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“No, the girl. Sophie. She’s a math genius.”
“Then why is she going out with you?” Charlie said.
“My good looks.” I gave my sister a smirk. “You can’t argue with that since you look like me.”
Charlie eyed the glass in my hand. “Maybe you shouldn’t show up for a first date loaded. Maybe put down the wine.”
“It’s our third date,” I said, ignoring the suggestion. I shook the box. Nothing but droplets left. If the kid wasn’t in the room I would have lifted the box to my mouth and gotten every last sweet bit.
Instead, I just said, “I gotta go.” It hit me suddenly, when I realized I shouldn’t stay there any longer. That I might say or do something I would regret later, sober. I blindly set down the box and my glass. “Bye, Ma.”
“Cain, wait, is everything okay?”
Nope. That’s why I was leaving.
“Cain, I’ll drive you.” Charlie followed me.
I didn’t say anything until I got outside. It wasn’t a hot day and I breathed in deeply the cool evening air. I felt like I couldn’t get any air into my lungs. But once I could speak I whirled on Charlie and said, “Stop following me.”
“I’ll give you a ride.”
“Along with a lecture that I don’t need.” I didn’t want to hear it. I couldn’t hear it. I started walking.
“I won’t say a word, I promise.” Charlie reached out and grabbed my arm. “Please, Cain. I don’t want you walking down the road right now.”
When I was drunk. That’s what she meant. “Fine. Just keep your mouth shut.” I knew she worried about me and I appreciated that. But I worried about her too and I didn’t tell her to quit stripping. Her job was full of risks. Stalkers and creeps and people who knew she was carrying cash and might want to rob her. “For the record, I don’t tell you what to do with your life.”
Charlie hopped up into her giant truck. “You’re right. But I’m perfect.”
That made me laugh as I climbed into the passenger seat. “You’re joking, right? We put the ‘dys’ in dysfunctional. We’re the world’s most wacked-out family.”
“Nah. Plenty of people more jacked up than us. We just march to our drum. I mean, look at Cam. He’s living in New York City making bank.”
“Yeah, because he’s embarrassed by us.” I didn’t blame him for that.
“Where are we going?”
I gave her the street name and general directions.
Charlie kept her word and didn’t say much until we got there. Then she did murmur, “Damn,” as she pulled into the driveway. “This is some house, Cain.”
“Daddy has money.” I was regretting that I had told Sophie I would meet her here. It occurred to me her sister might be around and I didn’t want that. I wanted her alone.
“You mean like her actual father, not an old-man husband, right?”
I gave Charlie a long look. “Who the hell have you been hanging around with? Yes, I mean her literal father.”
Charlie turned beet-red. “Well. You know. Older men like younger women.”
If I hadn’t been loaded I might have asked her more questions about that but I was, so I didn’t. “See ya, sis.”
“I’m going to wait here a minute and make sure everything is okay.”
“You’re being weird,” I told her. “Don’t sit here like my mom dropping me off for the first day of school. It makes me look like a jackass.”
She flipped her dark hair over her shoulder and grinned. “You do that all on your own, big brother.”
“Fuck off.” I opened the door. “I love you, brat. Talk to you later.”
“Don’t stay out too late,” she said in a singsong voice.
I rolled my eyes and waved.
The front door to the house opened and Sophie was standing there. Beautiful, adorable Sophie.
Damn, I was glad to see her.
