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“I don’t know. Maybe. What difference does it make what you say? Nora said they didn’t have anything to do with how your father treated you. I’m not saying they will embrace you, Ash, or accept you as their brother. Hell, they may hate you more than you hate them. Or maybe they won’t. Maybe they’ll feel lucky to have discovered another brother. I love my brother and I’m lucky I have him. I wouldn’t give him up for the world. Now you have a chance to have brothers, Asher. They may or may not want you in their lives, but you’ll never know unless you go find them.”
He took a step toward me, closing the gap between us, and placed his hand at the nape of my neck to draw me in close, his forehead pressed against mine. I stopped breathing, unsure of what he was doing. “Ah, Melly. You have no idea what the hell you’re talking about. You’ve nevernothad the love of your brother,orme. This is different.”
He stepped away and grabbed his jacket from the chair he’d draped it over when we first got there. “Lock the door when you leave,” he said. Without looking at me, he picked up the two boxes under one arm and walked out, closing the door behind him. I watched him through the window as he got into his car. A minute later, he was gone.
God, he was infuriating sometimes. I stood there, biting my lower lip.What was that?He’d never, ever, touched me that way before. And then to just leave?
Good thing I’d brought my own car or I’d be forced to spend the night at Mom’s or beg her for a ride to the Bart station. Neither option was appealing. I loved my mom and I liked visiting with her, but I didn’t want to sleep in my old room. It wasn’t my room anymore. Not with the new yellow and white frilly curtains and bedspread she’d changed it to shortly after I moved out. I’d always kept my room dark. I liked it that way. Not morbid dark, but decorated in dark colors like red or purple. Anything vibrant that made me feel alive and not so little girlish. Maybe that was because I hung around with two larger than life guys all the time and I needed something to give myself some character.
I glanced at the small green clock shaped like a frog still hanging in the kitchen. Crap. It was four in the afternoon. I’d brought my own car because I’d planned to stop next door and visit with Mom, but it looked like that would have to be some other time. I didn’t want to get caught in rush hour traffic. Except, she’d be pissed if I just left without saying hello. I grabbed the clock and then reached into the wastebasket and snatched the crumpled up letter before heading out the door. I glanced at the driveway as I headed to my car. My mom’s car was gone. Good, then I wouldn’t need to be delayed.
The traffic hadn’t been as gnarly as I’d anticipated. In fact, I don’t think it took me more than twenty minutes to get home. I pulled into my parking space and saw Asher’s car in his. The bum. There I was, doing him a favor by helping him go through his mom’s stuff, and he’d just taken off to come home, leaving me there. Just because I thought he should make contact with his brothers? Geesh. I loved my brother. I couldn’t imagine not having him in my life.
I walked past Ash’s apartment door. He’d left it slightly ajar so I peeked in. He was sitting on his sofa; his hair wet and uncombed. All he had on was a pair of basketball shorts. It looked like he’d just gotten out of the shower. A bottle of Jack Daniels stood open on the table in front of him along with two shot glasses.
I cleared my throat and he looked up at me. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t need to. I knew what this was. I stepped in and closed the door behind me, placing my purse over the hook on the wall next to the entry with my jacket over it. I walked to the sofa and sat next to him. He poured the whiskey to the brim of each glass and handed one to me.
This was our ritual when one of us was depressed, distraught, or frustrated. Except this time, I had to work extremely hard to keep from checking out his naked chest.
I’d actually been waiting for one of these sessions since Nora passed away. I was sort of surprised it had taken this long. We didn’t clink our glasses, we just downed the contents. This wasn’t a celebratory moment. It was a, “I need to get wasted” moment, so I resigned myself to the fact that I wasn’t going anywhere tonight. I’d be staying in with my best friend, helping him deal with all the hell he’d been going through the past several months ever since he found out that his mom had the tumor. This wasn’t the first session as a result of that subject, of course, but it was the first one since she’d left this world and her only son. So, I would sit here with him in silence until he was ready to speak.
He poured the second shot, but I didn’t touch it. I knew the rules. We had to do it together, and it didn’t look like Asher was ready. He just sat and stared at the two glasses for what seemed like several minutes. Finally, he sighed heavily and spoke so softly I could barely make out the words.
“I don’t want you to sleep with Alex.”
“What?”
Surely, I’d misheard him. That was the last thing I’d expected to leave his lips. What I had expected was, “I’m sorry for leaving you at the house” or maybe “you’re right, I should go meet my brothers.” Or, “I just can’t stand not having my mom around anymore.” Something like that. Not anything about my sex life, or lack thereof. Why was he even thinking about my sex life?
“I don’t want Alex Clayton to be your first,” he said.
“I…uh…you don’t have any say in that, Asher. It’s really none of your business.”
“Yes. I. Do. And yes it is.”
“Why? What gives you the right?”
He picked up his glass and waited for me to pick up mine. I knew he wouldn’t answer me until we drank. So we did.
He placed his glass down.
“Because, Melody, I’m your best friend, and best friends don’t let their best friends fuck idiots.”
I laughed.
But Asher wasn’t even smiling.
