Chapter 81

AMELIA “So, how was it?” Mom yells as soon as she hears me close her front door. I hang up my coat and plaster on a happy face. She doesn’t need to know all the complications. She only needs to know that it was great. It’s not exactly a lie—some of it was great. Some of it was a roller coaster of anxiety and sexual tension, but that definitely falls into the don’t-tell-Mom category. I can just imagine. Oh yeah, it was fine—apart from the fact that my new boss is the guy I banged at Emily’s wedding, and he makes me weak at the knees every time he looks at me.Nope. I’m gonna stick with the sanitized version of events. Our house is tiny, tucked away in a working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn. Mom always worked hard, sometimes holding down three jobs to make ends meet. Despite that, I never felt like I went without anything. There was always food on the table, clothes on my back, and a whole lot of love. We never had a lot of money, but I didn’t feel deprived. My friends all loved coming