Page 102 of Beni

“Isn’t it?” he asked. “All this shit started when she came around, so …”

“It’s not her.”

“You heard what I said, right? That she’s important to me, and—”

“You need me to get in line,” Bene said, laughing under his breath. “Yeah, I heard you loud and clear, man.”

“If it’s not her, then what is it?”

“I don’t know.”

Well, he didn’t believe that.

“I think you do, but you don’t want to say it, Bene.”

“Maybe you’re right.”

“So, just say it.”

Bene sighed, leaning back on the stairs and matching his brother’s posture. The two of them stared upward, surveying the large golden and crystal chandelier that hung over the staircase. It matched the one on the other side, too.

Money.

The whole house dripped in it.

Nobody knew how to spend cash like their father.

“I thought you’d follow me,” Bene said quietly, never looking away from the chandelier even when Beni glanced his way. “When I made that deal with Dad to come home, I mean … I thought for sure you’d come back with me. Maybe not right away, but eventually. That’s what we always did, right? We followed each other—did the same shit. Why would that be any different?”

“I like Chicago.”

“I hate it.”

Beni laughed. “Yeah, I know.”

Bene shrugged, glancing his twin’s way with a faint smile. “And then everything else happened, too. You were pissed at me because I didn’t tell you that I was leaving. It all piled up, and every time I tried to explain … she was there, so it messed me up. I’m not used to someone else being between me and you, you know? I didn’t mean for it to seem like I was in a mood about her—it’s not her.”

“No, it’s you.”

“I guess so.” Bene cleared his throat, and quickly sat back up on the stairs. “It feels like I’m losing something here, and I don’t know how to deal with it. I don’t know how to stop it.”

“Nobody is losing—”

“Doesn’t make the feeling any less real, Beni.”

Right.

“And,” his twin added, “I just … have to figure it out, that’s all.”

“If you could not be an asshole about August, that would be great.”

“You’re really on for her, huh?”

“I fucking love the girl.”

His brother quieted.

Beni knew that feeling well.