“Just tell me how treatment is going, please.”
She sighed but didn’t fight me. She knew that one was a losing battle. “It’s going good. They send you updates, you know that.”
“I want to hear it from you.”
“I think it hurts less than it used to, but…it’s hard to tell sometimes. The physical rehab seems to help a lot too. It’s nice having Marcus as a buddy.”
“Mai…”
“Love you! Don’t fuck up your competition, okay? Someone has to pay for this shit.”
I laughed, maybe the first real laugh in a while.
“You know I’ve always got you.”
Her voice softened. “I know. I love you. Take care of yourself too, okay?”
“Bye, Mai.”
“Bye, Chase.”
She hung up.
I sat there with the phone in my hand for a while. Outside, the seagulls were still screaming.
Marcus said hi.
Marcus, who I hadn’t spoken to in three years and four months. Who had thirteen pins in his shoulder and a dead career as a pro surfer.
Marcus, who was at the same facility in Maimi where my sister was being kept alive, because my accountant paid for both of them out of the same line item, and the line item was, in spreadsheets I was not supposed to have seen,Perez Obligations.
Marcus, who had stopped being mad. Who was having coffee with my sister in a courtyard. Who was waiting on me.
I got up.
I went into the bathroom, ran the cold tap, dunked my head under it, and held it there for a count of fifteen until all the spreadsheets and debts drifted away and there was only the rush of ice-cold water.
You shake it off. You go out there. You grin at the cameras andyou spike a RipTide bottle into the sand like you mean it and you get paid. Knock another number off the ledger.
I straightened and glared at the guy in the mirror.
He looked tan and tired, and like he had earned every single bit of what was coming for him.
I shook it off, then stepped out into the hallway.
Tanner was sitting on the floor eating a banana. Diego was nowhere.
“You good?”
“I’m great.”
“Cool. Diego found a girl in the lobby. We’re not gonna see him for two hours minimum. You wanna go check out the waves?”
“Yeah.” I closed the door behind me. “Let’s go.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Selena
