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“So, my brother is kind of an ass of a boss, right?” I ask him outright.
He nearly chokes on his beer. He fumbles for words. “I wouldn’t say that.”
“Oh, please,” I say. “How many more shots is it going to take for you to start being honest with me?”
Walsh rakes his fingers through his five o’clock shadow. He scans the room to make sure that Griffin isn’t anywhere in listening distance.
Finally, he tells me, “Your brother… is the fucking worst.”
I laugh.
It’s mild at first.
Then, I laugh so hard I swear tequila came out of my nose.
It was not attractive, but Walsh smiled at me all the same.
“You see?” I say. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”
“Are you his spy or something?” he asks me. “You going to go run back and report me now?”
I try to contain my laughter again. This guy really doesn’t have a clue how funny he is.
“Me? A spy? ForGriffin?That’s hilarious. Truly,” I tell him. “My brother and I are very, very different. Like the difference between an apple and a stick of dynamite. Does that even make sense?”
He squints at me. “I mean, maybe?”
“Anyway, forget the analogy. My brother is a jerk, but he’s my brother, so I am here. But the real question is… why areyouhere?”
Walsh thinks it over for a moment.
He says, “I ask myself that same question every single day. Every morning before I get out of my car. Every evening when I get back into it. I wish I had a good answer. But honestly? I think I’m just fucking scared to start over somewhere new. The devil you know, right?”
I look over at the devil that I know.
My brother, Griffin.
There he stands in the middle of his birthday entourage, the crowd of coworkers and work colleagues that he has either forced out tonight or who only showed up to get something from him.
I don’t want to be like him.
All of the money in the world won’t get you love.
Or respect, for that matter.
And I don’t want to be like Walsh, either.
Scared of taking a risk.
Staying comfortable and miserable because it’s easier than moving forward.
We both deserve a little less misery today.
We both deserve to reclaim this night.
I don’t want it to belong to Griffin anymore.
I want it to be ours.
