Page 100 of A Dish Best Served Hot

Leo scowled. “How come your daughter hasn’t come to bother me?”

“Because I’m here to do it for her,” Alicia said breezily while still typing.

Leo scoffed. “As if she’d ever let someone else have the pleasure of annoying the shit out of me for fun.”

Alicia finished typing, clicked out of the program, and took a small cup over to Leo. “Sofi is not coming,” she told him in a very clear and strong tone. “She is busy living her own life.” She held out the cup with the pills.

Leo took out the two pills. “What life?” he sneered. “Sofi’s life is boring as hell without me.”

Saint frowned. He knew that Sofi and Leo frequently entertained each other in the form of constant bickering, but something about the way Leo phrased that gave him pause. Why would he specifically be the one who made her life interesting? If anything that honor would go to Kamilah, Sofi’s actual friend. Saint looked closely at Leo but all he could tell was that he was annoyed and in pain. He was just trying to get a rise out of anyone and everyone. At least that was typical Leo behavior.

But Alicia didn’t fall for it. She rolled her eyes as Leo placed the pills in his mouth. “I’ll be sure to tell her you said that.” She lifted his large cup of water from the bedside tray table and held the straw up to his mouth. Once Leo swallowed the pills she put the cup down and backed away. “Use the pain medication,” she told him. “They gave it to you for a reason.”

“I don’t need it,” Leo said.

It was her turn to scoff. “Not using it doesn’t make you any stronger you know. Don’t be an idiot. Use it.”

“Your bedside manner is excellent. I can’t wait to leave you a stellar review on your comment card.”

“And I can’t wait for you to sleep for longer than a half hour so you aren’t an annoying little shit anymore.”

“Now I see where your daughter gets it from.”

“Yep. And I taught her to never suffer fools, especially foolish men who don’t know what’s good for them.” She gave him a look that Saint couldn’t interpret, but Leo seemed to, because he finally shut his mouth. “Take the meds and take a nap,” she repeated before leaving.

Muttering to himself about bossy and annoying Santana women, Leo finally hit the button to release morphine into his system.

Saint let loose a quiet sigh of relief.

They sat in silence for a moment before Saint couldn’t hold it in anymore. “Leo, I owe you two things.”

“A sponge bath from a hot nurse who isn’t Sofi’s dragon of a mother and the fifty bucks I won for being right about the number of times Kamilah would cry?”

Saint shook his head. “First, I have to thank you. Rosie is my everything. She’s the reason I live and breathe.”

Leo scowled at him. “What are you doing right now?” he asked gruffly, although it was clear he knew the answer.

“Without you, things could’ve gone way differently. I cannot tell you how grateful I am to you. You saved her. You saved them all.”

“Stop it,” Leo growled, his eyes growing wet.

But Saint couldn’t stop. “Which leads me to my second thing. I’m sorry,” he choked out, his own eyes wet. “I should’ve been there. It’s my duty to be there. To keep you all safe and I failed. At every single turn I failed and now you’re paying the price.”

“Shut up!” his brother yelled, startling him into silence. “You’re not my boss and you’re not my babysitter. I’m a grown fucking man and I make my own choices. I choose to put my life on the line for others every time I gear up and walk into a burning building, but I don’t see you getting all upset over that. To be honest, that night I had made the choice to act even before I knew who it was, because I would’ve intervened for anyone in danger. So don’t make it sound like I’m some sidekick that was forced to act because the superhero wasn’t there, and don’t use the consequences of my choice to beat yourself up. You can fuck all the way off with that shit.”

Saint sat there.

“I mean fuck. First Kamilah. Now you. What is with this family’s obsession with being martyrs?”

“You’re right. I’m giving myself more importance than I really have.”

“You are and don’t even start on the ‘If I hadn’t gotten involved with Lola then none of this would’ve happened,’ because you don’t know that either. The world is chaos and we don’t know what will set off anything.”

“Are you really using the butterfly effect to win this argument?”

“No.” He smiled. “Because I already won it with my sidekick slash superhero comment.”

He had. But it was nice to see him smile even if it was only a flash of one. “Can I still tell you that I love you, you annoying little shit, or is that not allowed either?”

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