Page 25 of All In
Theo nodded. “I still talk about him in present tense.”
Those simple words did more to lift my spirits than anything else; almost more than Theo holding me together over the last few days. I wanted to confess everything to him: why I left Vegas, why I was drinking myself to oblivion, but he was tearing into the food.
“Fuck, I’m hungry,” he said, digging around the bags.
“I’m sure you are,” I said. “I don’t have much to eat around here. I was on a liquid diet.” I glanced up at him. “You had your work cut out for you.”
Theo shrugged. “What friends do,” he said, digging into a huge portion of biscuits and gravy.
“Yeah, they fly halfway across the country to wrestle a screaming, puking banshee for three—”
“Eat,”he said, jerking his chin at my oatmeal.
I laughed a little—a rusty sound. “If you insist.”
I picked at my oatmeal. My body felt like it had been turned inside out, then put back right-side in, but with everything in the wrong place. I put the smallest amount of oatmeal on my tongue. It tasted like warm paste with cinnamon. I forced myself to eat half a dozen bites, then set it down to watch Theo devour the feast in front of him. I rested my cheek in my hand, half-concealing my smile as he put away the biscuits and started in on a side of hash browns.
Theo must’ve felt my eyes on him. “What?”
“It’s good to see you again,” I said. “I’m sorry the circumstances are—”
He pointed the fork at me. “Stop. Apologizing.”
“It feels like I have a lot to apologize for.” I plucked at my paper napkin. “How’s Beverly?”
“She’s okay. As good as can be expected.”
“Is she upset with me?”
“She was worried about you. We all were.”
“I should’ve called her. I should’ve said something but…” I started to offer an excuse but swallowed it down, like bitter bile. “I oweheran apology, to say the least.”
“I called her yesterday. Told her you were under the weather but getting better.”
“Thank you.”
He shrugged, wiped his mouth on a napkin, and took a sip of coffee.
“What about your dad?” I asked, toying with my oatmeal.
“He’s thrown himself into his work. He was semi-retired, but he’s been spending more time at the city hall trying to make himself useful. Fill the hours, I guess.”
“And how do you do it?”
“Do what?”
“Fill the hours.”
“Work, mostly. The shop’s been really busy lately.”
I dropped my spoon. “But now you’re here with me.”
Theo tossed down his napkin and looked at me with hard eyes. “Yeah, I am. And I’d do it again in a heartbeat so stop stressing over it.” He smiled a little to soften his words. “You needed help, so I helped. Not a big deal.”
It was a huge fucking deal, but I let it drop. “Jesus, I don’t even know what day of the week it is.Imight be missing work too.”
“It’s Wednesday,” Theo said. “And I think you need to take some time off.”
