Evy stared at the lacey bras and panties strewn across the bed, humming along with a mellow jazz tune lazily drifting in from the living room. The assortment of rich colors stood out against the white comforter, making it difficult which to choose. She checked the alarm clock on the nightstand and cringed. Dean would be here in half an hour and she wasn't even close to being ready. She stood there naked, examining her new undergarments while chewing on a pinky. The smell of the lasagna made her mouth water and she hoped he would like it. If not, they could jump right to dessert.
She finally decided that lavender was the winner and hurriedly clipped the tags. After slipping into them, she checked herself in a full length mirror leaning against a bedroom wall. She smiled in approval and turned back to the cramped walk-in closet, shoving hangers back for an inch or two of space to view her choices.
"Oh my God," she muttered, pulling out a heather gray dress with a price tag hanging from the sleeve. "I forgot all about this."
The smoke alarm went off, filling the apartment with an earsplitting protest that drowned out the iPod dock in the living room. She scurried into the hallway, her boobs bouncing inside her new bra, and pulled a step stool from a hall closet. The incessant beeping made her squint as she climbed up the stool. Evy disconnected the battery from the blaring smoke alarm like it might bite her, plunging the apartment back into a smoky instrumental.
She dragged the step stool back into the closet and padded her bare feet into the kitchen. The oven door pulled open with a creak, allowing smoke to escape from some cheese burning on the bottom, courtesy of a recent frozen pizza. The pan of lasagna bubbled and sizzled but had some time to go, so she shut the door and lit a candle before rushing back into the bedroom.
The sight of the messy closet made her sigh. She rested her hands on her hips, not knowing where to even begin. They were staying in to watch movies tonight but she still wanted to look good for him. Not too good like she was trying too hard, but a casual good. In the end, she opted for skinny jeans and a black tank top that showed off her arms. She topped it off with the arrow necklace Dean had given her and a Michael Kors watch from Richie on her twenty-seventh birthday. The last birthday they would spend together.
She studied herself in the mirror, thankful to have that man in the past and Dean in her future. It was weird how fate sometimes worked. Last year she couldn't understand why that had happened to her but looking back now, it all made sense. She imagined being married to Richie in Des Moines and shuddered at the thought. Just thinking about living without Dean made her heart ache.
Back inside the closet, she scanned the rows of shoes, from high heeled boots and dress shoes to sandals and sneakers. She tapped a finger against her lips, deciding she needed to go shoe shopping soon, and settled for a pair of purple fuck me pumps. She slid on some bracelets and checked her completed ensemble in the mirror. Butterflies stirred in her gut and she took a steadying breath. Even after nearly two months, just knowing he was on the way made her pulse race. She dashed back into the closet and switched out the pumps for a pair of Steve Madden sandals with black jewels encrusted in their center and went back to the mirror.
She lifted her shoulders to her ears and decided it was time for a glass of wine.
Dean crossed his arms over his chest and bit his tongue. The early evening sun baked against his neck, leaving dew-like drops of sweat springing from his forehead. An elderly couple squeezed past and went inside the grocery store where the air conditioning had to feel amazing. He shifted in his stance, watching a heavyset lady hold up the growing Redbox line behind him.
"I wanna do it! I wanna do it!" the lady's little girl yelled, standing on her bare tip-toes and randomly pressing buttons on the Redbox screen.
"Well then pick one and let's go!" the mom ordered, fanning her oversized Tweety Bird shirt to let some heat escape.
The kid scrolled through screens at the speed of light and Dean rolled his eyes beneath his shades. After Megan's bombshell, even the most mundane tasks were now pure torture. He checked his watch again and mopped his brow with the back of his hand. He was late. Last night's ordeal with Megan had left him with dark circles and little patience. In the end, he decided Shaun was right. Telling Evy anything about Megan would be pointless until he found out the truth one way or the other. Unfortunately, after researching paternity tests online, he knew it was going to be a long four or five weeks ahead of him. Until then, he would just have to act like nothing was wrong around Evy, which would be an uphill battle to say the least.
"Be nice if they made reservations online like normal people."
Dean turned to a lady behind him and smiled.
"Some people," she muttered, shaking her head.
