I’m almost positive they’ll be gone by the time I come back out, but at least I offered to be nice.
I settle the tab with Jack. “What are you up to, bro?” he asks.
“They’re lost,” I air quote. “I’m going to give them a hand since she should be resting.”
“What a good guy, you are,” Jack says with a wink. “You go help her get some rest.”
I pinch the shoulders of my t-shirt. “You know it. I’m sort of the best there is, ya know?”
“Right, dude. Catch ya later.”
I head back outside, and I’m surprised to see them still here. Still bickering too. “Do y’all fight a lot?” I ask.
“No,” Brendan says. “We almost never fought when we were living in Boston.” He doesn’t take his eyes off her as he says this. He looks pretty ticked for whatever she’s doing, which I can only imagine at this point. “Scarlett likes to be in control, so when things aren’t under her control, she gets a little feisty.”
Scarlett huffs and starts walking off in the wrong direction. That is if she’s still trying to find the drug store.
“It’s the other way, darlin’,” I tell her.
“We came from that way,” she says, irritation filling her voice. “And since you obviously forgot, my name is Scarlett, not Darling.”
“Well, the drug store is not on this street.”
“I figured everything was on this street. I didn’t even think there was another street in this town,” she says, still looking past me and around the bend as if I’d be lying about something so dumb. “Where is this hidden street then?”
“About two blocks back, through an invisible door at the back of a closet, and through about a mile of snowy woods.”
Scarlett clutches the back of her neck. “You know you’re not funny, right?”
“To each their own,” I tell her.
“No. Where we come from, you’re not funny.”
“You sound like you’re from another planet,” Brendan pipes in, leaving that quip for Scarlett.
“I feel like it right now.”
“You kind of look like it too,” I add in.
Scarlett takes in a long breath of air. “Okay, you know what? I’m done. I don’t need a pain reliever. I don’t need an ice pack. I don’t even need electricity in my shack because that’s not an option, by the way. I just want this horrible day to be over, so I can move onto the next horrible day here.”
“No electricity?” I question.
“More drama,” Brendan replies with a roll of his eyes and a wave of his hand. “It took her a whole five minutes to find the fuse box, and now you’d think we’re all gonna die tonight.”
“Ah.”
“I’m going to find my way back to my servant shack, so I’ll catch you two later. Good night you all.”
“Y’all,” I correct her.
“No, it’s two words. Look it up in the English dictionary.”
Scarlett starts walking again, at least in the right direction of the hotel. I’m not going to question whether or not she’d stop and come back for Brendan because I’m almost positive she means what she says and says what she means.
“How do you put up with her all the time?” I ask Brendan. “And can I get you a beer?”
“Yes, to the beer,” he says.
