Page 59 of Minus

“Cricket, unless you’re hiding a dead body, I need you to meet me there as soon as possible, and be ready to fly out tonight.”

“Very funny, but my brother is here, and I haven’t even finished packing.” In truth, I hadn’t yet started. “Besides, I thought we weren’t leaving until tomorrow,”

Hatch’s face turned red, and he stood up. “Christina, hang up the phone.”

“Plans have changed,” Minus said.

“Excuse me?” I replied to my brother.

“I said hang up the phone now, you’re not going anywhere with him,” Hatch said.

“I said plans have changed,” Minus repeated.

“No, not you baby, I was talking to my brother.”

The wordbabyslipped out of my mouth so naturally that it startled me. I was mortified. The moment it left my lips, I felt the heat creep up the back of my neck, and my ears start to burn.

“Baby?” Hatch growled.

“What was that, Cricket? Something about your brother? Sorry, I’m in the back of a van.”

At least Minus hadn’t heard me.

“I’ll meet you at the place, ready to go, as soon as possible. Um, over and out,” I said, and hung up.

Ohmigod, I felt like the biggest idiot in the world.Baby?Over and out? What was wrong with me? Why was I letting Minus rattle me like this? And in front of my brother, no less!

“Christina,” my brother continued, in his best chastising tone.

“I don’t want to hear it. Not a word.” I raised my index finger in the air and headed to my bedroom to begin packing.

“This is what you took an unscheduled leave of absence for? To take an out of town trip with yourbaby?”

“I didn’t mean that. It just came out. Honestly, I don’t know why,” I protested.

“Don’t know why? Don’t know why? Let me clear it up for you. You still have feelings for Minus!”

“I told you I didn’t want to hear it, andyouhave no idea howIfeel,” I said pulling an empty roller bag down from the top shelf of my closet, and throwing it onto the bed.

“You know that’s not true. I just about raised you, and I can—”

“Read me like a pop-up book, yeah, whatever,” I sassed, and frantically began to rummage through drawers, throwing clothes into the bag.

“I was gonna say I can tell when you’re spinning out,” my brother countered. “Christina, stop packing, and look at me, goddammit.”

I turned to face my brother, my arms folded, wearing what I hoped was a badass warrior scowl, but feared I lookedmore like Bubbles from the Powerpuff Girls.

“I’m worried about you,” he said. “You’ve been a mess since Minus got back to town.”

“A mess?” I protested. “How am I a mess?”

“You’re all over the map! The last time we spoke, you’d just decked Minus and now you’re ready to run off with him, pissed at me for chasing him off years ago.”

“I’m notrunning off with him. It’s not like that.”

“Then what is it like, Cricket?” he challenged, leaning against the doorframe. “Tell me, because I’m very confused. I’d honestly love to hear what the hell you’re thinking directly from you, instead of second-hand through my wife.”

“Do youreally? Do you want to know all about my life, and how I’m bored out of my mind at work? How the thought of coming up with the next tagline for some porn star’s latex vagina makes me want to scream? I will forever be grateful for Maisie for hooking me up with this job, but I’m seriously over the sex business and all its so-called glory. I just want a regular life.”

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