Dean turned back around, wondering if Evy would be able to see Megan on his face. When he was seventeen he had successfully managed to hide a dent in the rear bumper of his dad's Oldsmobile for three whole days. When his parents finally noticed, they had been quick to write it off to some rude jerk at the grocery store or mall. But this was different. The stakes were much higher than a seven hundred dollar dent courtesy of a defiant telephone pole.
His phone vibrated in his pocket. He pulled it out, knowing Evy was probably wondering where he was, their dinner already getting cold. His eyes dropped to the screen and he grimaced. Megan smiled at him with her bare boobs in her hands, holding them like hamsters. He felt the lady behind him peering over his shoulder and quickly slid the phone back into his pocket, making a mental note to destroy the evidence before leaving the parking lot.
With a low hum, the Redbox finally spit out a DVD in slow motion. The little girl snatched it and her mom towed her into the parking lot by the hand.
"Thank God," the lady mumbled behind Dean.
Dean swiped his Visa and waited for the red machine to find his reservations, feeling the heat from the eyes and hot sun on his neck. At this rate, he was going to need another shower but there was no time. He swallowed dryly, wondering if he could pull it off. This was going to be much different than a seven hundred dollar dent.
Dean stared at the brass plated number sixteen looking back at him on the door, his heart thumping in his chest. He exhaled out his mouth, kicking himself for not canceling. His first instinct to play sick and regroup had been correct as usual. He cringed for not listening to his gut and knocked softly, clutching the Blu-rays in a sweaty hand. His stomach churned and he cursed Megan for putting him between a rock and a hard place like this. Things were finally going great and destiny, for whatever reason, was hell-bent on changing that. He had been down that road before when his parents had died in that dented Oldsmobile and there was no way he was going down it again. He had lost enough people for one lifetime. He hadn't known Evy for long but the bond was there just the same. A bond he had never felt with another living soul his entire life.
The door cracked open and his heart skipped a beat.
Evy pulled the door back, smiling warmly. "Hi, handsome."
He stepped inside and planted a kiss on her lips because that's what he would do under normal circumstances. They pulled apart and he avoided her eyes, continuing into the living room where soft jazz oozed and candles burned.
"You look great."
"Thank you," she said, closing the door and sashaying into the kitchen.
"Smells amazing."
The oven door opened with a groan and Evy peeked inside. "About ten more minutes." She shut the door and went to the fridge. "I hope you like lasagna."
He dropped the DVDs on a weathered coffee table more fitting for a Cape Cod bungalow. "Love it."
"Momma's secret recipe," she smiled, handing him a cold beer. "I hope you're hungry. It's a huge pan."
He forced a smile. "Starving," he lied, taking the cold bottle and plopping down on the couch with a tired moan bursting from his lips.
"Long day?"
He stared at her darkened flat screen. This was going to be harder than he thought. Maybe he could pretend he wasn't feeling well. Stomach ache or a fever.
"Hello?"
His head snapped around to her. "Huh?"
She took a seat next to him, careful not to spill her glass of cab as she folded one leg beneath her. "Did you have a long day?" she asked, fixing his windblown hair.
The wheels turned in his mind. He wondered if he looked like he had had a long day, and stretched his lips downward. "It wasn't too bad." He took a long drink from his bottle, the cool liquid feeling good against his tongue.
"That's good," she said, resting her arm on the couch and rubbing his neck. "Ewe, you're all sweaty."
He frowned and thought about feigning a fever. "The Redbox line was insane, and right in the sun."
Evy eyeballed the movies. "So what'd ya get?" she asked, bending over and picking up the DVDs so he didn't have to answer. He suddenly felt like the best way to avoid the whole Megan topic was to do as little talking as possible.
She held up one of the movies for him to see and pulled a wide grin across her face. "I have been waiting to see this forever!"
"Yeah, me too."
"I bet," she laughed. "Although, according to Jon, you do love yourself some chick flicks."
He pulled the other movie from her hands. "Actually, this is more my style."
Her smile fell. "Oh no!" she laughed. "I'll be up all night hearing things if I watch that. I hate those Paranormal Activity movies."
