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And it was all because I hadn’t heard much from the guys.
My night with Axel had been absolutely wild, and had lasted until morning. We’d screwed like animals until the shitty motel bed threatened to fly apart, then toned it down and spent the rest of the time slowly, lazily making love. We kissed for hours just grinding against each other, into each other, our hands finally free to roam every inch of one another’s body. It was warm. It was beautiful. And it was over too soon.
We slept in. There was no ‘late checkout’ at a place like that, and so we woke in the afternoon to find the storm over and a dozen or more text-messages from Tyler and Zane. When they found out what happened they both offered to come pick us up, but Axel placed a call to Sherry and Denise, who’d stayed an extra night in Calgary and were already on the way back.
It was an easy thing for them to stop and pick us up, but an awkward ride for me though. I had to sit there in my still-damp clothes, enduring jealous, questionable stares from Sherry in the rear-view mirror, while Denise constantly doted on Axel. When we stopped at my poor, half-buried car to get a few things, the women gasped. The rest of the ride was dedicated to making sure Axel was ‘okay,’ and whether or not he needed anything.
Since getting back however, the guys had, for the most part, left me oddly alone. Aside from a few text-messages here and there, I felt like a complete stranger. There weren’t any phone calls or visits, and not one of them had stopped in the coffee shop all week. It made me feel awful. Like somehow I’d done something, or—
“Cuz?”
I broke my trance to find Claudette staring back at me, somewhat amused.
“I’m sorry,” I apologized quickly. “What were you saying?”
“I said, so what about you?”
I stared down at the table. Now I felt even more guilty, summoning her here for selfish reasons. Sure we talked every couple of weeks, and kept up through text messages as much as we could. But rather than catch up on life, I’d invited her here purely to vent my troubles.
“Forget about me,” I said glumly. “I’m a mess right now. And I didn’t mean to invite you here just to dump on you.” I rolled my eyes. “Okay, maybe I did, but I’m changing my mind now.”
“Cuz.”
She reached out and laid a hand over mine. It was a strong hand. A reassuring hand.
“It’s okay,” Claudette smiled. “Really, it is. I’m just glad to be here.”
That smile melted my heart. It took me instantly back to all those nights we’d stayed up outrageously late, talking about life, about boys, about anything and everything. In that moment I realized how much I truly missed her. In the face of our history together, all my excuses about being busy with work and school seemed suddenly insignificant and lame.
“Besides,” my cousin chuckled, picking up the menu. “You did say you’re buying lunch, right?”
“I did,” I agreed, clearing my throat. “I mean, I am.”
Claudette shrugged. “Then I’m your sounding board. It’s gonna cost you some salt-and-pepper shrimp though,” she added, skimming the menu. “And these pot-stickers for sure. And maybe some creamed corn soup—“
“I slept with Tyler,” I blurted abruptly.
My cousin didn’t even flinch. She kept perusing the menu, her pretty eyes shifting from one item to the next.
“Good for you,” she finally replied. “I figured you guys would eventually do it, after all the damn time you’ve spent together growing up. Besides, I love Tyler. He’ll be good for you—“
“And Zane.”
Claudette’s eyes stopped moving. They remained fixed now, somewhere in the center of the menu.
“Alright,” she shrugged. “No biggie. I mean you’ve always liked Zane. They’re friends though, so that’s bound to get a little sticky, but this kind of shit happens,” Claudette allowed. “For example, I once slept with an ensign, right after dating his—“
“And Axel.”
My cousin’s eyes flitted to me so quickly it almost looked robotic. She dropped the menu with both hands.
“You did what?”
I had no reply. It was a question I’d been trying to answer myself, for the entire week.
“Alright then,” she relented. “You’re going to need to tell me everything. But first…”
Claudette called the waiter over and ordered us both a pair of stiff drinks. Then she reached up with practiced ease and deftly pulled out her bun.
