Remedy rolled her eyes, took the glass and slightly lifted it in the air. “Thanks…for everything. I didn’t say that earlier. I don’t want you to think I’m a complete bitch.”
“Nah, I just think you’re half of one,” he quipped, sitting back. “And don’t mention it. You’re good.”
“Well good for you, I think you’re still one hundred percent an asshole,” she returned.
“I can accept that. I got to admit, all of this was a shock to my system. I’ve been in this space of orders and organization for almost two decades and you two…fucked all of that up for me,” Erys shared before taking a sip.
“Mainly Ernie. I successfully ignored him for about six months. And then I just couldn’t. I used to wake up to him sitting on my steps, shotgun in his hand. Then the wandering. So six months later, he’s been the best disruption to my system,” Remedy shared, taking a sip of her own then wincing. “Damn.”
“Can’t turn back now. You refused the chaser,” he said with a chuckle.
“Just used to the watered down liquor at the club,” she replied, taking another sip.
“You don’t want more than being Ernie’s friend?” he asked.
Remedy swayed her head as she drew her legging-covered legs up to her chest. “No. I had more before and that didn’t really turn out well for me.”
“Gonna tell me?” Erys mused. “Words this time, not that head shaking.”
Remedy rolled her eyes again. “You’re annoying, you know that?”
“You are too. We’re even.”
“No, I’m not going to tell you. It’s boring. I’m boring. Tell me about your mother,” Remedy commented, turning this around on him.
“From what she told me and from what I saw. She was running from something but whatever it was, whatever she held, she dressed it up so beautiful. She worked hard, she loved me the only way she knew how. As a grown man, I’m realizing I needed – need. I need more than that. This house is so fucking big and so fucking quiet.”
Remedy watched him talk like it was poetry in motion. Art she wasn’t good enough to touch. Art she shouldn’t have snuck into the gallery to see up close and personal. “More like from your parents. Life?”
“Both. I’ve hated that nigga for a long time and every second I’m in his space, I’m seeing how wrong I was. Then there’s the fact I isolated myself for so long that forming meaningful relationships – developmental relationships – I probably missed out on the lessons I needed to make me lessthis,” Erys said, motioning to himself.
“Cold, frigid, assholish,” Remedy rambled off.
“Any more adjectives, Mouth?” he asked, looking at her full on.
Remedy took a long sip. “There’s so many more, Franklin. Would you like to hear them? Brute. Rude. Intrusive. Aloof. Emotionless. Arrogant…need more or is my point made?”
“Nah, give me what you got,” he said, refreshing his glass. “I might have some of my own.”
“Like?”
“Possessive. Stubborn as all fuck. Mean. Petty. A beautiful mystery that I can’t figure the fuck out and it’s really the most agitating thing,” he spoke, his eyes locked on hers.
Remedy’s breath hitched slightly and her eyes fluttered. She needed to ward him off or untangle herself. Something. “Hm, I can’t say the same.”
“No?”
She swayed her head and looked away and stared at the northside of the lake for a long moment. His eyes were still baring into her, intensifying the heat from the liquor. “Why’d you build this big ass house if it was just you? Or am I wrong to assume you’ve been alone all your life.”
“You’re not wrong. I built this for my mom. This is what she wanted. I thought I had time for her to see her dream. We used to dream and shit. I built it and immediately was hit with the reality. Her last months, she was trying to marry me off,” he spoke with a bitter laugh. “Had me taking her to ridiculous shit. Women throwing themselves at me.”
“Oh, don’t act like you didn’t like that,” Remedy commented. “All men like that.”
“You like men all in your face?” he countered.
“Hate it actually. With everything in me,” she replied. “But we’re talking about you.”
“I don’t like it. Can’t stand it. I’m a hunter. I see my target and I go after it and I don’t stop until I get it.”
