“That bad, huh?” He tsks, but it’s comforting. Zach always is. Unlike Pecan, whose idea of comfort is to douse me in rubbing alcohol, Zach will hold my handorpat it and tell me everything’ll be all right, even if the doctor does need to amputate. “I’ll hold your hand while the doctors do it.”
Ha! Knew it.
“That, ladies and gentlemen, is why Zach is the best.”
“I’m back to being the best, huh?”
“You always were.”
“Didn’t sound like it when you were massacring my character with Freya.”
“I wasnot! I’d never!”
“Sure you were.”
Did I? I don’t remember that.
I tilt my head toward a car that drives by us, a song blaring out of their sound system. I like it. I snag his phone from the charger and quickly add it to one of my many playlists.
This one goes on ‘Drunk Denny.’ I don’t get drunk often, but I figure I should start a playlist.
Humming the song, I ask, “Zach?”
“Yup.”
“Don’t trust my dad.”
“Huh?”
“Don’t trust him.”
“Why?”
“Just don’t. Okay?”
“I kind of want him to be my agent, Denny,” he argues.
“Well, he can be. He’s good at his job. But… get a good lawyer to check the contracts. One that isn’t banging my mom.”
“Where’s this coming from, D?”
“If a man cheats on his wife with a woman twenty years younger than him, is he trustworthy?”
“No.”
“Well, then. Maybe the slimy lawyer’s good at his job. I’ll research him. That’ll be hilarious if they have to work together.” I hoot. “In fact, we need to make this happen.”
“You don’t really talk about their breakup that much, D.”
“What’s to talk about? The endless fights or the way Mom turned into a private eye on the side? The fact that she humiliated herself to get back at him?” I stare at the lights of incoming traffic that make his worry beads glitter in them. So pretty.
“She did?”
“I caught her fucking the pool boy, Zach. She expected me to be Dad.”
“That sucks.”
“No, but she did.” I snigger out a broken laugh. “Marriage sucks. Relationships sucks. I mean, suck. Love sucks. Heartbreak sucks.” I pop upright. “I’mnevergetting married.”
