She sighs dramatically. “Trinity Jones, workaholic extraordinaire. You promised no work during sister bonding time.”
“I know, I know.” I raise my hands in surrender. “But this was for my biggest client to date. Potential six-figure contract.”
“There’s always another contract.” Josie waves that away with the unearned confidence of someone who has yet to fully enter the real world. “When’s the last time you did anything just for fun? Or went on a date?”
I roll my eyes. “I don’t have time for dating. Besides, you know how alphas get when they discover I own my own business. They either try to mansplain my job to me or immediately start planning for our future litter.”
“Not all alphas are like that.”
“Enough are.” I grab my purse. “What are you drinking? My treat, since I broke the rules.”
“Caramel macchiato. And don’t change the subject.” Josie leans forward, her expression softening. “I worry about you, Trin. All you do is work.”
“I’m building something bigger than just me. Before and After Events is finally gaining some traction with high-end clients, and I just hired my third full-time employee. I can’t ease up now.”
Her concerned gaze trails after me as I head to the counter to order our drinks. I do my best to ignore it.
The truth is always more complicated than it needs to be. Work and career success fills a void, keeping me too busy to dwell on anything else. In a world that expects omegas to prioritize family and mating, my ambition makes me an outlier. Easier to bury myself in color swatches and venue contracts than face the pitying looks from relatives at every family gathering.
I return to the table and find Josie scrolling through her phone.
“How’s the hospital?” I asked. Josie just started a new job as a nurse aide. I’m hoping she’ll like it enough to consider going to nursing school.
“Understaffed, as usual.” She sets her phone face down on the table. “But I watched twins get delivered yesterday. It was so sweet. The parents had been trying for years.”
“That’s amazing.” I stir a packet of artificial sweetener into my black coffee, already dreading the taste. Consoling a parade of brides anxious over their wedding dress sizes going from 4 to 6 has given me a complicated relationship with carbohydrates this week. “You think you might stick with the nursing thing?”
Josie points a whipped cream covered finger at me before popping it into her mouth. “Don’t start.”
“Start what? I didn’t say anything.”
She rolls her eyes. “Not all of us want to earn two degrees in four years and keep our noses perpetually on the grindstone, you know.”
Blonde, blue-eyed and candy sweet, Josephine Becker excelled in every aspect of college except for the academics. If only she could earn course credits for attending sorority mixers or sweet-talking professors into overlooking drop deadlines for the classes she stopped attending a few weeks into the semester.
She changed majors at least seven times before taking this semester off to focus just on working so she can figure out what she wants to do long-term. Something tells me the bodily fluids and general horror of a hospital floor will not hold her interest for long.
Our general attitudes about life are as different as our appearances. Her pale skin burns with even a hint of sun, while mine roasts to the golden brown of a toasted almond. The blonde hair that I used to do up in pigtails when she was younger looks like it grew on a different family tree from my dark and coiled curls that look more like a bush in the humid, city summers. Our mother describes my rich, brown eyes as soulful, while Josie’s are the piercing blue of a pool so clear, you can see all the way to the bottom.
For the sake of my self-esteem, I try to spend as little as possible dwelling on the differences in our physical features.
“I just think nursing isn’t really my calling, you know?” Josie sips her caramel macchiato, leaving a smudge of whipped cream on her upper lip. “I mean, I like helpingpeople, but the hours are brutal, and there’s so much gross stuff.”
I fight the urge to roll my eyes. “So you’re changing jobs. Again.”
“Not exactly.” She fidgets with her straw wrapper, twisting it around her finger.
Something in her tone makes me set my coffee down. I know my sister, and this particular brand of nervous energy usually precedes something dramatic.
“What doesnot exactlymean?” I ask, already bracing myself.
“I’m going to extend my break from school.” She rushes the words out, then looks up at me with those big blue eyes, searching for approval.
I press my fingertips against my temples. “Josie, you’re twenty-one. You’ve been in college for three years, and you’re barely a sophomore in credits. What kind of extended break are we talking about here?”
“The permanent kind?” She winces. “But before you start lecturing me, I have amazing news.”
The knot in my stomach tightens. In Josephine’s world,amazing newshas historically included things like adopting a ferret without her roommate’s permission or maxing out our mother’s emergency credit card on a spontaneous trip to Cancun.
