’t need curlers to do that bouncy, shampoo-commercial thing. We had the same eyes—the mood-ring Swift eyes that changed colors on a daily basis, but right now, hers were hidden under a pair of sunglasses. Her skin was pale peaches-and-cream, like she hadn’t gotten out of the lab all summer.

Or maybe she just hadn’t gotten out of bed with Dylan.

I approached the table cautiously and she looked up. “Hi,” I said. “Should I just run inside and order?”

She glanced down at the table and I saw another cup there. Caramel frappe. My favorite.

“Oh,” I said, my lungs emptying. “Did…he tell you what to order me?”

“I’m sorry,” Tess said. “That was bad, wasn’t it?”

“No.” I sat and pulled the cup my way. “I appreciate the effort.” There was no point in doing this if the two of us were going to freeze up every time the topic of her boyfriend surfaced.

“He didn’t, you know,” she said quickly. “I mean, not just now. He mentioned it once and…I remembered.”

I nodded. Mind like a steel trap, my sister. Probably what made her such a good student.

“This is going to be a disaster, isn’t it?” she asked me.

“Probably.” I took a sip. But that didn’t mean it wasn’t worth trying. I nodded at the course catalog. “You know, they have that online.”

“I know.” She hugged it to her chest. “I still like to go over to the registrar and get a hard copy. I just… I love the way it smells.”

And then…she smelled it. Dear lord. This woman was my sister? “Oh.”

She looked horrified.

Yeah, this was going to be a disaster. “So, did you have a good summer?”

She sighed in relief. “Yes. I loved the work I was doing out there.” She launched into a description of algae feedback something-or-others I couldn’t follow after the third sentence. She sounded like Dylan used to. What a pair. “What about you?”

“I spent a lot of time at the pool.”

She laughed, as if I’d told a joke, which only made me feel worse.

I spent a lot of time at the pool, and then I started having a crazy hot affair with this guy I thought was a handyman working next door, but he turned out to be an even bigger liar than your boyfriend.

Yeah, no. Not going to tell her that.

“And…Europe?”

“Fun. Fascinating. Not as enlightening as I would have imagined, though.”

“I’m sorry.” Her hand stretched out across the wrought iron tabletop, then stopped short of touching mine. “But…school is starting again soon. Are you excited?”

“Yes,” I lied.

“Me, too!” Tess beamed and patted the course catalog. Jesus. “I only have a few more pre-reqs and then I’ll basically be living in the Bio-E lab. I already have a fellowship set up for this fall. I can’t wait.”

“That’s awesome,” I managed. Another sip. Keep my mouth full of frappe, my eyes downcast. I’d survive.

She was quiet for a moment, and when I looked up to see why, I found her chewing all the lipstick off her bottom lip. Maybe that was genetic, too.

“I don’t know how to thank you,” she said now.

I narrowed my eyes. For Dylan?

“I wouldn’t be back here if you hadn’t talked Da—your father into helping me pay.”

“Our father,” I corrected. “You can say it.” Better to rip all these bandages off at once, right? See? We had plenty of things in common: Dad, Dylan…

“Are you taking Stats again this year?” she blurted.

“Huh?” Talk about a non sequitur.

“You said—last winter, you said—you dropped it last term. I was wondering if you’re going to try again.”

“No,” I said, baffled. “I’m not a marketing major anymore.”

“Oh.” She frowned. “Because if you were, I’d be happy to help. I’m really good at Stats.”

“Good for you,” I snapped. She was good at everything.

Tess fell silent and I felt bad. She was trying to thank me. I wasn’t so stupid that I couldn’t see that. But the last thing I needed was tutoring from my perfect, sexy sister.

“This was probably a mistake, huh?” she asked.

I shrugged and looked away.

“I just…” She took a breath. “I want to know you. I really, really want to know you. My whole life I’ve known about you, and I swear I’m not a crazy stalker or anything, but I’ve, um, learned some things, and I’ve always wanted to actually meet you. To see how those facts…fit.”

“You want to examine me to see how the data you’ve collected fits your hypothesis?” I asked her sarcastically.

“Oh, God, I’m a real nerd, aren’t I?” Tess groaned.

“Yes. You smell course catalogs.”

“Right.”