An easy grin slid across his face in the soft light. "Well, good thing you'll have some company."
Her mouth got round with surprise. "How'd you know my other boyfriend was coming over later?"
"Funny."
She laughed and set the movies down.
Dean cleared his throat and moved a decorative pillow out from under him. "So how'd it go with the plumber last night?"
"It was fine. He just had to snake the drain with this huge coil thingy. Left a huge mess everywhere that, of course, they never clean up."
"I hate when that happens."
She tipped her wine glass back, the smell of baked lasagna wafting through the air. Somebody tromped down the stairs out in the common hallway, cutting the silence between them. The steps faded into the night and the silence reconnected. The walls seemed to bulge with the tension filling the room. At least to Dean it was tension. To her, maybe it was nothing more than a comfortable silence two people sometimes shared without feeling the need to talk. He found her green eyes and couldn't stop himself from looking away to pick at the label on his bottle. She pulled her leg out from under her and resituated. He scrambled for something to say, something that wouldn't sound like anything was wrong. He sat up straighter, trying to find a more comfortable spot that was as elusive as peace of mind. Megan's words rang hollow in his ears. Black mascara bleeding down her face in muddy streams gripped his thoughts. Nothing would ever be comfortable again.
"Is something wrong?"
His heart sank. She was on to him. He couldn't possibly face her now, but at some point he would have to turn and look into those majestic eyes again. But just not right now.
"Dean?"
He could feel her eyes upon him, sending troubled signals straight to her brain. He inhaled a deep breath and forced himself to meet her vexed gaze. His Adam's apple bobbed one time while a vein throbbed in his neck. He wiped his palms on his jeans. "I might have a situation."
Evy creased her brow. "What's wrong?"
He got up and paced the modest living room like an expectant father, staring down at the carpet, his insides twisting into knots. Shooting pains stabbed at his heart like sharpened knives. This was the end of the line and there was no way to avoid barreling off the tracks. He had to tell her. But how? His mind raced. She didn't deserve this and neither did he. No one deserved to have everything they ever wanted dangled in front of them only to have it yanked away at the last second.
"Dean? You're freaking me out."
He stopped pacing and looked her right in the worried eye, dizzy from a shortness of breath he couldn't shake. "I had an old girlfriend stop by last night after you left." He watched her face stiffen and it broke his heart. He swallowed thickly, wanting to run. "She's pregnant." He waited for her to gasp out loud and slap a hand over her heart, signaling she was officially horrified beyond all recognition, but she didn't move. "Allegedly," he threw in for good measure, leaving the tiniest of cracks.
Evy stared at him with her mouth hanging open. "Pregnant?" she said faintly, the rosy color leaving her cheeks in a hurry.
He exhaled a forlorn breath, his chest deflating as quickly as his hope. "But it's not what you think. She was from before I ever laid eyes on you. That you have to know right now." He paused to catch his breath. "After I saw you, I never saw anyone else again. Only you."
She weighed his words with careful deliberation, her wine glass trembling in her hand. She set it down and crossed her arms. "How long before me?"
He dropped his gaze to the carpet, unable to look into those eyes a second longer. Dean saw her kick him out of her life forever before it even happened. He would never see those green eyes again. "A week."
Shocked silence was her reply.
He closed his eyes, wanting to rewind to the night with Megan and just go home alone but it was too late. The damage was done. He made himself look back up. He deserved it. Deserved to see what he had done to her.
Wrinkles carved through her forehead, stealing the pretty girl who had just handed him a beer. "I don't know what to say."
He looked back to the carpet and waited for something to happen, expecting her to at least break something or start slamming doors, anything to dispel the ghostly quiet sucking the air from the room. When her feet started moving, his world fell to pieces. This was it. She was showing him the door and the thought of never kissing those lips again broke his heart.
She turned off the iPod dock and he could see it now without even looking up - pleading with her tomorrow at Sugars (the only place he could get her to talk to him) while Brooke and Ben stood there gravely shaking their heads.
He finally mustered the courage to look up, wanting to just get it over with and take his medicine. Evy pulled the lasagna from the oven and quietly set it on the burners. She stared at the steamy pan of melted cheese like she was trying to determine if it was done or not, but he knew better. She was really trying to determine if they were done or not. He twisted his fingers, making them pop, and grappled for assuring words that didn't exist.
