Page 34 of Reno

“I guess,” I said. “If that’s what you want to call it.”

She chuckled. “I don’t know what else you’d call it.”

“Do you think we can do it?”

“Be friends? I know I can.” With her eyes fixed on mine, she unbuttoned her blouse. “I have my doubts about you, though.”

“Wanna bet?”

She leaned forward, revealing a mile of cleavage. “I’ll bet you that same twenty you lost to me the other night. Eventually, this friendship will turn sexual.”

It was a bet I destined to lose but determined to win. I extended my hand. “Twenty bucks. It’s a bet.”

13

Carma

My brother Samuel was a year older than me. We were much more than siblings. Best friends since childhood, we shared intimate details of our lives with each other. Most of them, anyway. I’d never been completely truthful with him—or my family—about Angel. How I allowed him to treat me was extremely embarrassing, and not something I wanted my family to know.

Apparently, Sam hadn’t been completely truthful with me about his relationships with women, either.

“Have you ever been friends with a girl?” I asked.

He forked a wad of scrambled eggs into his mouth and nodded. “Tons of ‘em.”

“Tons?”

“Uh huh.”

“Who?”

“Adelita, and that little short chick from down the beach. Our neighbor, or whatever you want to call—”

“Adelita Zepeda?” I asked.

“Yeah. And our neighbor. Linda, or whatever her name was. Belinda.”

“You and Adelita had sex,” I insisted. “You weren’t friends.”

“According to who?” he asked.

“According to me.”

With his elbow resting on the edge of the table and his fork dangling from his fingers, he studied me.

“She told me,” I said.

He pierced a potato with the fork’s tines. “She wasn’t supposed to tell anyone.”

“Well, she did. What about Belinda. Did you have sex with her?”

“A few times,” he said, as if it were no big deal.

I tossed my napkin at him. “You’re a pig.”

He threw it back. “She begged for it.”

“It may have been consensual, but you weren’t committed to either of them. They weren’t your girlfriends.”