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We could do that. I excused myself to get the rest of the pizza from the kitchen—and a Coke—and I made a quick detour to my own room to change from my jeans into basketball shorts. I would just gonna sit on the couch in the living room by myself otherwise, so this worked for me.
Roe made room for me on his bed and turned on the TV. “Have you decided what you wanna do for your thirtieth? I still vote for Vegas, you know.”
I’d rather not think about it. “What’s wrong with a quiet night in?” I got comfortable next to him and pulled up one of the duvets to rest the pizza box on.
“You can do that when you turn eighty.” He shook his head and went to his feel-good show, Arrested Development. “Just let me take care of it, Jake. I know exactly how it’s gonna go. I’ll plan something grand, you will bitch and moan, and then when you get a few drinks in you, you’ll have a blast and thank me.”
In other words, we were going to Vegas.
“On one condition,” I said and took a bite of my slice. “Before we go, I want a nice, chill barbecue here at home with my family. That’s Colin, you, Haley, and Nikki. Oh, and I guess your girl.”
Shit, I kept forgetting about her.
Roe chuckled through a cough. “Don’t worry, Sandra’s not comin’. I’m gonna break up with her when she comes back from France.”
Finally. Thank fucking fuck. They just didn’t make any sense whatsoever. Roe wasn’t supposed to be “the calm one” in his relationship. And yet… No. The times we’d all gotten together, everything had felt off. Even Nikki and Haley were like, really? Roe was hitching his wagon to someone who could only be described as bubbly?
“Oh no, what a shame, Roe. I’m devastated for you.”
He side-eyed me and cracked up, only to choke on another round of coughing.
I smirked wryly.
Bless her heart—Sandra was a doll, but no. She belonged with her rich family in Orange County. Or in their “château” in southern France, where they were vacationing.
Roe settled down from his coughing fit, and he promised I would get my family barbecue before we were off to Vegas. Partly because family wasn’t allowed in the state of Nevada, aside from him of course. And I was good with that. As much as I loved my sister—and the mother of my kid—I didn’t want them near me when I got wasted.
Arrested Development sucked us in after that, and we had the same conversation we always did. Would we forever be the out-of-towners who got a kick out of seeing LA spots we recognized on TV? Much of that show had been filmed in Marina del Rey, the place we now called home, and it just didn’t get old to see that lighthouse on-screen. Just the other week, Roe and I had taken Colin for ice cream there.
The answer was yes. Roe would always be the hungry New Yorker who saw glitz and glamour out here. And I would always be the semi-reclusive, semi-Southerner who was a bit wary of all things Hollywood.
“Always the two condor chicks,” he said, holding up his pizza slice.
I smiled faintly and bumped it with my own slice. Cheers.
*
All right. It was one thing that Roe fell asleep on my shoulder. A whole other when he pulled a Jake in Norway and turned me into his body pillow.
I lowered the volume on the TV as Roe shifted closer and planted his head on my chest. It’d been a bad move for me to get this comfortable in his bed.
Warning bells went off in my head, and I didn’t fucking know what to do. How did I get out of here without waking him up? He definitely needed his sleep, and I needed to get as far away from here as possible.
The close proximity forced memories upon me that I wanted to forget. It’d happened once before, a few months ago, around Christmas, when Roe had hugged me really hard after I’d almost been hit by a car. I hadn’t. Nothing had happened. It’d been a close call. I remembered the sheer panic in Roe’s eyes more than the incident itself. Then he’d thrown his arms around me, and I’d been catapulted back in time to when I’d found that picture of Grandpa George and another man.
I stared up at the ceiling and swallowed hard as the anxiety rose within me.
Think of anything but that.
Roe had a birthday coming up too. I had to find him a gift. Nikki was moving to a safer neighborhood soon. She’d gotten a better job. Roe’s brothers and sister were talking about visiting this summer. I had photos to edit. Photos. Photo…
I clenched my jaw.
In retrospect, it’d been a fairly innocent photo. A light kiss between two fully dressed men standing on a beach.
