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“At this bar?” I asked.
“Be real, Seb.”
“Oh, no more jokes allowed?”
“I’m asking if she can crash at your place for a minute.”
The conversation went dead.
April? Living in my place? With me?
Andy’s pain in the ass little sister?
“Andy…”
“I know,” he said. “Look, she won’t listen to me. I offered to put her up in a hotel. I offered to lease her a place. Fuck, I offered to buy her a place. She’s so damn stubborn though. Wants to do everything on her own. I’m worried she’s going to show up here and end up in some shitty place and…”
“Okay, I get it,” I said. “You’re being the protective big brother to her.”
“Hey, you protected her too,” Andy said. “She depended on you a lot, Seb.”
“We were teenagers then,” I said.
“Yeah, but you were always good to her. You respected her. You know?”
“Andy…”
“Just hear me out for a second. I’ve got a place on the beach not far from here that’s being worked on. Yeah, I know, I didn’t tell you. I bought it like six months ago and it’s getting fixed up. I wanted to surprise you by saying I had a place nearby. I’ve always wanted a West Coast residence.”
“Residence,” I said.
“So… can you help me here?”
“Andy, come on, man,” I said.
“You haven’t seen April in, what, ten years? She’s not amouth-full-of-braces-annoying-teenageranymore.”
I gritted my teeth.
Did I really need or want Andy’s pain in the ass little sister living with me?
No.
Was I going to tell Andy to screw off and not help him?
No.
Chapter Two
APRIL
It’s really simple,April. You think you can get away from me. It’s cute. But I will be everywhere you are. Please don’t make this any worse than it already is. Okay? This is me being nice. And I’m not sure you want to see me when I’m mean. Or angry. Or really… FUCKING angry.
I closed the text thread and looked out the office window.
My breath came and went, very shaky.
The office door opened.
