VIOLET SKY, takigawa chris yuu

━ chapter twenty-eight

act ii

how do we do this?
( carefully. )

chapter twenty-eight

❛don't fifty percent of all marriages end in divorce?❜

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It becomes clear that Amber doesn't like her over the course of the next few days.

Her feelings aren't exactly obvious but Amara knows when someone doesn't like her and this is pretty much it.

The thing that bothers her the most is that she doesn't quite know why.

Is it a natural clash? Are their personalities just not compatible at all?

She thinks it might just be a natural clash; they're not fit to get along. But the base of Amber's personality feels so familiar, like Aiko's, and they're fine.

They're not best friends, per se, but Aiko looks out for her and vice versa.

Yeah, but Aiko's your host sister and you had to partner with her on the field a lot. You had no choice but to keep civil, a voice in her head points out.

Whatever it is, Amara doesn't like it. She doesn't care that Amber doesn't like her, not really, but she would hate for her impression with the others to be ruined as a result of it.

But she also knows better than to try to fix whatever she did. She settles for staying out of Amber's way as much as possible — which is difficult, since she and Josh are staying in the hotel now, too, but she can play this game. She had to tiptoe around Aiko for the first half of first year and granted, they were only home together a handful of times, but she's also been handling her mom since she was born.

So, difficult, but not impossible.

More family arrives over the course of those couple days. It's almost like their entire family has filled up the hotel, which wouldn't be a hard feat since it's small and only two stories.

They alternate between driving around Palm Springs, seeing the sights — at one point, Amara drags Drew with her to get her nails done and to buy a dress and heels for the wedding — and spending time in the conference rooms at the hotel or by the pool.

Cara and Audrey enlist her help after learning that she happens to like the kids a lot, which is how she ends up entertaining Victoria, Lyla's daughter, Wednesday afternoon, watching relatives and family members talk and chat with each other in the conference room.

She feels only a little bit put out because she's more or less been left alone with Audrey, Cara, and the younger kids. In effect, the other women seem to naturally gravitate to them.

And Chris is with other relatives, entertaining them, but she sees that it's all men, too, A natural mirage between the two sexes that's reminiscent of cookouts in San Antonio with the women in the kitchen, preparing food, supervising the kids, and the men in the back, drinking, doing the bare minimum. It puts a nasty feeling in the pit of her stomach.

She withholds a sigh and idly wonders where Drew is, bouncing Victoria on her knee.

"You're so good with children," Rebecca, the daughter of Chris' uncle Nathan, says. "Your future kids are going to be real lucky."

She smiles politely. "Thank you. I like kids a lot."

"That's great. Chris does, too, doesn't he?"