“Okay, but no one,” she repeated. “Not Emerson, not Donovan, not Parker.”
They were the only three she might’ve told—brother, boyfriend, best friend—but she couldn’t. Acacia nodded solemnly.
“Before I knew who she was,” Cassie started, because that was absolutely critical information for Acacia to have. She let the rest come out all in one rushed breath. “I kinda accidentally slept with Parker’s mom.”
Acacia was silent.
Then she laughed. She laughed and laughed and reached over to throw unpopped popcorn kernels at Cassie.
“You’re so dumb,” she said. “I thought you had something real going on.”
Cassie stared at her, helpless. She finished her drink.
“Babe…” Acacia’s smile slowly dropped off her face. “Wait, are you not kidding?”
Cassie could only muster a tight-lipped shake of her head.
“Holy shit, Cassie.”
If Cassie had been anyone else, that was when she would’ve started to cry. But she wasn’t crying over some woman she’d slept with once. That wasn’t why she’d told Acacia. She just needed to not keep the secret anymore.
“You slept with Parker’s mom?”
Cassie swallowed. “I didn’t know she was her mom at the time.”
Acacia took a deep breath. She looked toward the ceiling, like she was trying to figure out the details without having to ask.
“When?” she finally said.
“Family Weekend,” Cassie answered. “Friday.”
Acacia’s eyes went wide. “Friday? Friday like the day before you went out to breakfast with her and Parker? The day before you sat next to her at the a cappella concert?”
Cassie nodded.
“Fuck, Cass,” Acacia said. “How did you even sit next to her? God—you didn’t do anything then, did you?”
“No,” she said immediately. “I mean—we just, like a little, in the bathroom—”
“What the fuck, Cassie?”
Cassie wasn’t going to cry over some woman she’d slept with once, but she might over how angry her best friend was with her. Well, she wouldn’t, obviously, but she was drunk and Acacia had her hands balled into fists, her mouth turned sharply down. Cassie had thought she’d be shocked, yeah, but not mad.
“Why would you tell me this? What am I supposed to do with this information?”
“I don’t know, Kaysh. Nothing. You’re not supposed to do anything with it. I just needed to tell someone.”
“Oh, you needed to tell someone you fucked Parker’s mom before you knew her, then did it again at her daughter’s a cappella concert?”
“No! God, we didn’t do it at the concert,” Cassie said. “We just made out and I felt her up, Jesus.”
“Because that’s so much better?”
“Yeah, actually, it is,” Cassie snapped.
Acacia stared at her. Cassie saw the exact moment her glare started to soften, and it wasn’t long until she was cracking up like she had when she thought Cassie was joking.
“Oh my God,” she wheezed, could barely breathe from laughing so hard. “Oh my God, you fucked Parker’s mom and now you’re hung up on her. This is hilarious.”
Cassie got up. She needed another drink if she was going to deal with this.
“I am not hung up on Erin,” she said, setting her glass down a little too hard on the kitchen counter.
Acacia laughed some more. “You so are, though!”
Cassie left the tonic out and threw back some vodka from the bottle.
“You’re so hung up on her, you had to tell me about it weeks later. Have you been thinking of her this whole time?”
“No,” Cassie bit out the lie immediately.
She drank some more, grateful for the warm way it made her head spin.
Acacia finally stopped laughing. She rose from the couch and came into the kitchen. Her big brown eyes were full of way too much understanding.
“Cassie,” she said quietly.
Cassie tried to glare at her, but the look probably came across more desperate than anything.
“C’mon, babe,” Acacia said, taking the vodka bottle out of Cassie’s hand and putting it on the counter. “Come tell me about it. Feel free to skip over the details, though.”
Cassie followed her to the couch. They sat down again, Acacia still holding Cassie’s hand. Cassie told her everything. Acacia was silent until Cassie mentioned stumbling off the curb and Erin catching her.