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“Oh, it was totally him!” Brenda told either Roommate 1 or Roommate 2. Easy didn’t actually remember their names. Brenda was the most attractive of the three, and he’d been monopolizing her since the first night he’d spotted her at the bar.
“Yeah, and… ?” nameless Roommate asked.
Easy cleared his throat and opened his mouth. Brenda clearly thought her phone was disconnected. He was about to call out to get her attention, when another voice, Roommate 2, he guessed, said, “The cop or the other one?”
Caleb had spent a fair bit of time schmoozing the trio of women as well, though that would never go anywhere. Caleb had a steady thing in Sioux Falls. He wasn’t above the occasional flirting on a Friday or Saturday night, but it always ended there.
“The other one,” Brenda replied. “He wants to get breakfast!”
Roommate 1 (or was it 2?) squealed and then devolved into a fit of laughter. “You gonna hop into bed with him?”
Easy closed his mouth.
“Anna!” Brenda scolded, but to his chagrin, she laughed, too.
“No,” said Roommate 2. “She’s gonna play Pirates and draw him a treasure map to her booty!”
“Stop!” Brenda cried, laughing hard.
Easy’s jaw twitched.
“He’s got the peg leg,” Roommate 1 declared. “All he needs is an eye patch.”
Easy quietly hit the End Call button on his phone and stared at it for a moment. It didn’t matter, he told himself. It wasn’t like Brenda was The One. It wasn’t like she was anything at all. He slid the phone into his pocket but couldn’t manage to do any more than that. His anger slowly boiled over into rage as he looked at himself in the mirror across the room. He looked fine- fine God damn it! But he didn’t feel fine. He had never felt fine since the day he woke up in a hospital bed two years ago, missing so much more than just his lower right leg. In fact, he might never feel fine again. That thought scared him so badly that, without thinking, he suddenly reached out to the dresser.
He grabbed it with both hands and, with a shout, pulled the whole thing down. It landed with a loud crash on the floor at the foot of the bed. The tiny, silver box went flying, and Easy’s eyes tracked it. He stared at it as it landed on the carpet. A moment of white hot rage solidified into something halfway between resolve and despair. He took a step toward it. He was halfway across the room when he heard a familiar voice calling his name.
Easy took a deep, steadying breath, shocked at himself. “Y-yeah,” he called out to Hawk, as he heard the large man’s boots coming down the hall. Hawk and his girl Tildy had moved into the house next door, which had also belonged to Shooter before they bought it from him. It was mostly nice to have a brother living next door, and Easy really liked Tildy, but there was a distinct lack of privacy. It had been a bad idea to bring Brenda here anyway, stool or no stool, because it would bring on too many questions.
Hawk entered the bedroom and eyed the dresser on the floor. Easy wiped his palms on his jeans. “Redecorating?” Hawk asked, cautiously.
“My damn leg,” Easy said with a shrug, and his belly twisted at his own words. His damn leg, wasn’t it always his damn leg? “Gave out on me,” Easy lied, stepping toward the middle of the room. “I grabbed the dresser, but it went down.”
Hawk nodded and helped Easy put the room back to rights. His large hand swept over the silver box and plucked it off the carpet. Easy reached out and snatched it from him. “Thanks, man,” he told Hawk, tossing the box back on top of the dresser and gesturing toward the door.
Easy skipped a jacket, because it was May and not necessary. He locked the front door and followed Hawk down the porch steps. “Tildy coming tonight?” he asked, for lack of anything better to say.
Hawk shook his head. “Nah. She’s staying with Slick.”
Slick’s real name was Sarah, and she was Chris’ wife. She was also a new mother and often spent her Friday and Saturday nights at home. Chris still made an occasional appearance at the bar to remind the clientele that Maria’s was under his protection, but he preferred more and more to be home with his family.
Easy didn’t think it was his business to ask how long it would be before Tildy ended up pregnant and took Hawk out of rotation as well, but the two houses were small and close together, and furniture being knocked over wasn’t the only thing that could occasionally be heard.
“Thanks for the help,” Easy said to Hawk and pulled his keys back out of his pocket. “Let’s go.” He couldn’t get laid, but he could still get a drink and God he needed one right about now.