I slurped up the last of my frappe. “What do you know about me?” Please don’t say sexy factoids from our mutual lover, Dylan.

“You play tennis.”

“Yeah.”

“You’re really fashionable.”

“Right.” I smirked.

“You like horror movies.”

I sat back in surprise. “What?”

“You like horror movies,” she repeated. “Like, on Facebook. You have all these horror movies listed as your favorites.”

I can’t believe she latched onto that. No one else ever had.

No one, that is, except Boone.

“You stalk my Facebook page?”

“I have been known to stalk your Facebook page, yes,” she admitted, ducking her chin. “But you stalked my restaurant.”

“Well, you don’t put anything useful on your Facebook page!” I pointed out. Which was kind of a relief this summer. The last thing I needed was endless pictures of Tess and Dylan canoodling in the Rocky Mountains.

And then I realized that I basically just admitted I stalk her page, too.

“True.” Tess sighed. “I was raised to be private, I guess.”

Made sense. She was raised to be a total secret.

“So,” she prodded. “Horror movies?”

“Yes. Horror movies.”

“You like tennis, and fashion, and…horror movies?”

This was the part where I shrugged and said I had to put something on Facebook, and it was no big deal. This was the part where I laughed the whole thing off.

“I love horror movies,” I said instead. God knows why. “I have a blog where I review them.”

Tess shook her head in disbelief. “You do?”

“Dylan doesn’t know about it, if that’s what you’re wondering. No one does.” Well, Boone did, but that didn’t matter anymore. Why in the world had I just told Tess? I’d never told Dylan. I was sure he’d laugh at me.

“How long have you had the blog?”

“A few years.”

She cocked her head, examining me like I was one of her algae test tubes. “That’s…cool. Do you make any money off it?”

Always practical, my sister. Making money off the blog had been the last thing on my mind. “No. I did get invited to a screening once.”

“Like, in Hollywood?”

I laughed. “No, in DC. But it was before anyone else got to see the film, so it was still cool.”

“That is cool. Was the movie any good?”

“It was.” I started telling her about Render, but from the skeptical look on her face, I could tell horror movies were not Tess’s thing, either. I could already see her dissecting all the bad science in the flick. I wondered if that’s the expression I wore whenever she started talking about green goo.

This woman across the table shared half my DNA, and she was a total stranger. Then again, who wasn’t? My father—our father—was a liar; my mother wanted me to be a trophy wife; my friends didn’t know anything about what was happening in my life; and the last guy I’d slept with hadn’t even told me his real name.

“I’m glad we had this chance to see each other, Hannah,” Tess said. She’d clasped her hands in front of her like she wasn’t quite sure what to do with them. Like she was pleading with me for something.

I didn’t say anything. I wasn’t sure what I should say. I wasn’t glad, exactly. Talking to Tess was tough. She had everything together. Her studies, her career path, her man.

“I hope you’ll see me again sometime.”

“My friends would probably keel over if they saw us together right now,” I said, almost to myself.

“What?”

“They call you the slutbitchskank who stole my boyfriend.”

She considered this. “That’s understandable.”

It was, wasn’t it? And maybe it was because she was being honest, but my mouth started moving of its own accord. “And whenever they do, I want to slap them and say no one talks about my sister that way.”

Her eyes widened.

“Crazy, huh?”

This time, her hand made it all the way across the table to mine. “No. Not crazy.”

I looked down at our joined hands as if they were made of live snakes.

“When you were sick,” she began, slowly, “last fall… I was really worried.”

“I’m fine. I just have to take a pill now and everything is fine.” If only all my problems were so easily solved.

“I’m glad.” She hesitated. “I would grill Dylan for information about your tests and stuff. He had no idea why I cared so much.”

A lump materialized in my throat that had nothing to do with my glitchy thyroid. “Well, it’s good you took time off from stealing my boyfriend to ask after my health.”

I heard her sharp intake of breath.

“That was a joke, Tess.” Or at least half of a joke. Oh, God, this was a terrible idea. We were about twenty years too late on ever hoping to be sisters, and at least a year too late on trying to be friends.

“I’m so, so sorry that I hurt you,” she said now. “I’m so sorry. I know you don’t know me. I know you have a lot of really good reasons to hate me. I know you weren’t even aware of my existence until a few months ago, but…”

I took my hand back. It felt so warm where she’d touched me.

