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I was the worst brother ever.
“If he says no, he’s stupid.”
Fair assessment.
“Yup!” Tessie giggled. “Will you go to California with me? You can come if Bastian visits me!”
And that was my cue to interrupt.
Ariana expertly dodged the question, “Did you know I used to live in California?” She glanced at me as I entered. “I went to school there—Degory University.”
Boring.
I placed a hand on Tessie’s shoulder and spared Ariana a cursory glance. “Did you take a class on how to name drop at Degory?”
She ignored me, her head tilted on the dossier in my hand.
Nosy, nosy girl.
Graham’s name was printed in the corner.
The font was small, but I had no doubt it was legible for her, so I casually tucked the file under my arm, narrowed my eyes at her, and asked, “No comeback?”
She tilted her chin up at me, defiant as always.
“Comeback? What are we? Eight?”
Tessie’s head swung to Ariana, her hair whipping my side. “Hey!”
“You’re right, sweetie.” She patted Tessie’s arm. “You’re much more mature than your brother.”
I rolled my eyes. “Time to go, Tessie.”
“It’s Contessa. You can’t call me Tessie. It’s a child’s name.”
Lately, Tessie had it in her head that nicknames were for children. The fact that she was still a child was, apparently, lost on her.
“Funny. I missed when you turned eighteen.” I rolled my eyes. “You let Ariana call you Tessie.”
“That’s different. She’s cool.” Ouch. “Plus, she lets me call her Ari, and she made me a unicorn chair.”
A damn unicorn chair.
Who could compete with that?
“Fine, Contessa, let’s go.”
She turned, hugged Ariana, and skipped out of the room. I followed after her but stopped short of the doorway.
And just because Ariana was right—Tessie was far more mature than I was—and I was maybe a little jealous of her relationship with Tessie, I turned, said, “You have right shift,” and left.
The right-side bartender was responsible for the heavy duty, back-breaking tasks, like restocking alcohol and ice, and was usually given to the more muscular bartenders.
Was this an asshole move?
Probably.
But I had no problem with my pendulum swinging in the direction of evil.
