Julie appeared in her robe with a cup of coffee in her hand. She handed me her cup and dropped her robe. She was naked underneath. She stepped up over the edge and sank down in the hot water with a sigh of contentment. She didn’t say a word and neither did I for several minutes. I folded the paper back to the metro section and handed it to her. She scanned it quickly and then dropped it on the ground.
I said, “Why didn’t you tell us that you were being honored tonight as the valedictorian?”
Julie looked down to the gentle swirling water and then, without looking up said, “I knew June would be pissed. I wanted to keep it from her as long as I could. She’ll find out soon enough, like from that article. She’ll be hurt. I don’t want to be responsible for hurting her.”