“Not us. We take care of our own.”
I nod, unable to find the words to thank him. “I’ll be right back.”
I head to her room and find her passed out in the bed. A woman and a man are sleeping in bed with her, and I pull the door closed, then go meet Ollie in the living room.
I’m grateful we have rubber gloves. I get those and trash bags, and we start cleaning. There’s mold on the plates and on half the food in the fridge. With each plate I scrape, each thing I clean, the guilt eats more and more of me. We’re supposed to be together. We’re supposed to take care of each other, yet I’m too busy playing house with Rory. But…I deserve that, don’t I?
Ollie and I laugh and chat, just like we do at home, and it helps distract me from how fucking shitty this situation is. Ollie’s shared with me a lot about how close he and his dad are, how close he was to his mom before she passed away. I know the death of their mothers is something he and Cillian bonded over.
I like listening to Ollie speak while we work, and he does, nonstop, about simple things, earnest things. He doesn’t complain or look down on me, and I’m so fucking grateful.
It takes us three hours to clean the house. Ollie isvacuuming when my mom and her two fuck buddies come out, the guy naked, dick swinging. I’m in the kitchen, so they run into Ollie first.
He turns off the vacuum.
“Who are you?” Mom asks him.
“Ollie,” I say, pushing my way into the room. “Put some fucking clothes on,” I tell the guy.
“Who the fuck are you?” he says, stepping toward me.
Mom snaps out of it and squeezes between us. “Dave, this is my son, Shai. Shai, this is Dave.”
“Get dressed,” I tell him again.
“Fuck you, kid.”
We’re looking at each other over my mom, neither of us willing to back down.
“Come on, baby. We need to go anyway,” the other woman tells him. He stares me down for another moment, trying to intimidate me, but it doesn’t work, and then he’s letting her drag him down the hallway.
“Real fucking nice, Mom.”
“Who are you again?” she asks.
“Ollie. Nice to meet you.” He holds his hand out for my mom, who is wearing nothing but a pair of panties and a short tank top. She shakes it and grins at him.
“New boyfriend already? Maybe you’re more like me than you think,” Mom says, then to Ollie, “I’m Kat.”
I roll my eyes. “He’s not my boyfriend. He’s my…” What is he? He’s my friend, obviously, but he’s something more to Rory and he feels like more to me too.
Luckily, the asshole and the woman come out dressed. My mom kisses them both goodbye, then apologizes about me as if I did something wrong, before closing and locking the door behind them.
“I’m fucking beat.” She plops down on the couch.
“You’re welcome,” I tell her.
“For what?”
“For cleaning this fucking pigsty! It was disgusting.”
“It wasn’t that bad.” She lights a cigarette. “So, Ollie, tell me a little about yourself. I’m glad to hear Rory is still around, even if he has taken Shai away from me.”
I bite back a groan, Ollie looking back and forth between me and my mom, before he says, “Oh, well, I’m Cillian’s boyfriend. He and Rory are best friends—well, more than that, really, but it’s hard to explain. We all really love Shai, though. You’ve raised a great son.”
My heart trips up at his words. No one has ever said that about me.
“Not sure I can take much credit for that.” She takes a drag of her cigarette. “If you haven’t noticed, I’m a bit of a mess.”
