Page 161 of Priceless

“I’m not going to take the shirt off your back.”

It looks better on you than me,I was going to say, but I held my tongue. “Do you think — maybe— you should talk to Daniel? Like, soon? I told you he called tonight. He sounded like he was about to have his own breakdown.”

“I don’t want to hurt him.”

“So you avoid him?”

She bit her lip. A tear caught on her lashes, glistening like a diamond.

“Alexis, I’m not trying to be mean. I promise I’m not.” I handed her the box of tissues, and she mumbled something about using up all my Kleenex. “But you can’t go on like this. I tried to protectDexter’sfeelings, and look how well that turned out. He cheated on me with Sydney because he felt like I was always holding back from him.”

My sister’s eyes widened. “He did what?”

I sighed. “Yeah, that happened. I haven’t talked to Sydney since last weekend. She might not even know that I know, but…”

“How did you try to protect his feelings?” she asked curiously.

My cheeks went hot. “I, uh, I kind of faked it in bed. Among other things.”

“How?”

“Alexis!”

“I want to know! It’s not like I’ve ever been with someone.”

“Okay, well, I pretended to get off. You know…making noise, moving around…”

She nodded, unconvinced.

“I never pretended with Patrick.” I cleared my throat. “Sometimes I begged. Other times, he gave me as much as I could handle. One time, I crawled to him.”

Alexis’s dark eyes were round. My face was flaming.

“Anyway,” I finished, “you get the idea.”

She opened her mouth, then shut it. “Um, no. I have no idea what that feels like.”

I sat beside her on the bed and twined my arm through hers. She picked up a strand of her dark hair, air-dried from the rain, and let it fall.

“I really do care about Daniel,” she said. “I just — I’m so exhausted. It all feels like too much right now. I need more time.”

“So tell him.”

“That’sscary.” Unexpectedly, she giggled. “You think if I crawled to him, he’d take the news better?”

“Do you want to?”

“Mmm…no.”

“Alexis, baby, you do you. I’ll do me.”

Down the hall, a light knock came on the front door. Alexis started, grabbing my arm.

“Don’t worry,” I soothed, trying to be strong for her sake. “It’s probably Patrick.”

I padded down the hall in my socks.

“Who’s there?” I called.