“Another glass puddle?” Silas asks. Gina laughs and I glare at both of them.
“Sorry, man, this time it was your brother’s face.” Silas doesn’t even look up, just getting straight to work on cleaning the cut.
“Which brother? What’d he do?” I never realized how much I like Silas. I always thought he hated us. ‘Us’ being me and his three brothers. He just never wanted to be around us, but I guess if you tell someone you punched their brother and the responseis, “What’d they do?” it makes a bit more sense. He knows what they’re like.
“Matt. He slept with Britain.” That’s not all of it, though, “And he fucking yelled at her.”
Silas doesn’t even change his tone, just says, “What a dick. Is Britain okay?”
“I don’t know, man, you tell me. Is she feeling better?” I ask. Other than a confirmation text from Silas that he saw her on Sunday, I haven’t heard anything about how she is. It fucking killed me to leave her when she was so sick, but I didn’t want the whole house to wake up with me in her bed. And I’ve been texting her to check in, but I haven’t heard anything. Which makes sense, she texted me from a new number this morning. Silas doesn’t say anything, he just nods his head and I feel relief.
My stomach twists into knots thinking about how long she could’ve been out there if I hadn’t come along. The valley might be hotter than Hades, but the hills’ temp drops low at night, even in the summer. Thank Christ that Niko was feeling guilty about withholding information about Britain’s pregnancy. He offered me her address in exchange for dropping off her bags from the Greek Fest on my way home. She could’ve ended up in the hospital…or worse.Or worse.Be pissed at yourself, Liam. If you wouldn’t have left, you would have been there, taking care of what’s yours.
“So, uh, I’ll be seeing you again this Thursday,” I say to him.
“Who’s gonna piss you off this time? The wall? Your car?” I laugh, then hiss when he touches a particularly sensitive spot.
“Not for this. Britain asked me to come to her appointment this week.” Gina scoffs and rolls her eyes and I shoot her a death glare.
Silas looks at me before responding, “I think that’s really awesome, Liam. It’s a good one to be at.” He shoots me a smile.“The baby will actually look like a baby at this ultrasound.”Our baby.
“Yeah man, I can’t wait.” At least I couldn’t wait, but then I found out she fucked Matt, and there’s that hurt and pain again. How the fuck am I supposed to see her and act like that’s no big deal?
Silas makes fast work and before I know it, he’s done.
“Try not to bust those open again, okay? You don’t want permanent scarring.”
I just nod. “Hey, Gina, can you give us a minute?” I ask. She doesn’t reply, just slides out of one of the extra chairs and heads out. I wait till she’s out of ear shot.
“Do you think you could recommend a counselor? For me?” Jesus, I didn’t think it’d be this hard to ask. “I’m at a loss for how to deal with all this.” I use my non-injured hand to wave around. Silas just looks at me, waiting to hear it all. “I just want to be a good dad, and a good co-parent, and I lack those skills, okay? And obviously this is all the harder because I'm still in love with Britain, but she’s not in love with me.” Or she is, but she’s shutting it down because to her, I’m just some fleeting phase.
Silas pats me on the back. “Liam, you should be really fucking proud of yourself for asking. I’ve got like four counselors I think could be a really good fit. I also know a good mediator, so when it comes time for custody agreements, you can have that resource, too.”
My eyes get a little bit misty. I’ve been sleeping on Silas Scala. “Thanks, man.”
“I’ll text them to you in a little, but you gotta go. I need the room.” He ushers me up and out.
Gina’s standing in the waiting room with her back against the wall, and when she sees me, she pushes off the wall with her heel.
“Where to now, boss?”
“Home. You good to work out of my house today?”
All she says is, “Yup,” popping the “p” at the end.Alright, Liam, time to work and move the fuck on with your life.
What the fuck was I thinking? I can’t move on. I can’t get shit done. I can’t fucking do anything. Gina has to keep asking me the same questions over and over because I don’t hear her the first time. Then I can’t focus on the second, and by the third, I can’t seem to come up with an answer.
“I think we should have another scoth-ch,” I slur, reaching for the bottle.
“Uh uh,” Gina says, moving the bottle out of my reach.
“Plleeasth?” I give her a devilish grin, trying to exploit the fact she has a crush on me. She doesn’t hand over the bottle, though, she does something better. She plays back.
“What do I get if I give it to you?”Yes, let’s bargain.
“A raise,” I say, dropping my fist to the desk. It lands hard and sloppy, but luckily I don’t wince from pain. The scotch has numbed me right up.
“Hmm,” she ponders, moving out of her chair in my office to come closer. She perches on the edge of my desk, a pen in hand still, and taps it to her lips as she thinks. She shakes her head. “Try harder,” then gives me a smile. I know what she wants, but I’m not playingthatgame.
