“Okay, you’re right.”
“We should do shots every time he touches his ear like he’s got one of those earpieces in it,” says Adam.
“I’m out,” says Ruth, plopping down on the couch.
Saul yanks a bottle of whiskey off the bar. “Oh, it’s on.”
While they pour themselves shots, I peruse the snack table with a beer dangling between my fingers.
“The legendary Ramona Blue.”
I turn to find Reggie. “Can’t say I don’t live up to the name,” I say, stroking my tousled locks.
Reggie leans up against the counter behind him and spreads his arms out on either side to brace himself.
I take a swig of beer. I’ve been sipping it for too long now; it’s warm and flat. “We were all a little nervous about you,” I admit.
Reggie looks up to me. His eyes have a shine to them that makes it hard to look away. It’s easy to understand what Saul sees. “I like that.”
“How so?” I ask.
“I love Saul.” He says it so simply. “And y’all do, too. If you’re suspicious of me, it’s probably because you’reprotective of him. I’m in favor of anyone who’s in favor of his best interest.”
“I’ll buy that.”
He points to Ruth, sitting on the arm of the couch with her arms crossed. “Now, she flat-out doesn’t like me.”
I twist my lips together as I search for the right words. “I wouldn’t say that. Ruthie doesn’t like change.”
Reggie says nothing but nods along.
“You gotta understand,” I tell Reggie. “Saul challenges Ruth in a way that only he can get away with. He makes her braver and funnier. The two of them in that house together were like two pillars holding each other up. She keeps him accountable. She’s the reason he puts gas in his tank and pays his car insurance instead of investing in something ridiculous like a Dolly Parton pinball machine.” I sigh. It’s hard not to think of Hattie. “She’s not sure how to exist without him.” I’m not sure I’m even talking about Saul and Ruth anymore.
“She resents me then.”
I half smile. “You took her sunshine. Can you blame her?”
His shoulders slope.
I hear Freddie’s deep laugh behind us. “Don’t worry,” I tell him. “She’ll find her own soon enough.”
I watch Ruth for a moment as she tries not to laugh at some story Adam is telling her. For so long I believed I was the only person who truly knew what it felt like to be left. But maybe it’s not just standing still that gets you left behind. You can be going places and still findyourself abandoned in some way.
The rest of the night is spent playing games and telling horrible jokes. Freddie and I don’t even hang out much, but I can feel my body rotating around him like we’re two magnets. Saul is the DJ and plays all his favorite obnoxious dance music.
I can taste the excitement in the air as we draw closer to midnight, despite Hattie dozing off on the couch. With a minute to go, Saul runs around making sure we each have noisemakers.
We all turn to the TV for the last of the countdown. “Five!” we shout as the Times Square ball on the television begins to drop.
“Two hundred and nine!” shouts Adam with a near-empty bottle of whiskey in his fist.
Freddie pelts him in the head with a throw pillow, but he doesn’t relent.
“Two hundred and ten!”
The rest of us shout over him to finish the countdown. “Four, three, two, one!”
“Happy New Year!” I yell, and blow into my noisemaker.
