Written in the Stars(42)

“What the fuck,” Darcy whispered once the waiter was gone. “Elle.”

Elle stared at her own triple-stacked burger with wide eyes. “I didn’t think they would be this big.”

“What is this?” Darcy poked the top bun of her burger, her nose scrunching adorably.

“Um, beef katsu, chicken katsu, pork katsu, egg, bacon, pickles, tomato, cabbage, wasabi mayo, and a few other sauces I can’t remember. I had them leave the cheese off yours.” Elle snagged a wad of napkins from the holder in the center of the table. She had a feeling she was going to need them.

“How do I even begin to eat this?” Darcy muttered. “Don’t we get silverware?”

Elle gasped. “Eating a burger with a fork and knife is a crime. You just have to dive in. Shove it in your face and hope most of it winds up in your mouth.”

“Do you have a lot of experience with that?”

“I usually order the Tokyo Classic, which is only one—” Darcy’s words caught up to her. “Wow.”

Darcy’s lips twitched into a grin that showed off her perfect teeth. “It was practically begging to be said. Come on.”

Elle snorted and wrapped her hands around the ginormous burger in front of her. She could barely get her mouth around it, wound up with an unbalanced bite of bun and cabbage, but she had to start somewhere.

Darcy, on the other hand, examined her burger with narrowed eyes before smushing the whole thing down with her palm until it was half its original size. She lifted it to her mouth and took an inelegant bite, wasabi mayo and tonkatsu sauce dripping down her chin as she groaned, eyes rolling back as the flavor combo hit her taste buds.

Elle buried her smile in her burger. “Scale of one to ten, what do you think?”

Darcy wiped her chin and looked thoughtful. “Solid nine point two. You?”

“An eleven, easy.”

“You said scale of one to ten.”

“It’s a hyperbole. Sometimes coloring inside the lines just doesn’t cut it. Like when you’re two hundred percent certain about something. Haven’t you ever felt that?”

Darcy stared for so long that Elle squirmed. “It’s a burger. I don’t think it’s that deep.”

Elle snorted and took another bite.

“What about you?”

Elle finished chewing before she asked, “What about me?”

Darcy set her burger down and reached for another napkin. “Are you close with any of your siblings?”

That was . . . relative. “I’m closest with Daniel, probably. There’s only two years between us, which helps. But these days, he and Jane have the most in common.” Elle reached for her water and took a fortifying sip. “I don’t butt heads with Jane or anything, we’re just on entirely different wavelengths. But she lets me babysit my nephew, so she’s at least deemed me trustworthy enough to watch a toddler.”

Darcy smiled around her straw. “Why do I get the feeling you’re surprisingly good with kids?”

Elle scoffed. “Surprisingly? Excuse you, Ryland is lucky to have me as an aunt. Maybe I can’t cook, but I make mean macaroni art and I do voices for all the characters in his books.”

Last-minute requests to watch Ryland were the norm, because as far as Jane was concerned, since Elle worked from home, her schedule was flexible. The only reason she didn’t complain was because she enjoyed it.

“What about your other sister?”

“Lydia?” Elle shrugged. “We’re like oil and water. She idolizes Jane and figured out a long time ago that the easiest way to get our parents’ approval was to do everything by the book, but even then, it’s hard to compete with Jane and Daniel because anything you do? They did it first and they probably did it better. They were honor students, on ASB, Daniel was president of the GSA, both did a million sports, and now they’ve got great jobs and families of their own. Brace yourself for Lydia to be a bit of a brat because she has it in her head that the best way to make herself look good is to point out my flaws.”

Darcy frowned. “Your parents don’t approve of what you do?”

Approve. If only. “They’ve sort of stalled in the grudging acceptance phase where we mostly don’t talk about the fact that I don’t have a nice, stable job with a pension plan, not that those really exist anymore. Mom makes the occasional comment about what I do and how she wishes I would settle down with one of the nice, boring people they’ve set me up with. I’ll occasionally catch Jane looking at me like I’m some sort of weird puzzle from another planet she’s trying to solve, but mostly everyone just ignores me.” Shit. Elle grimaced. “I mean, they don’t ignore me. The things that matter to me don’t really rate for them.”

The furrow between Darcy’s brows deepened. “But you wish it did. Matter to them.”

“Well, sure.” Of course. “But, unlike Lydia, I decided a long time ago that I wasn’t going to change who I was just to suit someone else.”

“Where do I fit into all this? On Thanksgiving?”

Right. Thanksgiving. That was the reason they were here, not to get to know each other better just because.

“Act like you like me?” Elle gave an awkward laugh, avoiding Darcy’s eyes. “You’ve got the sort of job and vibe that screams I’ve got my shit together, so if my family thinks you’re into me and hears you talk about how awesome you think I am, maybe they’ll see me in a different light without me having to, you know, do anything.”