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“Damn right they can, Boo.”
My phone buzzed in my pocket, and I pulled it out to check it real quick. When I saw it was my dad, I held a finger up to Yael. “It’s my dad. Give me a minute, okay?”
“Sure.” Her mouth quirked up. “Say hi to him for me.”
I had to walk all the way outside before I could hear him. I took a seat on a low stone wall to the side of the entrance, crossing my ankle over my knee.
“What’s up, old man?”
My dad grunted. “Rough day.”
Every ounce of my good mood melted into a puddle at my feet. “What’s going on? Your eyes?”
He grunted again, only this time it came out as more of a groan. “Yep, kid. This is such bullshit, you know? I wanna rage and ask why me, but why anyone? I don’t deserve this any less than the next guy.”
Every word was measured and slightly slurred, but I’d gotten used to that. It was the quiver I could only attribute to the amount of pain he was in that really got to me.
“True, but you can complain to me. Who am I gonna tell? Lay it all on me,” I said.
“Eh, there’s nothing to lay on you. It’s the same old song. Until this flare dies down, it’s not changing. I just needed to talk so I didn’t get lost in all of it. Tell me something. What are you up to on this fine Friday night, answering your old man’s call?”
Red caught my eye, then my left side warmed when Yael sat beside me. She didn’t say anything, simply sat, sipping her wine with her hand on my knee.
Short-term memory was another side effect of my dad’s MS. I had told him where I was going to be and left a note on the calendar on his phone.
“Finger Lakes. Yael. Fake boyfriend. Ring a bell?”
He laughed, but it was fatigued. “Shit. Yes, of course. Did I pull you away from your job? How’s the girl?”
I turned my head to look at Yael, who was looking right back at me. “I don’t know, howisthe girl?” I asked her, turning the phone to speaker.
Yael leaned against me to get closer to the phone. “The girl is at a wedding with her frenemy of many years to find closure with an ex-boyfriend she realizes she might actually be indifferent to. And now the girl is speaking about herself in third person. Also, the girl is a woman. How are you, Brian?”
He chuckled, this time with a little more vigor. “You haven’t changed much, have you? Still trouble?”
“I like to think I’ve changed a little. But yes, the day I’m not trouble is the day I walk into the sea with stones in my pockets.”
Without much thought, I draped my arm over her shoulders. “How Virginia Woolf of you.”
“That got macabre pretty fast,” Dad added.
“I’m known for my stunning conversational skills.” Yael brought her glass to her lips. “You never did answer how you are, Brian.”
“I’m doing pretty shitty, Yael. I called the boy for a distraction, but I think I’m interrupting. Feel free to hang up on me.”
“No, you’re not interrupting. Alex and I were just having drinks with people who don’t like me very much. You’ll never believe this, but out of that group of people, I think Alex is the one who likes me the most.” Yael smiled at me, her white teeth gleaming in the night.
“Somehow I believe it,” Dad said.
A pause. Yael’s eyes flicked to mine, her eyebrows raised, and I nodded to confirm I did indeed like her. Sometimes. Right now being one of those times.
“Well...would you like me to tell you about the masseuse Alex and I are both technically married to now?” Yael asked.
Crazy as it was, Yael and I sat there on that stone wall, talking to my dad for a good half hour. In the end, I could tell he was exhausted and the pain was still there, but he’d dug his way out of the pit he’d been in.
When I hung up and put my phone away, I clasped my hands between my knees and bent forward, overwhelmed. As much as I lived my life by looking at the bright side of things, sometimes therewasno bright side. Sometimes there was only darkness, and the only choice I had was to keep trucking until I reached the other side. I learned that from both Charlie and my dad. I figured if Dad could still have a sense of humor and remain positive most of the time, there was absolutely no reason I couldn’t do the same.
Yael’s fingers grazed my hand. “Alex…”
