“Really?”
“Yes, really.”
“Where do you suggest I go?”
“I suggest you go to anywhere on the East Coast; there’s a sale going on at the moment.” Helena motions towards the door. A travel agent sugar-freak telling Bryce McCarson where to go. “Boy, I said leave. Move, hop, jump, sprint, fly…do whatever it is you do but get the hell away from my sister before I send you on a one-way plane to Timbuktu!”
Those distant green eyes don’t leave her for a moment, but when they do and they land on me, I look away for my own sanity.
“Okay, Elaine.” He scoffs, pushing out his chair. “I wasn’t here to talk to you anyway.”
“My name is Helena and good riddance!”
As Bryce stomps towards the exit, Marcus groans. There’s fury written on his face, one I failed to see when they initially stepped in. “Why couldn’t you just let it go?”
“Let it go? How can you seriously say that?” Helena hisses. “Did you not hear what he did to my sister?”
Marcus leaves the questions unanswered and bids us a quick goodbye.
Breathe.
“Hell yeah, ain’t nobody speaks to my baby sister like that!”
“I appreciate it, but I could’ve handled it. I don’t want this to lead to yet another thing Bryce gets hung up on about me. It’s not the best look stepping forward whenever he does return to work.”
“He deserved it! Anyway, I’m going to the bathroom.”
Weston glances up from his homework the moment she leaves. “Who was that other guy?”
“Just a man who works with Kayla and I.”
He nods and glances back down at his work. I frown but summon the courage to fake the optimism when his gaze returns to me. “Hey, can you help me with something art related? My teacher is challenging us with trivia, but I can’t remember the last design principle of art.”
“Of course, go on.”
“Well, I have balance, contrast, emphasis, and repetition…what’s missing?”
“That would be unity, buddy.”
Unity.
Weston jots it down and smiles over. “The perks of knowing a pro art teacher.”
Oscar glances over at me just as I turn to him. I wink, handing him a marshmallow that came with my hot chocolate. He nudges Weston’s arm and I give my godson the other. It’s quick and all accomplished behind Helena’s back. Aka the sugar freak! They both grin and turn back to their papers, chewing away at the soft pink clouds.
Kayla and I distract ourselves by helping Weston out with his homework. It doesn’t last long and I feel so bad for it, but I don’t catch patches of what he’s saying because all I can think about is Bryce and the way he made me feel that night. How violated I felt and what seeing him tonight makes me remember.
The tension within the room is so tense. I should have acted differently. I should have spoken to him and told him exactly how I’m feeling.
“Has Helena always been like this?” Kayla asks.
“Always. When I began dating Giulio she was adamant to know everything. She sat him down in a full on interrogation, and mind you, he’s two years older than her. They’ve been so close ever since but you know her, needing to make sure he had the best intentions.”
“Aw, I can absolutely see her doing that! I’m sorry, honey, but…” She nods towards the door and in comes take-two. “…They’re here again.”
Marcus is dragging Bryce by his tattooed bicep even though McCarson is a tall, broad guy who quite frankly could pick up my brother-in-law by his pinkie.
“We don’t run away from our problems. We face them,” Marcus grits and shoves McCarson in Helena’s seat beside me. Slonne scoots away from him, closer to her cousin.
I don’t blame you, girl.
“I’m not a dog,” Bryce threatens and flips him off. His elbow brushes against mine in the process, prompting him to glance over at me. “Right?”
“Then stop acting like one,” Marcus spits.
“I’m not acting like one!”
“You’re right. You’re not acting like one because you are one. Now shut up and do what you came to do. Speak to her!”
“Marcus, I can’t exactly shut up and speak at the same time.”
“For the love of god, someone remind me how to breathe.”
“Absolutely, positively, one hundred percent no.” Helena returns in a huff. Her jaw drops not only at Bryce’s presence but at the fact that he has stolen her seat. “Are you serious? You’re like a cockroach; you think you’ve killed it but then they spring back to life. Go! Vamoose!”
“I have to tell ya sister something.”
“Go ahead. Anything you can tell her, you can tell me.” Helena crosses her arms and raises a confident brow. “Come on. Show me what you’ve got, McCarson.”
Bryce’s nose flares and I jump in to defuse the growing flames. My smile is flat as I come in the middle of them with a solution. “It’s okay, Helena. We’ll talk alone outside. Just watch the kids for me.”
McCarson and I make our way out.
The icy air blows through my curled hair and down the back of my leather jacket. The city streets are lively as always. Cars zoom by and a group of people walk past us, cheering and laughing.
Bryce doesn’t seem to notice them.
He doesn’t seem like the type of man that takes in the little things. The details. Instead, he pulls out a cigarette and lights it while his eyes remain on a woman in a belted trench coat. She stands at the edge of the sidewalk and glances side to side with a glowing phone in hand, evidently waiting on a ride home.
Bryce stares at the back of her head,