“I’ve wanted to know you since I was six years old,” she finished.

“Please don’t say that,” I whispered. Yesterday, Boone had insisted he wanted to get to know me better at any cost, but it was a lie.

“I’m sorry.”

“Ugh. Please don’t say that again, either.”

“I’m coming on too strong.” It sounded like she was scolding herself. “I’ve tried to be really good since December, giving you space, and now I do this whole stupid thing with the frappe and the hand holding…next I’ll be trying to braid your hair like you’re really my little sister.”

“Are you good at braiding hair?” I asked her.

“I mean…I’ve done it,” she replied. “I never had a little sister to practice on.”

“What about Barbies?”

Tess laughed. “I was more of a My First Chemistry Set kind of girl.”

Figured. Was there a single, solitary way in which my bastard sister didn’t outclass me that didn’t involve naming clothing designers?

“I just don’t…” She paused. “I don’t want our relationship to be irredeemably damaged by how it all came out.”

“I think I’m irredeemably damaged,” I mumbled. “What do you do when everything you believed your whole life turns out to be a lie? I can’t get away from lies.”

“We’re away from it now,” she insisted. “I’m done lying for Dad.”

“I’m not,” I said softly. “I lie every day for my mother’s sake.”

Tess frowned. “And for my sake?”

I looked at her. “Huh?”

“You said you threatened Dad that you’d tell your mother if he didn’t pay for my school.”

“Yeah.”

“So you’re lying for me.”

I shook my head.

“Yes, you are. And you shouldn’t, Hannah.” Tess’s voice was emphatic. “Living in a lie like that…it curdles you inside.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” I said coldly. “I’m already spoiled.”

“That’s not what I mean.”

“It’s what I mean.” My tone was flat.

Tess’s mouth clamped shut.

“And don’t you dare think I’m doing any of this for you,” I said to her. “I don’t care about you that much. I’m doing it for my family. For my mom. Just because Dad’s a jerk doesn’t mean that my whole family should be ruined.”

Tess said nothing for a long moment. “I understand.”

“Stop understanding.” I crossed my arms. “Stop being sorry. Stop being…”

“I’m—”

I held up a finger. “Just stop.”

She nodded. “I can’t tell if you like me or not.”

“That’s fair,” I said. “I can’t either.”

“Should we go back to talking about horror movies?”

I couldn’t help but laugh at that. “Better than algae, I guess.”

“And better than Dad.”

“Yeah.” I sighed. “He’s barely speaking to me.”

“I’m—” This time she stopped herself. “He hasn’t spoken to me or my mother in months.”

“Is it bad to tell you that kind of makes me happy?” I’d made my Dad finally break up with his mistress. My life’s most worthwhile accomplishment. Go, me.

Tess shrugged. “I think it’s making my mother happy, actually. I mean, the first few months were hard, but she’s getting better. She’s in school. I can’t believe she’s actually taking it seriously for once.”

I wasn’t sure what to say to that. Sounded like a warning. Take school seriously or end up some dude’s secret mistress. No wonder Tess was so driven.

“At the risk of making this really awkward again, there’s someone else who wants to see you.” Tess had gone back to wringing her hands. “If you want.”

Dylan. So I was to have coffee with my ex and the slutbitchskank sister who stole him from me. “I—”

Tess raised her hands in surrender. “He knows it’s a long shot. It was unlikely enough that you’d want to see me, and…well, we thought that was probably more important.”

“We?” I echoed. “Like you sat around and strategized this?” Of course they had. The perfect, scientific power couple. Naturally they’d weighed all the pros and cons before approaching me.

Tess realized she’d been caught. “Crap.”

“Yeah,” I said. “Crap.” Managed by my parents, managed by my ex and my stranger-sister…what was next? Did everyone think I was some kind of pathetic, fragile creature who needed to be managed and coddled and planned around and planned for? I wasn’t as smart as Dylan or Tess or my father and that meant I needed to be handled?

“Hannah—”

I mustered every bit of charm I could. “I’d love to see Dylan!” I had every grain of gravel on the high road here. “How’s next weekend?”

I’d make him eat dirt.