Evy turned around and folded her arms across her breasts like they were now off limits to him. "So let me see if I've got this straight," she said, sauntering back into the living room while staring past him with faraway eyes. "You had sex with a girl named..."
"Megan." He hated the way her name sounded on his tongue.
"You had sex with a girl name Megan a week before you met me and...now she's pregnant."
"Allegedly."
She stopped in front of him, close enough to intoxicate his senses with her perfume. It drove him crazy and she knew it. "And how long had you two been dating?"
He stared into her eyes, not wanting to answer this question more than anything in the world. "A day."
Her jaw hit the floor, along with his heart, as she realized she was right all along. He was just another player, taking what he wanted with no concern for anyone else. She sat down before she could collapse.
Dean took a seat on the edge of the couch, a broken man against warm gray on cream plaid. "After I met you, everyone else just...faded away."
Her watery gaze drained his spirit. He wanted to wrap her in his arms and make it right but that was impossible. He hadn't felt this helpless since his first Christmas without his parents. Like now, the only option then had been to keep breathing.
Her eyes thinned. "I thought you said you never have sex without a condom."
"I don't," he said, acting overly offended.
"Well, you didn't with me, so..."
"I used protection, but somehow..." The words died on his lips, knowing he would never kiss her again. It tortured his soul. The punishment didn't fit the crime and he was powerless to alter its path.
"Is she sure it's yours?"
He shrugged. "Who really knows, Evy? For all I know, she's crazy as hell and full of shit, but..."
"But you only knew her for a day, so you really don't know her at all."
He opened his mouth to speak but dropped her gaze instead.
"And what does Megan plan to do?"
Dean shut his eyes and rubbed his face. "She wants to keep it," he said in barely a whisper, not wanting her to hear those words most of all, wanting to protect her from the ghastly truth. How could she continue in a relationship with a man who was having a baby with another woman? She couldn't. The answer was obvious and he didn't blame her. He blamed himself for being a selfish dick, for satisfying his own needs at the expense of others. He had broken a lot of hearts over the years and now it was his turn to pay the pied piper. Justice served.
"I bet she does," Evy muttered, blinking a lone tear down her cheek.
As his ears rang and his heart broke for her, rage heated to a boil inside. Two souls destined to be together for all of eternity, torn apart in one fell swoop by the evil claws of retribution.
Evy watched him in repugnance. Hurt and anger littered her countenance like never before. His jaw tightened with his fists, squeezing together until a vein bulged in his forehead. With all his might, he held her gaze, vowing he wouldn't give up without a fight because, after all, he was a fighter.
Another tear trickled down her cheek and his hands relaxed. It didn't matter if he was a fighter or not. It wasn't fair for him to continue such a lofty pursuit while bringing such grim consequences to the one he loved the most. And that's when it hit him: he loved her. But how could she tell her family and friends that her man was having a baby with some blond named Megan? She didn't deserve this. If he really loved her, he had to let her go. If the shoe was on the other foot, and she was pregnant with another man's baby, he sure as hell wouldn't want any part of it. She deserved better.
Her smell pushed him to the brink of destruction. The thought of living without her watered a seed of misery blooming in the pit of his stomach. He looked up just in time to see her wipe away another tear.
"I love you."
Evy's brow folded, like he had just said something nasty about her weight. "What?"
He dropped her piercing glower and shifted nervously on the couch. "I know it's too late now but..." He inhaled a deep breath to steady his shaky voice, his eyes rising to find hers. "I love you."
Her face warped in the deafening silence that followed. His gut ached. He hadn't planned on telling her anything let alone this. His thoughts spiraled out of control along with his tongue. He buried his face in his hands to stop it, embarrassed to be alive and desperate not to lose the one thing he wanted more than anything in the world.
"Get out."
He pulled his face up.
Evy glared at him like a statue carved from a cold gravestone, bravely trying to mask her emotions. "Get out," she repeated slowly.
He studied her without speaking, unable to tell if this was really happening or not.
"I need some time to...process all of this," she said, confirming it was.
