The next afternoon, I met her sister at the café.
She was already there, with two drinks on the table. Apparently, she'd remembered what I usually ordered.
Small detail. But I noticed.
She didn't waste time pretending this was a casual meeting.
“I can't keep doing this,” she said.
I sat down. “Doing what?”
“Acting like you're just my friend when that's not how I feel about you.”
Finally. We were getting somewhere.
She explained that she'd tried to put her feelings aside because I was dating her sister. But every time she decided to keep her distance, something happened that pulled her back in. And lately, she'd started resenting her own sister for having something she wanted.
That last part was interesting.
I asked her what she expected me to do about it.
“Tell me if I actually have a chance with you.”
There it was. No more hints, no more pretending.
I could've given her the answer she wanted. Instead, I told her the truth, or at least the part of it that suited me.
“I do have feelings for you. But you know who I'm dating.”
She looked down at her drink. “I know. That's why I wanted to stop this before it got worse.”
“Then why did you ask me to meet you?”
She didn't answer.
She didn't need to.
We both knew she wasn't ready to walk away, and neither was I.
After a while, she got up to leave. Before she went, she told me she wouldn't ask me to break up with her sister. She just couldn't promise she'd stop wanting me.
That was more than I'd expected to get out of the meeting.
But the real problem started that evening.
My girlfriend called and asked me to come over. When I arrived, she was sitting in the living room with her sister beside her.
Neither looked happy.
My girlfriend held up her phone. On the screen was a message from her sister.
“I need to tell you something about June.”
I looked at her sister.
She looked straight back at me.
For once, she hadn't warned me before making a move.
My girlfriend put her phone down.
“I'm going to ask you both one question,” she said. “And this time, I want the truth.”
Well.
Five minutes ago, I'd thought I was making progress.
Now I was sitting in front of both sisters, with no idea what she'd already been told.