Page 5 of The Wickedness of Man

“Magda?” she asked. “Are you all right?”

Danny raised a hand and shouted over to them, “It’s fine, she’s fine.”

Concepción looked to me, saw the tears in my eyes, and stormed over. Derek took several moments to get his pants zipped back up, then followed in her wake. She touched my shoulder, wrapping an arm around it protectively, and then looked down at the card in my hand. I felt her take it; my fingers were numb.

“Hey, that’s private—” Danny said, trying to snatch it from her.

Concepción scanned the card, then sent him a glare that could have melted steel. “Are you serious? ¿En su cumpleaños, cabrón?”

“Qu’es que—”began Derek, but Katie marched out from the club, sweaty and smiling.

“There you guys are! I’ve been looking for you?—”

Danny snatched the card from Concepción’s hands and stormed off without another word. Katie hesitated, started after her brother, then raced behind him as Concepción followed him, cussing Danny out in both Spanish and Nigerian. Derek took out a cigarette and watched him go, shaking his head in dismay before pocketing his lighter.

“Bastard,ehn?” he said as he took a drag. “A real man… he would never do such a thing. I apologize for his behavior,cheri.”

Katie and Concepción approached us once more, clearly having lost Danny to the crowds inside the bar.

“Do you know your brother just decided to break up with Magdaonher birthday? With a fuckinggreetingcard?!” Concepción demanded.“¡Pinche pendejo!”

“He didwhat?” gasped Katie, grabbing my hand. “Mags, fuck, I didn’t know—I swear! He asked if it would be okay to come along, and I thought because you two were on a break that he might try to fix things, I didn’t?—”

I shook off her hand. “Can we just… can we maybe just go?”

Katie and I had gathered my gifts from the bartender’s office, where he’d graciously allowed us to store them while we danced, then walked the four or so blocks back to her apartment, which was above a sign that readKatie’s Café & Bakeryin lovely flowing script. There was a side hall through the double doors that led upstairs to her apartment, but also held the doors to the customer bathroom and her work office to one side, with the kitchen entry on the left.

Concepción and Derek had offered to come with, and I thanked them for being so protective, but told them I would be fine with Katie. The two of them were also incredibly drunk, and it was obvious my vitriolic outburst at Danny’s break-up card had interrupted their activities, and I didn’t need the lingering sensation of lust clouding my brain while I processed yetanotherbreakup. Katie spent the entire walk calling her brother back-to-back, but he eventually turned his phone off, so she resorted to leaving curse-laden voicemails and furious texts that went unanswered.

We got inside, went through the doors, and then climbed the stairs at the end of the hall, where she unlocked her apartment, still muttering under her breath as she threw her shoes down and her bag on the table.

“C’mon—I’ll get some drinks,” she said, wandering toward the kitchen. “I feel like we could use one after… well.”

“Just herbal tea, please.” I stood in the entryway a long moment before I closed the door, kicked off my own shoes, and listened to the bustle of her moving, just out of sight, in the kitchen.

“I’ve got tea, but no whiskey,” she called, “so I can’t make hot toddies.”

“I don’t need whiskey. Just plain tea would be great. You still have that lemon ginger?—”

“Oh! How about… Irish coffee?” Katie interrupted, popping her head around the kitchen door. “I’ve only got the stuff to make that or…” She peered into the room behind her. “Vodka?”

I bristled. My head was swimming for more reasons than I could even count, and a headache had been steadily building since the bar. I didn’t want more alcohol, but it was clear she wasn’t listening.

I shrugged and said, “Can you at least go light on the Bailey’s?”

“You know better than anyone that the people in my family donotgo light on the Bailey’s.” She disappeared back into the kitchen.

I put my purse on the table beside hers, then took my hair down from its bun. I felt… hollow. Dirty.

“I’m gonna take a shower,” I called.

“’Kay, I’ll have the drinks ready in a few minutes.”

Katie’s apartment was a small, cozy affair littered with plants that if one didn’t looktooclosely, might not notice were actually, for the most part, fake. I’d always loved being in this apartment since she’d moved here about five years ago. Her family had helped her buy the whole building so she could run the coffee shop and café downstairs.

The first time Danny had kissed me had been here—right on the couch I now found myself staring at. It had been his twenty-fourth birthday. We’d planned on having a party at their lake house, and a bunch of his friends had been invited, but an out of season rainstorm caused a small mudslide on the highway up to the lake, so he’d rescheduled. I’d only recently turned twenty-one, and I’d been so excited to get ID’ed that I’d volunteered to buy the booze, but not knowing what to buy, or how much, Imayhave gone a little overboard.

In honor of his birthday being washed out, Katie instead made the three of us mudslides to drink, and we put on ourbathing suits and sat on her balcony in beach chairs. For the latter part of summer, going to the lake would have been pleasant weather… but the surprise storm brought with it a surprise cold front, and Katie and I didn’t last outside long in bikinis with rain, sleet, wind gusts, and hail. So, we’d gone inside, put onBlue Hawaii, and switched to Mai Thais. Katie said she had to run downstairs to check something in the café, given the hail, and that left only Danny and I upstairs, side by side, tipsy and giggling as we did our best Elvis impersonations.

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