In ways that might have been unhealthy but explainable given the tragedy we’d lived through together, we were fiercely bonded together. Mei and I parentheses around Cleo and her tender heart. Between the two of us, we wouldn’t let anythin’ bad happen to our girl ever again. We’d never spoken of it, but we didn’t have to. Cleo was smart about people, but Mei was plain fuckin’ smart.