Dean nodded his understanding and got up. His knee cracked and he paused to take one last look at her beautiful face. Knowing this could be the last time he ever saw her made him want to say something to change her mind. "I'm sorry," he mumbled, turning for the door. His legs felt like rubber, like he had just run stairs at Miller Park. His hand grasped the doorknob but didn't turn it, giving her a little more time to tell him to wait, to come back. When she didn't, he opened the door and left her apartment without looking back.
Evy sat in silence, watching the front door shut with a symbolic click, the dull thud of her beating heart the only sound in the room as Dean's steps faded down the hallway into the night. She glanced at the pan of lasagna on the stove and turned back to the front door, imagining herself bolting through it and catching up to him in the street. She could see a flicker of hope in his eyes and it made her heart quiver. She got to her feet and went to the door, grabbed the knob but didn't turn. Her eyes studied the weathered white paint covering the thick wood, the metal cold and smooth in her hand. A thousand thoughts flipped through her vaporous head like a bad fever dream. She turned the worn knob but didn't pull. She could still catch him and figure this out together. Evy realized she had been holding her breath and let it out, locking the deadbolt and leaning her forehead against the door, wondering if she was cursed.
Brooke looked up from behind the counter when the bell rang above the glass front door. Her face sobered as Evy weaved through the mostly empty tables like a wayward drunk. "What's wrong, sweetie?"
Evy came around the counter and pushed past her, bursting through the swinging door and spilling into Sugars' brightly lit kitchen.
Ben sat at the silver table in the middle of the room, munching on a cupcake while sculpting a cake into a red high heel. Chocolate frosting clung to the tip of his nose and the outside of a nearby glass of chocolate milk. He turned to Evy and stopped chewing, his worn out trucker's hat shading his wrinkled brow. "Are you okay?" he asked, lowering the half eaten cupcake.
Brooke barged through the swinging door and came around for a better look. "What happened?"
Evy wiped tears from her face and plopped onto a wooden stool, her shoulders slumping as badly as her features. "He got some girl pregnant," she blurted, bursting into tears.
Brooke's face fell almost as fast as her husband's.
"Me?" Ben gasped.
"Not you, idiot!" Evy snapped. "Dean!"
Ben swallowed hard and wiped frosting on his Slipknot concert tee, a heavy frown stealing across his face. "Dean? How?"
"He had sex with her! How do you think?"
Ben tipped his cap back, a dumbfounded look warping his attractive features like a funhouse mirror.
Brooke rubbed Evy's back and spoke in a soothing tone. "It's okay, honey, take a deep breath and tell us what happened."
Evy shook her head in frustration, like she didn't know what had happened. "It was some girl he hooked up with the weekend before we met and now she's pregnant and I don't know how this could be happening but it is and everything is ruined!"
"Okay, okay" Brooke said softly. "Just slow down and start from the beginning."
Mascara ran down Evy's cheeks in inky streams. "Some girl named Megan is pregnant with his child," she cried, slamming her fist down on the stainless steel table and making Ben and his milk jump at the same time. "I should've known better!"
Ben swiveled toward Evy on his stool. "So hold up, you mean he slept with this girl before he met you and now she's pregnant?"
"That's what he just told me at my apartment. We were supposed to be having movie night."
He dropped her cold gaze and toyed with one of the black loops in his ears. "Talk about bad timing," he muttered under his breath.
"Oh honey," Brooke said with a motherly tone.
Evy pushed her away and rested her elbows on the table. Her vacant eyes blurred the tattoos wrapping Ben's burly arms into colorful blobs. "And then he had the nerve to tell me he loved me."
Brooke's pretty face soured. "He didn't?"
"He did." Evy wiped tears away, smearing black streaks across her cheeks. "And the worst part is...I love him, too."
Brooke and Ben traded apprehensive looks.
"Oh, sweetie," Brooke cooed, pulling Evy into her arms and hugging her tight. "I'm so sorry," she whispered, stroking her hair like Dean used to do.
Evy buried her face into Brooke's neck and opened the floodgates, soaking her sister's work shirt. "What kind of man says that to someone when another woman is pregnant with his baby?"
