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“It’s only that I’ve never seen you get angry, I guess, or be forceful. And it seems like, if you’re a social worker, you have to have a backbone.”
“I have a backbone,” she said, standing up straight.
“Okay,” he said, and he went back into the kitchen.
“I do,” she called after him, and she felt strongly she needed to get him to agree with this, no matter the cost. It seemed vitally important.
“Okay,” he called back.
She went to the doorway of the kitchen. “Why would you say that?”
“I don’t know. You never make waves,” he said. “You never ask for things that you want. You go with the flow. You’re really laid back.”
“I am not.” She felt sulky. Even though, he was actually really right. Shedidgo with the flow. “Anyway, it’s not the same thing. I would be absolutely happy to stand up for other people. Being a social worker is helping people who can’t help themselves.”
“So, you’ll stand up for other people, but not yourself?” He was at the sink now. He’d been washing dishes as he used them, and now he only had a few left to do.
“I stand up for myself,” she said. “You’re just being like everyone about the Tommy thing. No one evengetsit.”
He thrust his hands into the soapy water, lowering himself on his coils so he didn’t have to bend over the sink. “Not only that.”
“Like what else?”
“Well, don’t you want to be at Tommy’s show right now along with everyone else in town?”
“Well, I’m scheduled to work,” she said.
“Yeah,” he said. “I know. I put you on the schedule.”
She folded her arms over her chest. Now, she was angry. She didn’t like the feeling of anger and didn’t even know what to do with it. Her voice came out shrill. “Did you do that on purpose? I just figured you didn’t know about the show.”
“Everyone knows about the show,” he said. “Everyone in all of Shepherdstown is going to be there.”
“Yeah, but you’re really old,” she said, which was a thing she usually wouldn’t have said to him, but she didn’t care if she hurt his feelings, she found. It was the anger.
“Not that old,” he said with a little shrug.
“So, what? You wanted to keep me away from him? Youarejealous? What the hell? You know I live with him, right?”
He laughed. “I didn’t do it on purpose. But you also didn’t ask me to rearrange the schedule for you. You didn’t even jokingly ask to suck both my cocks for it either.”
She moved her hands to her hips. Why would he make it like that? Now, she was thinking about sucking him, thinking about whether she’d need to get on her knees or if he could just rise up on that long slithering snake tail of his and make himself mouth-level with her. “That’s…” Her voice wasn’t strong. “That’s… it’s just a joke.”
“I know that.”
“Even if I asked not to be scheduled, you would have said no.”
“Would I?” He shrugged.
She eyed him, and then the words burst out of her. “Well, let me leave, then.”
“There’s no one else here, Dahlia.” He lifted a hand from the soapy water to gesture at the empty area. “You’re not even covering the counter. There could be some customer out there, wanting sandwiches—”
“I would hear them,” she said. “There’s no customer out there. Andyou’rehere. You could cover the counter for me.”
“I could, but why would I do that? I’m going to go to the show.” He gave her a too-wide smile.
She hated that smile of his. Loathed it. And so she said somethinginsane. “Well, what if I did?”
