“You’ve been calling this a test all week, right?”
“Exactly.”
“Good.”
He took out his phone.
“Congratulations, Kayla. You passed.”
He took out his phone.
Kayla looked from him to the phone.
“Passed what?”
“My test.”
“What test?”
Andrew unlocked his phone and placed it on the counter between them.
“Whether you’re ready to live with roommates.”
“Passed what?”
Kayla looked down.
Then she snatched up the phone.
I couldn’t see the screen from where I stood.
Her face turned bright red from her neck upward.
“What on earth is this?”
Her face turned bright red.
“Three rooms for rent,” Andrew said. “All within 20 minutes of here.”
She swiped the screen.
“Andrew, you can’t do that!” she shouted.
“I found three listings.”
“You’ve been looking for apartments for me?”
“Rooms.”
“Andrew, you can’t do that!”
“You can’t throw me out!”
“I’m not.”
She turned toward me.
“Amanda, are you seriously letting your husband kick me out of your house?”
“Andrew isn’t kicking you out,” I said. “But temporary needs an end date.”
“Because I wore a towel?”
“Temporary needs an end date.”
I moved the toast off the hot pan before it burned.
“I asked you not to do something in my home, and you decided I needed to convince you my reason was good enough.”
She pulled the towel tighter under one arm.
“So this is punishment.”
“I asked you not to do something in my home.”
“No. If I wanted to punish you, I’d have let you keep eating Andrew’s cereal. He buys the terrible kind.”
Andrew pointed at me.
“Unnecessary.”
Kayla didn’t laugh.
“I’m heartbroken, Amanda. I have no money. I don’t even have a job yet.”
“I know.”
“I have no money.”
“And you’re giving me a deadline?”
“I’m giving us a plan.”
“Same thing.”
“No, it isn’t.”
She looked at Andrew.
“And you. You’ve been acting like I’m some kind of predator all week.”
Andrew picked up his coffee.
“No.”
“I’m giving us a plan.”
“You leave every time I come into the room.”
“The first time, I left because it was awkward,” he admitted. “After Amanda asked you to stop, I left because I wasn’t participating anymore.”
“In what?”
“I left because it was awkward.”
“Whatever experiment you thought you were running. You kept trying to make me a character in an argument with my wife.”
For once, Kayla had no quick answer.
