“That was what I assumed you’d been doing.”

“Alaric, man—” I raised my head, looking at him. He was still glaring at me. That was fine. I felt like glaring at myself. “How upset was she?”

“I’m not sure, really. She wasn’t exactly in the mood for handing out details.”

That was one I owed her. Two, if you counted the monumental apology I was going to be making as soon as she got back. “I guess not. Look, Alaric, I never meant for any of that to happen, I swear. I wasn’t trying to get her into bed, and I sure as hell wasn’t trying to hurt her once she was there.”

“I know.” He sighed, deflating somehow as he looked down at the table. “I know she likes you. I’ve known for ages. I just kept hoping she’d see that you weren’t interested. That she had better options available. But it was like she couldn’t see anything but the fact that you were playing hard to get.”

“I wasn’t playing,” I said softly. This sort of thing was easier to handle when George was around. She was always the one who noticed when girls started crushing on me, and she made them go away. One way or another. I’d never tried to deal with this sort of situation on my own before. “I really wasn’t.”

Alaric laughed. It was a short, dry sound, utterly devoid of humor. “The tragedy of all this is that I know. If you’d been playing, she might have gotten over you faster.”

“I’ll apologize.”

“You’d better.” He stood, taking his laptop with him. “We can’t afford to be at each other’s throats right now.”

“No, we can’t,” I said bleakly, and watched as he turned and walked out of the room. Once he was gone I let my head fall to the table, forehead knocking gently against the wood. “Fuck, George. How do I get myself into this shit?”

Leaping before you look, mostly. It’s always been your biggest weakness. Her laugh was superficially similar to Alaric’s, all sharp, hard edges, but there was amusement there, too. The sort of amusement that comes right before the execution. That, and me, anyway.

“Oh, thank God.” I sat up and sagged backward in the chair, closing my eyes. “You scared the crap out of me.”

You needed some time to think.

“Yeah, and look how much good that did me. Now Becks is pissed, which means Maggie’s going to be pissed, too, and Alaric thinks I’m an ass**le.”

Well, you sort of are. I told you to be careful with her.

“How was I supposed to know she was going to jump me in the bathroom?”

I love you, but there are times when I really don’t understand the way your brain works. She’s been getting ready to jump you for a while now. All the signs were there.

“Why would I know what the signs were, George? I never had to read them before.”

She sighed. True enough. You shouldn’t have called her by my name, Shaun. This is going to complicate everything.

“I know. Now what am I supposed to do about it?”

She didn’t have an answer for that one.

Maggie’s van pulled up half an hour later. I heard doors slamming in the driveway, and then, like magic, the kitchen was full of women with arms full of groceries, covering every flat surface with brown paper sacks. I was still at the kitchen table, although I’d exchanged my coffee for a can of Coke. The acidic sweetness of it was actually pleasant for once; the fact that I was drinking it meant that George was speaking to me again. That was worth doing a little damage to my tooth enamel.

Becks cast a wounded look in my direction as she dropped her armload of grocery bags onto the stove. Then she fled out the back door, vanishing in the direction of the van. I winced and stood. “Aw, hey, Becks, hang on a second—”

“Freeze,” said Maggie, in an amiable tone.

I froze.

“Kelly, why don’t you gout it?d get Alaric. Tell him we need help unloading the van.” Maggie’s voice stayed pleasant, but there was an edge to it that made arguing with her seem like a seriously bad idea. Kelly nodded and left the room even faster than Becks had. She didn’t even bother putting down her last bag of groceries.

I stayed where I was, watching Maggie cautiously. She put down the bag she was holding and walked over to me, stopping a few feet away as she studied my face. Finally, shaking her head, she sighed.

“How crazy are you, Shaun?”

It was an echo of the question George asked me in the van, after Kelly dropped her little bombshell about the reservoir conditions. There was no possible way for Maggie to have heard Georgia’s side of the conversation, even if she’d been listening in. I flinched all the same, answering without thinking about it: “Pretty damn crazy.” I winced. “Okay, that was maybe not the best answer. Can I try again?”

“It was an honest answer, which is what I needed.” Maggie looked me slowly up and down. “Did you know what you were going to do to Rebecca when you let her take you to bed?”

“God, no. Maggie, I didn’t even know she was… y’know, interested in me. That way.”

“I thought that might be the case.” Maggie sighed. “Have you ever had a girlfriend?”

That was another question without a good answer. I settled for being as honest as I could. “Not as such, no.”

Again that slow look up and down before Maggie said, “I thought that might be the case, too. Will you let me give you some advice?”