“Not as young as us, but too young to be taken so soon.”
She drew in a long breath. Was I going to have to play fucking therapist for the next however long? I wasn’t good at it.
Better than before, at least.
“You know, when you and I dated, I was so focused on not being them, I didn’t focus on what I was. What we were.”
“Shit’s hard,” I said, only so Melissa didn’t feel like she was speaking to a wall.
This was going the opposite direction of what I thought. Instead of her being distant, it almost seemed like she was desperate for conversation and connection. Of course, her parents just died—how could shenotwant to feel that closeness with someone familiar? Even if that someone familiar was a person who had treated her like shit?
“They never had a good marriage, Corey,” she said. “They didn’t have a bad one. But it felt like they were mired in mediocrity that they just sort of blithely accepted. Like they didn’t care for each other, but divorcing would have taken too much effort. And I saw that even at a young age. I’d ask at first, but they’d just say they loved each other. And so I told myself that I wasn’t going to be like them. But when…”
She stopped.
“I could have been better, too, you know,” I offered, but Melissa suddenly seemed to turn cold.
“Let’s not talk about this,” she said. “How are you?”
“Good. Club’s going well.”
“Is it?” she said, but her tone didn’t suggest a question, only her words.
It was like she’d briefly let me in, only to recall what that had been like the last time. I couldn’t tell yet if this was a test, her genuinely not wanting to connect, or just an emotional mood swing that would settle back into the middle. I needed more time.
“Yeah. We’re…we’ve got some shit to deal with, but you know, that’s how it goes. How do you like being back in Phoenix?”
Melissa snorted. A smile flashed across her face for the briefest of moments; though she pulled it back and returned to her glum stare, the kind that said she didn’t want to be here, it was enough to affirm to me this was sort of an act, like she was trying to see if I could handle her being cold again.
Maybe not intentional, but I could tell. I may have been a biker, but I wasn’tthatstupid.
“I mean, I’ve got nowhere else to be.”
“Sure, but you could be anywhere,” I said. “I assume you don’t have a job in Odessa?”
“I do freelance work online.”
“Right, so you could be anywhere where you can pay bills. And yet you’re here. Long enough to grab coffee with me and stay with Hailey. How are you liking it here?”
Melissa’s face fluctuated between amused and angry, perhaps impressed I called her out and pissed off that I was pressing her on this.
“Like is a strong word,” she said, “but I have to admit, it’s going better than I thought it would.”
“Yeah?”
“It’s great staying with Hailey. She and I have gotten a lot closer through everything. It’s weird and a little disappointing to me that she’s dating Sam.”
“Who?”
“Your boss.”
So that’s Satan’s real name. Not that I’m ever going to let him know that I know that.
“Ah, right. Code names and such, I forget that he’s got a real name besides Satan.”
“That’s delightful,” Melissa said with an eye roll. “My sister is dating the devil.”
“The devil to those who cross us or fuck with us,” I said. “To everyone else, he’s more just a curiosity.”