"A desperate one," Ben snorted, looking away when both women shot him icy glares.
"Now, let's just figure this whole thing out," Brooke said, holding Evy out for a better look.
Evy's breath came in staggered hitches. "I'm sorry for coming here and dumping this on you guys, but I didn't have anywhere else to go."
"You came to the right place, little lady," Ben smiled, patting her hand. "I'm going to go check on the customers and I'll be right back with something to help."
Brooke watched him disappear up front and let out an exasperated breath as she sat down on one of the wooden stools. The lights hummed louder in the quiet swooping down upon the spotless kitchen like a plague of locusts. Brooke bit her bottom lip. "But, technically, he didn't cheat on you?"
"No," Evy fired back. "He didn't cheat on me, Brooke, but this is...almost worse. The man I love is having a baby with another woman." She set her jaw and backhanded a stack of cupcake wrappers off the table. "It's so fucked up!"
"Is this girl..."
"Megan!"
Brooke cleared her throat and started over. "Is Megan sure Dean is the father?"
Evy stared at the dishwasher through blurry eyes. "So she says."
"How can she be so sure?"
"He said he used protection but..." Evy buried her face in her hands and cried, unable to finish.
"Could she be mistaken?"
"Who knows? All I know is he's a player and it's come back to haunt me." She pulled her puffy face from her hands and turned to her sister with a pointed glare. "I told you, Brooke," she grumbled. "But oh no, you made me go out with him anyway. This is all your fault!"
Brooke's jaw dropped like a rock. Her eyes tightened into slits. "No," she whispered gravely. "You take that back."
"Here we go!" Ben said, coming back into the kitchen with a tray of beers and shots. He stopped in his tracks, digesting the intense looks gripping their faces. "Is this a bad time?"
"I'm sorry," Evy said faintly. "I-I didn't mean that."
Brooke's eyes welled up with tears. "I know you didn't."
Ben quietly backpedaled out of the kitchen.
"Freeze!" Brooke said, nodding to the table.
He crept over and carefully set the drinks down. "I've got just the thing for a broken heart." He rubbed his hands together like a wizard about to conjure up a magic potion. "Tequila and beer. Works every time!"
Brooke pressed her lips together. "And when have you ever had a broken heart?"
Ben hiked his jeans up by a chain connecting his wallet to a belt loop. "Seventh grade when Annie Creighton picked Rusty Callahan over me to go to the school dance."
"Oh God, here we go again," Brooke mumbled under her breath.
"I bought new shoes and everything," he sighed, taking his cap off and wiping a greasy sheen from the five o'clock shadow sprouting across his shaved head. He pulled the hat down so low his eyes were barely visible. "I would've eaten a shit sandwich for her."
Brooke and Evy stared at him like he had just broken wind.
"Alrighty then," he said, raising one of the shot glasses into the air. "No time like the present."
"Ben, this isn't..."
"Fuck it" Evy said, snatching up a shot glass and knocking it back in a single gulp. Brooke traded a glance with Ben and he shrugged. They followed suit, knocking the shots back and slamming the glasses onto the metal table with a loud clang. Brooke's face contorted with the tequila's burn.
"That'll make your dick hard," Ben wheezed, chasing the shot with a long drink of beer.
Evy arched an eyebrow at him.
He swallowed. "What? You want some weed too? I've got some in the office," he said, thumbing to the small office on the other side of the wall.
Evy slid her shot glass across the table, staring at it through somber eyes. "Go get the bottle."
Evy laughed until she cried, setting her beer down on the edge of the table and nearly falling off her stool.
Ben caught her just before she fell while Brooke repositioned the beer bottle dangling perilously close to a nasty fall.
"That didn't really haffen, did it?" Evy slurred, chewing a mouthful of red velvet cupcake. She wiped white frosting from her nose and smeared it across her cheek.
"It did," Ben replied, belching loudly.
"Don't be a pig," Brooke reprimanded.
Evy rested a heavy elbow on the table and cupped her chin. "Why didn't yufe tell me about that before?" she asked loudly, her elbow slipping off the edge of the table.
Brooke caught her arm and steadied her before she hit the ground. "Because it's not exactly something I'm proud of," Brooke answered, shooting daggers at Ben, who held up his hands in defense.
