Happily Never After

by Lynn Painter

glanced over at Max, who was staring at me like he was trying to figure me out, and I wasn’t sure I wanted him to. So I flipped him off.

“Are you laughing at me?” I asked, not caring if he was. “I’m enjoying you,”

“I’m sorry he made you cry,” I said, putting my hands in my pockets so I didn’t do something stupid like touch her. “I don’t know you well, but I know that Sophie Steinbeck should only ever be laughing.”

I heard nothing else, no other buzzwords, because I had died of embarrassment.