Like a Best Friend | ✓

chapter thirty-one

Dinner is scheduled for seven, an hour and a half after sunset, and neither of us are ready. Emotionally, that is. The food is prepped and the we've pushed a couple of tables together to squeeze all eleven of us – Kitty and me; our parents; Levi; my siblings, and both of Kitty's brothers – and Levi's coming over early to make his famous matzo ball soup. Kitty has even baked her own loaf of challah, like she used to do with her dad when she was a kid. But she's buzzing around the apartment like a fly that can't find a window and she has redone her ponytail at least three times.

"It's going to be okay," I say, resisting the urge to steal a spoonful of the avocado and mango salsa she's made to go with the blackened roast salmon.

"You don't know that for certain. What if it turns out my family's secretly super homophobic?"

"I don't think that'll happen, but if it does"—I take her elbow and bring her to a stop, her socked feet skidding on the wood floor—"then we'll get through it together. Whatever happens, we've got each other, Kits."

She bites her thumbnail. I move her hand away from her mouth.

"We're going to have a great Shabbat meal and your parents are going to be bowled over by your amazing cooking," I say, in my most reassuring tone, "and when we break the news, they're going to be shocked, sure, but I bet they'll be supportive. I know they will. Your parents love you, Kitty. You're their only daughter, and I know your mom. All she wants is for you to be happy."

Kitty nods as I speak but her eyes aren't focused on me. She's inside her own head. There's nothing I can do to ease her nerves except be here for her, and act quick if I get even the slightest hint that someone's about to be an asshole tonight. I've spent a lot of time with her mom, but her brothers are a relatively unknown quantity. I've never had much reason to hang out with them, but I know Kitty's close to them, the whole family still a tight-knit unit even though they've all left home.

"Come here." I pull her into a tight hug and I hold onto her until she deflates against me, the tension leaving her body. "Everything's going to be okay, Kitty. I promise. Say it: everything's going to be okay."

"Everything's going to be okay," she mutters into my hair.

"Good. Now try to believe it."

"What if I can't?"

"Then pretend," I say, squeezing her tight, "because your ex-fiancé will be here any minute and everyone else is going to turn up in the next hour."

Right on cue, the buzzer goes and a couple minutes later, Levi is in the apartment. I haven't seen him in months. Kitty last saw him the day she told me they were over, nine weeks ago now. I don't know why I'm nervous – I know he's a nice guy, that formed the basis for half my complaints about him – but I get a flood of nerves when Kitty opens the door to let him in.

He hugs Kitty first, one arm around her, a bag of supplies in the other, and kisses her cheek, and I can see now that every time I've felt negatively about him before has been fucking jealousy. I wanted what he had and I didn't even know it, and now I have everything and Levi isn't a threat, isn't in the way, and I find myself grinning as I pull him into a hug.

"Hey, Levi."

He laughs as he says, "Hi, Fliss. Congratulations."

"Thank you." I let go of him. "And thanks for helping Kitty realize she's gay as fuck."

He salutes. "Pleasure's all mine. I'm glad you were able to make the most of the honeymoon."

"Oh, we made the most of it alright," Kitty says with a filthy wink.