“Simone?” I call out, quietly shutting the door of our rented home. Silence. Then I hear a sound coming from her bedroom. She pops her head out, hair a mess.

“Hey,” she smiles, trudging out and heading for the kitchen. “I need coffee something awful. What happened with that woman?”

Following her and gearing up for a battle, I say on a deep exhale, “Jason’s taking her to a rehab now. It’ll be her first one, I think.”

“Oh good,” Simone says without the slightest emotional investment as she reaches for the French press and opens a bag of ground coffee from Kroger.

“I told her about Nathan.”

Simone smiles, but her mind is elsewhere. Is she already mad at me? There’s a distance between us that’s not normally there.

Maybe that’s just me projecting because of what I have to share with her.

I am not looking forward to this.

Leaning against the counter I watch her fill a pot with water and turn one of the electric burners on. “Simone, I have to talk to you about something.”

“Hey, Sarah,” a deep voice greets me from behind. I quickly turn my head, my eyes widening at seeing Justin trudging out of her bedroom, shirtless in his suit-slacks, barefoot, his hair a mess, too. “Have a good time last night?” he asks me, crossing to Simone and pressing his body against her backside.

Meeting my eyes with the smile of a cat who ate twelve canaries she tilts her head back for a kiss that makes me want to throw up.

“What the fuck?” I mutter.

As Justin opens the fridge and pulls out bottled water, Simone shrugs and fake-whispers, “Ooopsie.”

Now I’m worried. “What the hell is going on here?”

She holds up her hand, eyes sharpening. “Please, you don’t get to judge me, boyfriend stealer.”

My jaw drops and fear twists my heart. “What did you just call me?”

“I know you’re in love with Jason. I have eyes. Remember? I told you I see a lot more than you think I see. You’ve been lusting after him for months. Do you really believe I didn’t know that’s why he was able to get you so angry? Because you were interested in him the whole time!”

“I didn’t know it! I wasn’t thinking of him that way until –”

“ –It doesn’t matter when! You were. And he was with me. And now he wants you, so that makes you a fucking backstabbing, boyfriend-stealing bitch!”

She may as well have just punched me with a hammer for how bad this hurts. “Simone.”

Getting in my face with her index finger jabbing the air, she snarls, “Don’t Simone me, Sarah.”

All of those times I’ve kept my mouth shut when I didn’t agree with what she was doing erupt in a volcano of unleashed resentment. Screaming, I tell her what I really feel. “You have no right to be mad at me! You told me – many times! – that Jason meant nothing to you! You have everything: talent, beauty, people supporting you, and you’re so spoiled that when one person – one person! Out of how many fans do you have on social media? – decides he doesn’t want to be treated like a temporary toy anymore you made it your goal to get him back, only with the intention of throwing him away again! Just to show him what he was missing??!!! Are you fucking kidding me right now? Who does that? How much adoration do you need, Simone? How big is your fucking ego? I mean, really?!!” Her jaw tightens and tears jump to her eyes, but I’m not done yet. “I haven’t ever wanted anyone before. I’ve kept myself a fucking nun so I wouldn’t get hurt again. I’ve only had sex with that one guy, and you know what he said to me after we were done? That he’d blown it because now you would never have sex with him!” Off her shock, I nod. “Yeah, he dated me to get to you. And fucked me because he was drunk. Do you know how that made me feel? I didn’t tell you that because I didn’t need you feeling sorry for me. But I am tired of standing back so you can have it all. If you wanted Jason – really wanted him in your heart – I wouldn’t even have thought about him in that way. He would have been like an androgynous doll to me. Completely off limits. But you didn’t want him! And you told me! And I saw it! And I saw him, and what a good guy he was, and yes, my feelings grew. But they never would have if you were in love with him. Which, from your sleeping with his fucking brother the first chance you get – just to prove you’re wanted – just made really clear you don’t care about Jason at all!”

Struggling for something to come back at me with Simone snaps, “Well, you slept with Jason last night so you obviously don’t love me!”

Choked up and in so much pain for fighting with the woman who is in all forms but blood my sister, I step back and hold my head in my hands before I explode, “I didn’t have sex with him! I wanted to! Boy, did I want to. But I had to talk to you, first. Because that’s how much I care about you, even more than him or myself.” Glancing to Justin, who’s leaning against a wall and watching us from a quiet place, I shake my head. “No, that’s not true. It’s for myself that I didn’t. Because I wouldn’t have been able to look in a mirror had I not told you first how I felt about him.”

Tears slide down Simone’s cheek, the water pot boiling and forgotten behind her.

“Sarah…”

“I’m staying in Atlanta for a little while.”

Shockwaves crash through her body and face. “He asked you to stay?”

Nodding, I whisper, because I still can’t believe it, “Yes. He did.” My eyes flit to Justin, but he betrays no emotion. He’s going to make a great politician.

Simone looks over and turns the burner off, her fingers shaking. “I’m surprised.”

“I bet,” I bite back.

She frowns, her face still in profile.

Heading for my purse and the car keys beside it, I mutter, “I need some air.”