She apparently believed she'd succeeded in getting his attention.
Andrew leaned against the counter.
"You've been calling this a test all week, right?"
"Exactly."
"Good."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone.
"Congratulations, Kayla. You passed."
Her smile faltered.
"Passed what?"
"My test."
"What test?"
Andrew unlocked his phone and placed it on the counter between them.
"Whether you're ready to live with roommates."
Kayla looked down.
Then she snatched up the phone.
I couldn't see the screen from where I stood, but I watched her face turn bright red.
"What on earth is this?"
"Three rooms for rent," Andrew answered calmly. "All within twenty minutes of here."
She began swiping through the listings.
"Andrew, you can't do that!"
"I found three listings."
"You've been looking for apartments for me?"
"Rooms."
She stared at him.
"You can't throw me out!"
"I'm not."
Then she turned toward me.
"Amanda, are you seriously letting your husband kick me out of your house?"
I took a moment before answering.
"Andrew isn't kicking you out. But temporary needs an end date."
Kayla looked genuinely offended.
"Because I wore a towel?"
I moved the toast away from the hot pan before it burned.
"No. Because I asked you not to do something in my home, and you decided I needed to convince you that my reason was good enough."
She tightened the towel beneath her arm.
"So this is punishment."
"No. If I wanted to punish you, I'd have let you keep eating Andrew's cereal. He buys the terrible kind."
Andrew pointed at me.
"Unnecessary."
Under different circumstances, Kayla might have laughed.
That morning, she didn't.
Chapter 6: Helping Someone Doesn't Mean Having No Boundaries
"I'm heartbroken, Amanda," Kayla protested. "I have no money. I don't even have a job yet."
"I know."
"And you're giving me a deadline?"
"I'm giving us a plan."
"Same thing."
"No, it isn't."
I understood that my sister was struggling.
Her relationship had ended. She had lost the home she'd shared with someone for six years, and she was facing an uncertain financial future.
Those circumstances were precisely why I'd welcomed her into our house.
But helping someone through a difficult period didn't mean allowing them to disrespect everyone around them.
I wanted Kayla to recover.
I wanted her to find work, regain her confidence, and eventually establish a life she felt proud of.
What I didn't want was for her to turn our home into a place where my husband and I had to constantly defend our boundaries.
Kayla looked toward Andrew.
"And you. You've been acting like I'm some kind of predator all week."
Andrew picked up his coffee.
"No."
"You leave every time I come into the room!"
"The first time, I left because it was awkward," he admitted. "After Amanda asked you to stop, I left because I wasn't participating anymore."
"Participating in what?"
"Whatever experiment you thought you were running. You kept trying to make me a character in an argument with my wife."