Page 47 of Alonzo

“But…”

He smiles. Just a little.

“But I could actually use some advice about this girl I like.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. I think I fucked shit up last night and I tried to call her this morning when I woke up and she didn’t take my call.”

He walks up my front path and stops at the bottom of my porch. “What did you do?”

“I… I told her some truth.”

“Ah. Yeah. I’ve been there. The first time I took Emma up into the Bossy… well, it didn’t quite go the way I planned. And that was my big ‘truth’ moment.” He makes air quotes for the word truth. “Because I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but my fam? They are not normal.”

“It’s pretty hard not to notice that.”

“Yeah. That Bossy Building doesn’t help make my case for normalcy, either. It’s a giant shit show of what-the-fuck everywhere you turn.”

“What did Emma do? When you took her up there for the first time?”

He thinks about this for a moment. Then locks eyes with me. “She looked at me like I was a freak. And… I am a freak. My people are just one long freak family tree.”

“Hmm. Tara kinda looked at me like that last night.”

“What little bit of truth did you reveal?”

I pan both hands down my shirtless chest. “Just… me. This. All the ink.”

“How long have you known her?”

“Two years.”

“What? And she’s just now deciding she doesn’t like your ink?”

“See… that’s the problem. I’ve been hiding it from her.”

He laughs. “How the hell do you hide that?” He nods his head towards my arms and chest.

“Very carefully.”

“I don’t understand. You aren’t… having sex?”

“Well…” I sigh. “It’s kinda complicated.”

“I’ve got time. If you want to tell me the backstory. I think I can help you. I’m pretty good at coming up with solutions to PR problems.”

Now I laugh. “You did manage to hook my sister.”

“I did, didn’t I?”

“Come on in then. It’s a really long story. And I don’t want to lose this girl. I don’t think I could bear to lose this girl. She’s so…” I have to stop to think of the right word. I could say perfect. She is. But that’s not right. “She’s so… she’s like… she’s…”

“The love of your life?”

I stare at him. “Maybe?”

“Yeah. She is. Even when you answer maybe to that question, it’s pretty much a done deal.”