“It was a C minus. It could have gone better, but it could have gone worse,” I admitted to her, sneaking my hands up to rest over the forearms covering my neck.
Lily had just hugged me tighter. “You want to tell me what happened?”
“They were there,” I told her vaguely. “Your mom is still on drugs. Dad looks like hell. Rudy grabbed my wrist, but I got him into an armbar, and Rip pretty much threatened to kick his ass, and then he left me alone.”
My beloved little sister kissed my head at least five times before saying, “You should’ve broken his arm.”
“I know.”
“Kicked him in the nuts.”
“Twice at least.”
“Spit in his eyes.”
“Vinegar would hurt more,” I tried to make her laugh, and I did it. It wasn’t a great, big laugh, but it was something.
“I’m glad Rip went with you,” she kept going, her voice lighter than it had been a minute before.
“Me too,” I told her forearm, resting my chin on it.
She hugged me even closer. “Tell me what your boss likes, and I’ll make it for him. He deserves it for threatening stupid Rudy.”
She didn’t know what I had done and had no idea that we had basically performed a business exchange. I wasn’t about to correct her. She had enough to worry about, so I had just nodded.
Her hand rubbed my back as she said, “Come on. Let’s go to Red Lobster and take advantage of my employee discount before it runs out. My treat.”
That was how we ended up going to Red Lobster for an early dinner and then going to the movies afterward.To keep my mind off things, Lily had claimed, and it had done the trick, at least until I tried going to sleep. Then it had all come back to me. The way my dad had ignored me, like I was dead to him. What my cousin had done. The hundred and one memories I didn’t let myself think about from years ago.
Nothing helped me wind down, and nothing had kept me asleep when I had managed to doze off. I tossed and turned the entire night, thinking about all the things I should have done differently and all the things I wouldn’t have done any differently.
I was healthy. I had somewhere to live. I had people who cared about me.
And I had found a brand-new lipstick in my underwear drawer that I’d forgotten all about.
Lily and I had had some good bonding time.
I managed to leave for work before my sister left her room. I had forgotten all about what day of the week it was and what it meant.
There were our weekly meetings, and then there were ourmonthlymeetings. Our monthly meetings were that one time every four weeks where theemployeesgot to vent, not just Mr. Cooper or Ripley. It was everyone else’s turn.
I hated them.
Maybe it was mostly because of the day before, or maybe it was because I would have rather been in the booth working instead of sitting in a chair in the break room, listening to the guys complain about each other.
Because that’s what the meetings were for: bitching. Lots and lots of bitching. I hated it.
The meetings were a necessary evil though. Over the years, I had seen things get so heated between the guys that fights would break out. I’d worked around this many men for so long that I got that they couldn’t just get over things eventually. The problem was, if anyone got into an altercation, they would get fired.
It had happened before, and I was sure it was going to happen again, monthly meetings or not.
So, for an hour, maybe an hour and a half depending how stressed out and pissed off the guys were, I mainly just sat there and stared off into space so I wouldn’t get called out for having my eyes closed. I’d spent most of my childhood zoning out people arguing; this was nothing.
Nothing but boring.
And annoying.
And honestly a little painful.
