“You been to the Monarch yet today?” I call out, wondering if he’s seen Vault or Sophie.
“No, I was heading in after this. The Butterfly Ceremony is tonight, and Ry wants us all there early.”
Every bone in my body screams when I stand up and stretch. I need to get back to the gym. Do more stretches. Damn, I hurt. Dragging my sorry ass into the bathroom feels like it takes forever.
My reflection gives me a goddamn jump scare.
Holy shit, I look worn down, red-eyed, and rough.
A spitting image of my father.
The notion makes my stomach drop and spurs me into action. I’m never going to be like him, nor do I even want to look like him. While the shower heats up, I shave and brush my teeth. My first step under the hot spray has me sighing loudly. After a double shampoo and conditioning, I lather my body with soap and scrub, scrub, scrub. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat. My elbow stings like a bitch when I clean it with soap, but it doesn’t look like I need stitches. I’ve had road rash worse than this and survived. Once satisfied I’ve de-funked enough, and run out of hot water, I dry off and wrap a towel around my waist.
D waits in the living room with our coffees while I get dressed.
Aw, he’s stripped my bed for me, too.
“I put your sheets in the wash,” he says, taking a sip of his coffee.
Sitting next to him on the couch, I groan from the ache in my bones. “I’m too young to feel this old.”
“You need to slow down, man. Splitting yourself in so many directions isn’t sustainable.”
I know, but it’s my only option. “It’s just a job and a home life, like everyone else.”
“No. You have a demanding job, a home life, a love life, and a father to take care of.”
I haven’t gone to visit my pops in a couple months. “He’s doing alright on his own for once.”
Dmitri doesn’t say anything more about it and neither do I. After I bought the club from my father and turned it into something amazing with the help of my friends, he’s really pulled away from me. Whether it’s jealousy, frustration, or just plain meanness, doesn’t matter. I’ve decided to not let it get to me. Besides, D’s right, I don’t have time for my old man’s bullshit. If he blows all his money gambling, or on booze and strippers, that’s on him. He’s not my responsibility anymore.
“You want me to make some lunch?”
“I want you to put something on that elbow before it gets infected.”
“I will after I finish this coffee.”
We fall into comfortable silence. My eyelids grow heavy again.
“You do all this for Soph?” he asks, ripping me out of my half sleep. Some of the coffee spills on my gym shorts and white t-shirt.
“Yeah.” I wipe off my clothes, not that it helps. “Vault put it together. We didn’t get a chance to bring her back here, though.”
It feels like a lifetime ago when we came up with our silly woo-the-girl plan. The flowers have beendeprived of water long enough to wilt.
“Ry said she’s had some trouble at her day job.”
Nosy bastard.
“Yeah.” I’m not sure how much to share, and really, I don’t have a good grip on the events that happened at her work. “She was pretty upset.”
“What’s being done about it?”
Of course, he wants to be in on the action. Sadly, we can’t bully her boss into giving Sophie her job back. Our girl’s occupation is way out of our reach.
“She’ll handle it,” I say confidently. There’s no way she’s going to let what happened slide. “She just needs a minute to breathe before she gets back into the fight.”
D falls quiet again. There’s a book on the coffee table that he borrowed last week.