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My sister stumbles to her feet, twin splotches appearing on her cheeks. “Are you sure you didn’t misunderstand him?”
“I didn’t!”
Charlie’s eyes flood with tears. “Even after I gave him a blow job this afternoon?”
I nearly double over in shock. “You didwhat?”
“Bitch, you tried to seduce him in a bikini while I was getting my nails done!”
“Yes, but I thought we were past this competition stuff. I thought we moved on once Joe figured out our game!”
Charlie winces. “Maybe there was still in a tiny part of me that wanted to win.”
I march closer to my sister, shoving her off balance. “Judas!”
“If it makes you feel better, he wouldn’t have sex with me. And believe me, I tried.”
A sob wrenches from my lips. “Nothing is going to make me feel better right now. Joe is on a date.”
“Not for long,” Charlie responds, ominously. “We’re going to go break it up.”
A sense of purpose begins to swell inside of me, but it’s tempered by common sense. “We don’t even know where the date is happening.”
“Amateur,” snorts Charlie. “You don’t track Joe’s phone?”
“What? No. Do you?”
“Hell yes, I do.” She scrambles for her phone on the coffee table. Mine is inside the wall. After a few seconds, she waves the glowing screen at me. “They’re at Mongo’s.”
“A bar?” Tears are tracking down my face. “What if they get drunk and go home together?”
“We’re not going to let that happen. Go put on your white leather dress and some heels. I’m wearing black, because it’s going to be this bitch’s funeral.” As my sister drags my numb body toward the bedrooms, I thank God she has the ability to operate under stress, because I would be lost without her. “She’s about to find out that Joe is ours.”
“Yeah!” I cry out, finally gathering the wherewithal to rifle through my closet. “But Charlie,” I say, before she can leave my room and enter her own.
She stops in the doorway and looks back. “What?”
“No more going behind each other’s backs. If we’re going to make this work, if we’re going to win over Joe, we have to be a team. Not opponents.”
Charlie’s expression warms. “Deal.”
11
Joe
I’m only on my second beer, but the television above the bar has already begun to blur. The dark establishment is loud and messy around me, stools being knocked over due to drunkenness, skirmishes taking place by the pool tables. A biker and his missus make out in the darkness of the dance floor while a country western band plays at a raucous pace. I’m dead still in the middle of the chaos, making no move to stop any of it. I’m off the clock. And I can’t feel a thing besides guilt.
Yearning for my girls.
A sense of dread.
“How about another one, sheriff?” asks the bartender, who is around ten years younger than me. She’s been attempting to flirt with me since I arrived, but the idea of flirting back makes my skin crawl. I only see Bella and Charlie. I only want to feel their touch. No one else’s. Hell, at this stage, if their mother came back from the grave, I’d still burn for Bella and Charlie. I’d still be lost for them, unable to resist. I’m starting to forget whatmy late wife’s face even looks like, they dominate my mind so completely.
“Yeah, I’ll take another,” I rasp, sliding my empty bottle across the bar.
She sets a new bottle in front of me, on top of a napkin. Her phone number is clearly written on the edge. She waits for my reaction, but I don’t even make eye contact with her. When she doesn’t seem to take the hint, I stand up. “Going to the men’s room. Don’t let anyone take my seat.”
“I’ll be right here waiting, honey.”
