Chapter 4
After that night, I started noticing how often Vanessa knew things before I did.
Not dramatic things. That would have been easier.
Small things.
Ethan's project had been delayed because a vendor missed a deadline. He had a presentation in Seattle the following Thursday. He had stopped sleeping well and had started taking early morning runs again because they cleared his head.
I learned all three from Vanessa.
The first came while she was making coffee.
"Ethan's probably going to be impossible until that vendor mess is fixed,"
she said, reaching for the cinnamon.
I looked up from my laptop.
"What vendor mess? "
Her hand paused over the mug.
"Oh. I thought he told you. "
The second came two days later when she asked if I wanted to use the car Thursday.
"Ethan will be in Seattle anyway. "
I closed the refrigerator door more slowly than I needed to.
"He's going to Seattle? "
Vanessa's eyes flicked toward me.
"For the presentation. "
By the third time, I stopped pretending I was imagining a pattern.
Ethan called that evening from his hotel. I sat at the kitchen table with a stack of printed reports beside me, though I had read the same paragraph four times.
"How long have you been talking to Vanessa about your project? "
A pause.
"We talk sometimes. "
"About your deadlines. Your travel. Whether you're sleeping. "
He sighed.
"Nora, you're busy. She asks. She listens. "
My fingers tightened around the edge of the report. The paper bent under my thumb.
"I ask you things. "
"I didn't say you don't. "
"Then why does my sister know more about your life than I do? "
His voice hardened slightly.
"Why are you jealous of your own sister? "
For a second, I said nothing.
The kitchen clock ticked behind me. Vanessa's coffee mug was still in the sink, a faint lipstick mark along the rim. Such an ordinary object. Somehow it made the question feel worse.
"I'm not jealous,"
I said.
"I'm asking about a boundary. "
"You're turning normal conversations into something they're not. "
I ended the call before I said something I would have to explain for another hour.
Vanessa came out of her room a few minutes later, wearing sweatpants and rubbing moisturizer into her hands.
"Were you talking about me? "
I looked at her.
She leaned against the counter, studying my face.
"Do you really think I'm trying to take something from you? "
The wording made my stomach tighten.
"Why would you say it like that? "
She gave a short laugh.
"Because you've been looking at me like I'm stealing your boyfriend. "
I thought of the scarf. The perfume. The mango dessert. Ethan's umbrella hanging from our kitchen chair.
"I'm asking both of you to stop acting like I'm unreasonable for noticing things. "
Vanessa's expression flattened.
"Maybe you notice them because you expect me to take things. "
She went back to her room before I answered.
Later, I stayed at the kitchen island finishing a deck for work. Vanessa's phone lay beside the fruit bowl where she had left it to charge. I did not touch it.
The screen lit up.
Ethan's name appeared at the top.
For one heartbeat, I almost looked away.
Then the preview loaded beneath it.
Don't tell her yet. The ring came today.
My hand froze above my keyboard.
Across the room, the refrigerator hummed steadily.
I read the message again.
The ring.
And suddenly every small thing I had been told not to notice felt much less small.