“It’s the United States of America, Chase,” Colin says acerbically. His blue eyes, a muddier blue than my own, roll. “It means I can travel from one state to another easily. And without telling you about it.”
I fight a frown because any sign of annoyance with Colin has always been like waving a red cape in front of a bull. He will keep saying and doing things that upset me if I give him any inkling that he’s started to piss me off. So instead, I say nothing. I raise my half empty red wine glass in his general direction. “Well, have fun.”
“Were you just sniffing the flowers?” he asks.
I was about to turn away, but I stop and answer him. He’ll just follow me if I don’t. “Yes. I like lilacs. They remind me of Grandma Bette.”
Bette McDaniels was the only member of my family I think about with fondness. She was married to Ned and all the inheritance money actually came from her, not my grandfather. Bette was the only child of a very wealthy real estate developer from New York. She never wanted for anything and despite being able to marry anyone – because she was beautiful and smart and kind – she somehow ended up with Ned. I like to think that Ned changed over time, once he got more and more into politics, and that they had this loving, wonderful marriage, but I don’t know for sure. All I do know is that Bette was sweet to me. When we’d stay with her every summer, she let me help her in the kitchen with every meal and when Colin told me to ‘be a man’ and come outside and play football with him and Granddad, she chastised him and told him I could do whatever I wanted. In fact, doing what I wanted made me more of a man than doing what was expected. She died of ovarian cancer when I was ten, but those words have stuck with me my whole life, even if I haven’t exactly followed them. Yet.
“She wore lilac scented perfume, Colin,” I add when he’s just standing there blinking at me. “Don’t you remember. It engulfed you when she gave hugs and stayed on your clothes.”
“That’s what that smell was?” He walks over and leans a little to sniff the flowers and then promptly wrinkles his nose. “I used to hate that. Smelling like flowers. I guess you like it because of your… other side.”
He makes it sound like being bisexual means you’re Two-Face from theBatmancomics. Like my left side likes men and my right side likes women. “Why are you such a Grade A asshole?”
He actually looks upset by that. “Jesus, Chase, why so sensitive? I’m just making light of your mistakes.”
“Sexuality isn’t a mistake,” I hiss out through a clenched jaw and then my eyes fly around the yard to make sure no one was close enough to hear what I said. Thankfully almost everyone is starting to sit at tables and get ready for the dinner part of this night.
“Telling Mom and Dad about it before getting your hands on the cash was,” Colin replies and sips his drink. “Also, for the record dude, we all went a littlelocoin college with the sex stuff. But the three-ways are supposed to be boy-girl-girl not boy-boy-girl,hermano.”
“You spent one semester in Barcelona years ago, stop trying to throw Spanish words into everything you say,” I bark. “And fuck off.”
I turn to leave but then someone behind the shoulder of Colin’s designer suit jacket catches my eye. Bennie Johnson is walking toward us from behind the house. Well, shit. Could this night get any worse? I step around my brother. “Hey Bennie. What are you doing here?”
I know my face, which is blocked from my brother, must reflect the panic I feel at the sight of my ex-drummer-slash-ex-hook-up and the dude who caught me with another dude. Bennie sees it too and he smiles, but it’s even less friendly than the one Autumn gave me earlier. “My father thinks this guy might be a good candidate and he donated an auction prize, so he got a ticket to this thing. But then he caught the damn flu and so here I am instead. I’d rather be eating glass.”
Colin chuckles at that. I just nod because I am too uncomfortable with this whole situation to do anything else. It feels a little bit like I’m in one of those rooms in horror movies or whatever where all the walls start closing in at the same time, and there’s no door to escape. “And you?” Bennie asks casually. “You here to support your new… Musical partner?”
“What?” Colin asks.
“Bowen Whitlock has taken over for Bennie in the band,” I explain. I know that Bennie’s choice of words and pregnant pause were meant to up my anxiety and I hate that it worked.
“Oh.” Colin chuckles and smiles at Bennie. “You finally gave up that stupid hobby, huh? Good for you. It was fine when you guys were in college but now it’s kind of weird, or maybe it’s sad, I don’t know. But grown men with real careers don’t need to spend weekends pretending to be Queen.”
“We don’t cover Queen songs,” I tell him through gritted teeth, like it matters. I turn back to Bennie. “What were you doing back there?”
He shrugs. “Looking for the bathroom.”
“Isn’t it in the house?”
“The chubby Whitlock said something about using the one by the barn or something.”
I’m horrified he just said that. “Watch your mouth.”
Bennie levels me with a hard, icy cold stare. “You don’t think I’m watching what I say? Because if you think this isn’t being careful…”
“Don’t comment on a woman, or anyone, like that ever again. It only shows the world how truly lacking you are of character,” I snap, and Bennie looks shocked, and then furious. I step right up into his face, so close I know he can feel my breath when I exhale sharply. “And you can say whatever the fuck you want, Bennie. I’m not so scared of the truth that I’m going to keep my mouth shut when you’re a cruel asshole to someone who doesn’t deserve it.”
“Oh shit, do you have the hots for Whitlock’s sister?” Colin asks, completely missing the subtext of this. It’s like a jumbo jet, but somehow it soars right over his head unnoticed.
“Hey gentleman,” I hear Woody’s voice and immediately turn to face him. “We’re about to sit down to some awesome food, courtesy of Vino and Veritas, if you’d like to join us. Simple but good stuff, all with local ingredients.”
“Sounds great,” I say and turn away from both Colin and Bennie.
The faintest look of relief passes over Woody’s face. I’m fairly certain he doesn’t know exactly what was going on, but he’s clued in that it wasn’t good. “Unfortunately, there aren’t any seats left at the same table, so I hope you all don’t mind sitting at different ones.”
“There is nothing unfortunate about different tables,” I say with a smile I hope looks more relaxed than I feel. Bennie marches past me and sits down in the closest empty seat. I notice there isn’t an available seat at Bowen’s table, which makes me relieved. I shouldn’t sit with him, it would only annoy Bennie even further, and I definitely don’t want my brother sitting with him.
