Page 66 of Collateral Damage
Cooper
Past - Age 23
The booze is flowing, the music is thumping, the atmosphere is electric, and the women are eager. So can someone please explain to me why the fuck I’m not interested?
“Are you depressed or something?”
Count on Perry to say it like it is.
Um, yes. Exactly that.
Considering Perry has been one of my only friends who has stuck by my side after college, it makes sense he would be able to tell how messed up I am.
“We’re at our favorite club on Nantucket, and you’re moping,” he adds.
I don’t know how long grief is supposed to last, but I’m starting to think it will be with me forever. It’s my new normal. I can’t even remember what it felt like to not be sad.
“Yeah, guess I’m depressed.” I offer a defeated shrug.
He offers a sympathetic tilt of his glass. We’ve talked about my year from hell to death. There’s nothing he or anyone else can do.
“You know what you need?” Perry’s voice is a little slurred, and he talks as if he’s had the most brilliant idea on the planet. “You need a hot woman to suck your cock.”
I slow-blink at him. “Don’t be a dick.”
“Shit. Sorry,” he says sheepishly. “But you know I’m right.”
While I’d normally agree with the guy, I can’t cope in the way I used to.
At least, I don’t think I can.
We’re on Nantucket for the summer after finishing our first year of graduate school, and Perry came to join us for the weekend. He knows how to have a good time and dragged me and Ethan out to this club, declaring we were going tohave fun, damn it.
“Do what your brother is doing.” Perry points to Ethan. “Don’t let him show you up.”
Yeah, Ethan doesn’t seem to have a care in the world. My twin is on the dance floor, surrounded by women, looking like he’s ready to take one of them to the bathroom for a quickie.
Honestly, it makes me a little uncomfortable.
It’s not that he shouldn’t be with a woman, but it’s weird he’s not with Sybil. It throws me off to see him grinding on some random girl like he’s a player and not someone who was engaged recently.
But who am I to judge? It’s the first time he’s shown an ounce of interest since Sybil broke up with him last fall.
The man desperately needs to get laid.
And I need to stay by the bar and nurse this whiskey.
Only good thing that came out of all this pain and suffering? Dad is letting us spend this summer and next on Nantucket. Nowork. No internships. No responsibilities. No adult shit. None of it. Just fun and sun and women and booze.
The whole thing is kind of ridiculous, but who am I to complain?
Dad says he doesn’t want us to burn out, and he feels bad about rushing us to school after the funeral. I haven’t told Ethan this, but I suspect Dad wants us gone this summer because he’s dating. For all we know, he’s got a revolving door of women coming to the apartment at all hours, and he doesn’t want us there.
Manhattan is a big city, but it feels like we’re on top of each other when we’re all there in the same space. It was one thing when Mom was alive, but it’s different with her gone.
Ethan and I can’t wait until we can buy our own apartments. That’s on the top of our list when we secure our Harvard MBAs and our trust funds.
“What about her?” Perry points to a familiar face out on the dance floor. A friend of a friend of a friend type of girl who I consider sexy, but she’s a little too wild for me.
