Page 57 of Mimosa

“Get away more often then.”

“I’ll try.”

He kissed Mims long and slow, holding his face tenderly. “I do love you. I want to know what happens, if you go or decide not to.”

“I’ll text you. I promise.”

“Don’t ever break a promise to me, and I’ll do the same.”

Mims nodded on his chest as he hugged him again. “I promise.”

When he was gone, Mims arms longed for him, the smell of Sonny’s light cologne were still on his clothes. He sniffed his shirt and dreamily walked up the stairs to his floor and lay onthe bed where Sonny had just been, wishing they could run away from undercover work, fathers on deathbeds, and everything.

The two of them, in some little beach house, watching the sun rise over the ocean, watching the earth wake and the ocean rise.

But the world would catch up to them. The realness of their lives would never let them hide. Besides, he’d miss the others at the pub too much.

His real family.

He called Nadia after he returned to his room, and she answered right away. “Hey, little brother.”

“Hey. How…is he?”

“He’s alive and cranky. Hurting, I think.”

Mims’s eyes slid shut as he said, “Oh.”

“And you? Are you okay?”

Mims shook his head, but he said, “I’m fine. I’m not the one who’s sick, but Nadia, would he even want to see me? I mean, I’ll come, but…but…”

“Honey, I don’t know. I haven’t asked, but you know Mom wouldn’t throw you out, and if he isn’t nice, well, he’s never nice. I figured you were used to that about him. Like I said, though, it’s not for him. It’s for you.”

“I’m coming, but my friends are coming with me, for moral support or whatever and if he’s mean to them, I’ll blow my top.”

“Good. Maybe that’s what the old man needs, eh?”

He was shocked. “Nadia…”

“Hey, I’ve been going there for years, only to get him grumbling about my kids, how they’re not as respectful as they should be, their hair is too long, the girls don’t help with dinner. He’s so stuck in old ways, it’s just boring, but what he did to you, well…”

He smiled and said, “I love you, sis.”

“I love you too. Bring them all. Do you have a guy? You do, right?”

“I do.”

“Bring him too. In fact, make out in front of him. Would do him a world of good.”

Mims had an inkling. “Hey, uh…what did he do? He said he didn’t want to see me, right?”

“What do you mean?” she asked a little too innocently.

“Come on, Nadia. You don’t get this mad at him except when it comes to me. You told him to make up with me before he dies, right? And he said something you’d never repeat.”

“Stop thinking you’re so smart, Ali. And get to see that old fuck. Come naked and do gay sex in front of him.”

He laughed and said, “I won’t go that far, even for you. Gee, that’s…weird to even say that.”

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