Evy took a pull from her beer, her bloodshot eyes bouncing from Brooke to Ben. "You were dating Brooke's roommate?"
Ben nodded with droopy eyes.
"And she caught you two doing it in her walk-in closet?"
Ben took another hit off a half burned joint and held it in. "Yep." He passed it to Brooke who waved him off.
"So what'd you do?" Evy asked, blowing hair out of her face.
Ben exhaled a rolling cloud of smoke that smelled like a dead skunk. "It was a Halloween party so I tried to get her to join us."
Brooke slapped his arm. "Benjamin!" she scolded, turning back to Evy. "He did not." She exhaled a lengthy breath and stared at a large mixer through faraway eyes. "It was so embarrassing," she said bleakly, shaking her head. "Poor Mandy was just standing there in her Little Red Riding Hood costume, staring at us in absolute horror while Ben's boner bobbed in the air."
Ben shrugged. "Hey, why bob for apples when you can bob for boners?"
Brooke hit him with a cold glare and Evy howled with laughter, pointing at him with an accusatory finger covered in frosting. "Boner Ben!"
Ben chuckled, toying with one of his earrings. "You should've seen the look on Mandy's face. I had dressed up as Leatherface and covered myself in fake blood and it was all over both of us when she opened that door."
Brooke dropped her forehead into her palm, a sheepish grin covering her face. "I thought I had just gotten my period."
Evy threw her head back and laughed even harder. "You two are terrible!"
Ben licked his fingers and put the smoking joint out with a light sizzle. "Hey, it was your sister's fault for dressing up as a sexy Wonder Woman," he replied, tucking the joint into a pack of cigarettes.
"Why is everything always my fault? I didn't even know you were her new boyfriend. I thought it was the guy dressed up as Captain Hook."
Ben laughed. "Mandy was anti-weed anyway, so we were doomed from the start."
Evy screwed her face up. "Then why did you go out with her in the first place?"
Ben's face sobered. "Cuz she had huge tits."
Brooke let out a defeated sigh. "And that's how I found my husband and lost my roommate on the same night."
Evy shook her head, staring at her sister with a drunken grin smeared across her messy face. "You're such a home wrecker."
Ben pulled a cigarette from the pack. "Homo-wrecker?"
"I said home wrecker!" Evy snapped, her body convulsing with a sudden hiccup.
"Don't even think about lighting that in here!"
Ben stopped with the lighter's flame inches from the end of the cigarette dangling from his lips. "Oh, but it's okay to smoke weed in here?"
"Cigarette smoke lingers," Brooke said, going through the swinging door into the darkened cafe they had closed for the night two hours ago.
Ben tucked the lighter into his jeans and released a long breath. "Hey listen, for what it's worth, Evy, it sounds like Dean was a hapless bystander in this whole thing. That's just my opinion but it seems like he's as much a victim in this as you are."
"What?" she gasped.
He held up a hand with the unlit cigarette clutched between two fingers. "Dude went in strapped and things went south. He hadn't even met you yet and, like most people, was just out doing his thing." He glanced to the door and lowered his voice. "I mean, I used to bang some really crazy chicks before your sister came along."
Evy wrinkled her nose and held up a hand. "Okay, I don't need to..."
"Hell, I probably got an entire village of kids I don't even know about out there."
"Stop."
"All makes and models, too."
"I get it, Ben."
"I'm just sayin that sometimes, when alcohol is involved, things can get a little weird. And you know me, when there was less than an hour of bar time left I stopped gettin picky."
Evy shook her head. "Way tufe much info."
"My money says this Megan chick is just tryin to hold him down to get some more of that giant cock."
Evy inhaled sharply and slapped his bicep. "Ben!"
He held his hands up in surrender, intertwining tattoos forming a photographic mosaic across his arms. "What? I heard about it."
"You are so vulgar! Is this is your idea of cheering someone up?"
"No, this is," he smiled, pulling a fresh joint from his pack of smokes.
Evy took a long drink of beer, peering at him out the corner of a puffy eye. "Anyway, I seriously doubt anyone issat crafy," she slurred.
