“No!” we answered in unison. Kimberly’s eyes darted between us.
“You two know each other?” Lisa asked.
“Unfortunately,” Kimberly joked. “Cole’s my brother.”
She mouthed my name silently, and it was barely perceptible. If I wasn't staring at her mouth, I might have missed the way her lips wrapped around the "o" in my name. "Your brother?" she said louder.
“Older brother,” I added, grinning down at her, wanting to savor every moment of Lisa’s dawning realization.
"Calm down. You're older by three months, Fruity Pebbles." Kimmy rolled her eyes. Lisa's confusion was palpable, and since Kimberly generally saved her ball busting for her relatives, she gave her the TL:DR version of how she ended up with a white brother. I would've made Lisa squirm a little longer, especially if it wiped the smug look off her face. To be fair, the smug look I was giving her probably gave hers a run for its money.
I could tell Kimmy wanted to stick around to get more information about how Lisa and I ended up on the sidewalk together, but Adam gave her hand a tug and guided her up the stairs to her brownstone.
Lisa and I continued down the sidewalk for a few steps, side by side, not really walking together, but headed to the same destination. She stopped in front of the gate leading to her apartment.
“So, this is really your little brother?” she asked, her expression was decidedly less sanctimonious.
“Yup.” I nodded. For emphasis, CJ heaved one of those huge sleeping baby sighs, which makes you terrified for a split second that they’re waking up before they settle deeper into sleep.
“Wow, I feel like an asshole.” She tucked her lips between her teeth and looked up at me through her lashes.
Damn, she was beautiful when she wasn’t mad at me. What the fuck was I saying? She was beautiful then, too. “Well,” I began. “You should be.” I grinned down at her. She narrowed her eyes at me and huffed out a chuckle that ended with a grin. I felt my smile stretch even wider.
“I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions. I’m sorry.”
“Is this you apologizing?” I asked. She narrowed her eyes at me again. “I could review the four components of a proper apology if you want.”
“Really? It’s gonna be like that?”
“I don’t know. Is it?”
“What does that mean?”
"Tell me what I said to offend you, then we can both apologize, properly, and start fresh." I raised my eyebrows, waiting for her response. Her face fell.
“You know what? Why don’t we just call it even? You were an asshole to me. I was an asshole to you. We’ll let bygones be bygones and just be neighbors.”
“What if I don’t want to let bygones be bygones?”
"Goodbye, Cole." Her mouth wrapped around the "o" in my name again. She put the key in the lock of her door and called over her shoulder, "You shouldn't let him sleep too late. You'll have a hard time putting him to bed tonight."
"Okay,buddy. You're okay. I'm here," I crooned to the howling toddler wrapped in my arms. I was doing a rocking/bouncing combination that worked last night but didn't do a damn thing to calm him tonight.
It was two in the morning, and my new roommate was doing his nightly screaming routine. I did everything I could think of. I walked him, rocked him, and ran the vacuum cleaner. Now someone was banging on the door. I barely heard the noise over CJ’s screams. Did one of the neighbors call the cops? The word neighbor rolled around my head like a marble.
“Just be neighbors.”
It was strange that her face floated into my consciousness at that moment because it was her face that I saw when I went to the door with CJ still wailing.
I opened the door, and before I could ask her what she was doing here, she took CJ from my arms and began bouncing and shushing him.
"I tried that, he doesn't…" I trailed off because she was ignoring me. She walked straight into my kitchen and put CJ in his high chair. Then she grabbed an ice cube from the freezer, wrapped it in a clean dish towel, beat it with a spoon to crush it, and handed it to CJ. He put it in his mouth and started gnawing on it…quietly. I couldn't believe it.
“He’s teething,” she said.
She washed her hands in the sink and indicated that I should do the same. I would've chopped off my leg and given it to her at that point. We walked over to CJ, who was still going to town on the dishcloth. She removed it from his mouth and showed me a couple of red lumps on his gums.
“Damn. Those are teeth?”
