Page 73 of Clubs

After he took a shot, he stood and asked Ria, “So you’ve got restless legs, huh?”

“That’d be why I’m standing,” she said.

With a big smile, Emory walked to the jukebox in the corner, popped in a quarter, and gave her the biggest smile. He wasn’t much of a smiler, but with her, he reminded me of the kid he was before life came for him full throttle. “Well, come on. Let’s get moving then.”

Ria laughed. “Fuck off.”

He didn’t. Still smiling, he took her hand, brought her to the open floor near the pool table, and got her dancing. She laughed some more, and so did he, and they swayed, and twirled, and it was a nice sight to behold.

And that, I was excited to witness as well. What came next for them.

Was also excited to see what Jeremy thought of it, considering my theory, but I could hardly call his expression a smile when I looked that way. It was, by technicality, a smile, but there was a certain grief in his eyes that I had a hard time understanding.

But I wasn’t one to beat around the bush. “Are they what I think they are?”

Jeremy turned my way. Pressing his lips together, he shrugged again. “Their story’s a bit more complicated.”

Barely loud enough to be heard over the jukebox, Brooke whispered, “Wait. Are you saying that Ria and Emory are paired souls too?”

Jeremy closed the distance between the table he’d been standing at and leaned over the bar where Brooke sat. “Are you two still good at keeping secrets?”

“We covered up a murder today. What do you think?” Brooke asked.

Glancing at Ria and Emory over his shoulder, Jeremy lowered his voice. “They were. But it wasn’t just the two of them. There were two others. Two men, and the four of them lived happily ever after. Until we all died, but that’s a whole other thing.”

Well, hadn’t seen that one coming.