Ben's scruffy jaw hit the table. "You wanna talk crazy? Trapping someone in a relationship with a fake baby is nothing! Don't you ever watch Dateline?"
She fanned a drunken hand through the air and scanned the empty beer bottles and cupcake wrappers littering the table between them. "So what am I suffosed to do? Be a stepmom to his bastard child? That should make for a nice Chrissmas card!"
He laughed before growing quiet, the buzzing fluorescents filling their ears. "Listen, none of us can tell you what to do, Evy. Only you know what you're feeling inside. Just trust your heart cuz it'll never steer you wrong."
She examined his grave face through misty eyes.
Brooke crashed back through the swinging door with two more beers and a bottle of water. "All right, who wants to bob for Ben's boner?"
Evy turned to Ben. "Is it really covered in tats?"
Ben took one of the beer bottles from his wife. "Cost you fifty bucks to find out."
Brooke set the water in front of Evy. "He's not kidding either. He made a hundred and fifty dollars at my class reunion last year."
Evy's brow folded. "What?"
"No joke," Ben replied, pulling out his lighter.
"Didn't that hurt?"
"What? Getting tattoos on my shlong?" He shrugged and popped the cap with the lighter. "The worst part was staying hard the whole time."
"Ewe!" Evy squealed.
"Needless to say, I had to use a female artist on that one," he muttered out the corner of his mouth. "And a fluffer."
Brooke folded her arms, glaring at him from across the table. "Are you done?"
Ben raised his eyebrows and shrugged. "I guess so. For now."
"Go smoke your cigarette," she told him, turning her attention back to Evy. "Don't listen to a word he says. He's got about as much sense as a leprechaun on Thanksgiving."
Evy hiccupped. "I don't even know what that means."
Brooke took her sister's hand and watched Ben push through the metal door leading to the alley out back. She exhaled a slow breath. "No one can tell you what to do."
Evy rolled her eyes and took a long drink of the cold water.
"But don't be so quick to give up on Dean."
Evy swallowed with a flabbergasted sigh. "I thought you just said no one can tell me what to do."
"No one but me," Brooke added, scooting her stool closer and producing a shrill scrape that echoed off the cold walls. "He really likes you, sweetie. I can see it in his eyes whenever he looks at you." Brooke smiled warmly, staring at the backdoor through doting eyes. "I know that look because Ben still looks at me like that and we've been married for three and a half years."
A faint smile shaped Evy's lips.
"And believe me, that kind of thing doesn't come around every day. Outside of Sarah, most of my friends ended up settling with people they can barely stand and life's too short for that." She wiped frosting from Evy's face with her thumb. "Look what happened with you and Richie, and you almost married him."
Evy groaned. "Don't even bring him up."
"The point is, nothing good comes easy. This isn't a fairytale. No one lives happily ever after without a fight, not in the real world anyway. You want it, you gotta take it."
Evy's entire body shuddered with another hiccup. "Why do you always make me feel like the kid sister?"
Brooke's face brightened. "Because I'm so smart."
Evy bit back a laugh.
"Hey!" Brooke said, pulling her sister's arm down so she could see her face. "Do you love Dean or not?"
Evy looked up with glassy eyes, staring blankly at Brooke like she hadn't understood the question.
"Do you love him or not?"
Evy blinked a tear down her cheek. "Yes."
"Then fight for him," she whispered, leaning back and taking a drink of her beer. "Plus, if his cock is half as big as you say it is, you can't let that go."
Evy shielded her eyes with a hand. "I never said how big it is."
"And that's just wrong."
A comfortable silence fell between them as Brooke released a lion-like yawn.
Evy looked into her little sister's eyes and smiled. "Thank you."
Brooke shrugged. "For what?"
Evy reached out and hugged her tightly. "For always being there for me. I love you and Ben so much. I don't know what I'd do without you two."
Brooke brushed hair from Evy's face. "Regardless of what happens, you're going to be fine. Just remember that."
Ben burst through the backdoor, a bottle of beer in his hand. "So, we gonna have a threesome tonight or what?"
Brooke turned to Evy with a tired sigh. "I don't know how I do it."
Evy hiccupped again. "I need a cab."
