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“Head or stomach. You get one shot, then you leave.”
Stoney glared at him. “What?”
“Head. Or. Stomach.” Richard took a swig from his beer bottle. “Come on. Take your shot.”
Stoney stared for a long time. Then without warning, he punched Richard across the jaw, knocking him over the back of the couch and onto the floor.
“I ought to kick your ass,” said Stoney.
Richard rubbed his sore jaw as the stars in front of his eyes faded a little. The beer in his hand flew out of his hand and was now spilled all over his couch. “All right,” he said. “You got your lick in. Satisfied?”
“No, I’m not satisfied!” said Stoney. “My sister’s a fucking mess because of you! What the hell is wrong with you taking her through that?”
“Taking her through what?” He said getting to his feet. “She knew what she signed up for.”
“No she didn’t,” he said. “She never signed up to have her heart broken into a million pieces.”
Richard rolled his eyes and picked up the half-empty bottle of beer from the couch. “I didn’t have anything to do with that.”
“Oh, please. Take some accountability. You wined and dined her and when things got rough, you treated her like garbage. I thought you were better than this.”
“I’m not,” he said, raising his voice. “Look, you want to come in here and kick my ass, fine. Have at it. Just close the door on the way out, all right?”
Stoney glared at him, his eyes flitting over him despite the anger on his face. He then looked around the room, at the empty bottles of beer and potato chips; the piles of dirty plates on the corner of the coffee table.
Richard watched him look all over his filthy surroundings and drank what was left of the bottle of beer. “Yeah,” he said. “I’m a mess, okay? I’m not handling this any better than she is. You don’t feel satisfied punching me. Fine. Tell her that I’m suffering, too. That ought to perk her right up.”
Stoney shook his head at him. “You’re really sitting here upset because you’re about to lose your father’s money,” he said. “I never believed you were this fucking shallow.”
“I’m not!” Richard barked. “Goddammit, Stoney. I’m not! This isn’t just about the money. It is so much more complicated than that.”
Stoney crossed his arms. “Enlighten me.”
Richard rolled his eyes. “You don’t want to hear about it.” He sat down on the dry part of the couch and grabbed another beer. Stoney watched him as he opened it and started drinking, then he grabbed the last one out of the pack, found a clean spot on the coffee table, and sat down in front of him.
“Start from the beginning.”
Richard started telling him as much as he could piece together. How things were moving in the right direction with the plan. How they went to his stepmother’s dinner party and fooled everyone into thinking that they were a couple…and that last night they had. He stopped midway through talking about that and took a drink from his bottle.
“We hadn’t planned on sleeping together again,” he said. “It just…happened. And this time when it happened…” He trailed off, his heart starting to ache. “This time, it was like it was when I was with Eleanor, you know when things were good. No, actually, it was better. It was better because I wasn’t thinking about why she was with me. I wasn’t second-guessing anything. We just were together.”
Stoney took another look around but said nothing, so Richard went on.
“That morning, I realized that I might have a chance with Stella. That this might actually be something real. And if it was real, then maybe we should take it slower. Really feel each other out. But then, I got to thinking that the estate lawyers weren’t going to wait forever and I wasn’t sure how I felt about her and…”
Richard stopped talking. He put his hand to his forehead, closing his eyes to try to stop from weeping. After taking a moment, he cleared his throat and said, “I didn’t know how I felt,” he said. “Then Rebecca found out and blew everything up and… I don’t know what I was thinking, Stoney. I didn’t mean to hurt her, I just couldn’t stand there and tell her how I feel while having nothing to offer her.”
Stoney stared at him curiously. “Nothing? You think you have nothing to offer?”
“When everything transfers over to Rebecca,” said Richard, “then I’ll be left only with my savings. I won’t have any more revenue coming in. I’ll have to give up my house eventually and find some other thing to get into and I’m too old to start over again. If I live frugally, I might make it a few years, but after that, I’ll be penniless. What kind of life would that be for Stella?”
“Holy shit,” said Stoney. “You’re really in love with her.”
Richard sniffled, a tear escaping his eye despite his best efforts to hold them back. “That doesn’t matter, now, though,” he said. “I’ll never be able to give her the kind of life she deserves so…what’s the point?”
Stoney smiled, then started chuckling. Richard glared at him sorely. “What’s so funny?”
“You, man,” he said with a laugh. “You know money isn’t everything, right?”
