Chapter 15March 1996
“O’Reilly. Uh—hey. What’s up?”
Connie’s cheeks reddened but she was quick to neutralize her expression, smiling at me with a weak edge I hadn’t quite expected. Our interactions were infrequent and short, neither of us entirely sure what to say to the other, and since I had come out, I had seen her only from afar. She had done well to avoid my gaze and I hers though from time to time I would become aware of her eyes on me, watching carefully when she thought nobody else might notice. But we hadn’t spoken to each other alone in so long that to see her like that, up close and without distraction, threw my mind into a discomforting disarray.
“Alex.” She hesitated before her eyes flickered over me, studying me in a way that was not entirely subtle. She crossed her arms a
