job and I’m good at it. But it’s just not something I want to do forever.”
“So?” I said, waving with my fork. “You’ve got time to figure it out.”
“Not really. I mean, I know I don’t want to go to college. I tried that for half a year and I fucking hated it.”
“There’s lots of stuff you can do without a degree.” He gestured. “I don’t have one.”
“Yeah, but…you have the skills and experience. I just…” She sighed. “You’d have to know my family to understand. My oldest sister, Charlie, is super successful. She went to fucking Yale on a full academic scholarship, where she got not one, but two degrees.”
“Yikes,” I said. “I barely graduated high school. Book learning and classrooms just wasn’t my thing.”
“Same,” she said. “Then there’s Cassie. She went to Julliard for dance, and was lead dancer for one of the most prestigious dance companies in the world, and lived in Paris.”
I arched my eyebrow. “Damn.”
“You begin to understand,” she said, droll. “But wait, there’s more. Lexie, my sister who’s getting married, did the whole college thing, went to the University of Connecticut and then Sarah Lawrence for women’s studies or something like that. But overall, not totally out of the ordinary, right? Just a normal girl going to college. Only, she recently did some kind of dumb shit and got herself kicked out of Sarah Lawrence—what, I don’t know—and she and Charlie went on some super cool road trip. Lexie met Myles North, and yes, I mean the Myles North, and now Lexie is getting married to one of the most famous humans on the planet. But wait, there’s even more—he got her to play the guitar and sing for him, and they discovered she’s like insanely talented. He recorded her and that video broke world records for most views in twenty-four hours.”
I dropped my fork. “Wait. You gotta be shittin’ me. Your sister is that Lexie? The Lexie from Myles and Lexie?”
I nodded. “Yes. That Lexie is my sister.”
I rocked back in my chair. “Okay, that’d be a little intimidating. She’s crazy talented.”
And crazy hot, but I didn’t say that. Mainly because the girl across the table from me was, in my opinion, even hotter—and not just because she was here in person, in my home, and was not getting married to a rich and famous dude with magazine perfect looks and bonkers musical talent.
“Yes, it’s a little intimidating, and it makes me feel inferior.”
“Well, she’s her, and you’re you. You gotta live your life.”
Torie rolled her eyes at me. “Thank you for that stunning insight, Rhys.”
I laughed. “A little inane, huh?”
She held her thumb and forefinger an inch apart. “Just a little.” She stood up, took my plate and hers to the sink—scrubbed the forks and the plates clean with my sponge and soap, and set them in my drying rack.
“You shoulda let me do that,” I said.
“I appreciate the hospitality, but I like to be useful. With four sisters who are all way more talented and successful than me, being useful is about all I’ve got.”
I frowned. “Wait. Charlie, the oldest, went to Yale, Cassie the next oldest is a dancer, Lexie is marrying the Myles North…that’s three sisters.”
“Can’t forget about Poppy, my younger sister. She’s eighteen, and poised to become the next, like, Georgia O’Keefe. My dad built her her own art studio in the backyard, she’s that talented. She graduated high school just before her seventeenth birthday because she’s crazy smart and has zero chill, and got accepted to Columbia University’s visual arts program, where she’s in a private study program with one of the most famous art instructors in the world, because she’s got this, quote, ‘brilliant and unique voice as a painter.’ Apparently, she’s, like, a genius with brushwork and lighting, and can replicate some of the best works by the greats of the Renaissance. But her real passion is this artwork she does with her own black and white photography and magazine cutouts and paint…I don’t know exactly how she does it. Anyway, it’s taking the art world by storm, I guess. Plus, she’s always been the prettiest of all of us.”
I arched an eyebrow. “I dunno, Torie. I’m sitting here looking at you and thinkin’ I’m not sure how anyone could be prettier than you.”
She blushed again, fidgeting and squirming uncomfortably. “Oh, shut up. You’ve seen the video of Lexie. I’m the plain sister, no question about it.”
“There is absolutely nothing plain about you, Torie.”