Page 28 of Reckless Chances
“Just remember what we talked about.” Officer Augusta took his seat behind the desk.
“Let’s go.” Charlie grabbed his brother by the back of his shirt and escorted him out of the bright light of the station. “Where’s your rental car?”
“Ish over there...” Jason slurred and pointed down the main street. “The white one.”
Charlie wheeled his bicycle with one hand and held his brother up with the other. Charlie was a good bartender, there was no way he would’ve let anyone get into the state his brother was in. He opened the driver’s door and sure enough, an empty bottle of vodka was stuffed in the oversized cupholder in the console. He left Jason leaning against the hood and popped the trunk and set his bike inside. He pulled his brother to the back door, opened it, and shoved him inside. “If you’re going to puke, tell me so that I can stop.”
A leopard print thong sat rolled up as if someone has pulled it down in a hurry and tossed it into the back seat. He was starting to get a picture of what happened – and while he knew his brother used to be a dog, was surprised that he hadn’t grown out of the behavior.
“You’re thirty years old. What the hell are you doing?” Charlie started the rental sedan and headed out of town. When Jason didn’t answer Charlie looked in the rear-view mirror and saw that his brother was already passed out. Jason prided himself on being a bachelor, a single guy who could have fun whenever and wherever he wanted. To Charlie, he just looked sad. Charlie picked up his phone to text Emma to tell her that he was going to be later than anticipated, but as soon as he opened the text app the battery died.
“Of course,” Charlie muttered and shoved the useless phone into his backpack. He should have been watching a gorgeous woman spreading paint all over her walls. Instead, he was playing chauffeur to someone who should know better.
“Jason, where are you staying?” he shouted.
All he received in response was a snore. He pulled the car over, clicked out of the seatbelt, and flailed his arm into the back seat, slapping at his brother. “Bro. Where should I take you?”
“Bacon and cheese garage,” his brother murmured with his eyes shut.
Charlie nudged him and repeated the question, but this time he didn’t get an incoherent sentence, he just got an obnoxious snore. He was tempted to dump him on the side of the road but didn’t want him to get arrested again or eaten by a bear. He was still his brother.
“You asshole.” Charlie shoved the gearshift into drive and headed to his house. The car bottomed out three times before they reached the open field and Jason had been jostled so he was firmly wedged between the back and front seats. The car lurched forward, and Charlie heard a crunching noise, the engine revving as he stepped on the gas. “Shit.” He almost let his head fall to the steering wheel. He got out of the car and saw the front wheel suspended over a deep rut, the bottom of the car stuck. If his brother weren’t comatose, the two of them could’ve probably pushed and rocked it loose, but on his own, in the middle of the night, Charlie just didn’t feel like dealing with it. He took the keys from the ignition, grabbed his backpack, and heaved his bike from the trunk, leaving his brother in the car to sleep it off.
The spring peepers were calling as he rode his bike through the field. As soon as he got his phone charged, he was going to call Emma and tell her that he wasn’t going to make it to their painting session. He had never been this smitten with a woman, she was everything he had been waiting for – and then some – she was even better. He wondered if she could be the one that let him trust again.
Once home, he reached to unzip his backpack and realized that it hadn’t been closed. He frantically patted the inside of the canvas bag, his fingers searching for his phone. When they didn’t find it, he emptied the contents onto the dirt road. “Dammit,” he shouted, and his voice echoed off the bluffs down the river.
He shoved his notebooks and water bottle and everything else that he’d dumped out back into the bag. What else was going to go wrong tonight? he wondered.
He flopped onto his bed, wishing that he had a photo of Emma, an actual photo. He settled into bed and inhaled the spare pillow, her scent still lingered in the cotton, and a rush of warmth spread through his body. He didn’t need a photograph of Emma. He closed his eyes, and with the vanilla smell in his bed, he could see every freckle on her face, the exact curve of her cheek, and could even hear her laugh. He reached into his boxers. He was hard as a rock and wished for Emma to be in his bed at that moment. He imagined her breasts underneath that cute tank top in the picture she’d sent, paint on her hands, her hair in a messy ponytail, her eyes looking up at him as she wrapped her lips around his cock. He started stroking slowly, just like she had when she had taken him in her mouth in her kitchen. She’s so damn beautiful, he thought to himself as his cock pulsed. He imagined what she’d look like bent over the loft railing, they hadn’t done that yet, and that was all it took. His body tensed and bucked with the imagery and then he fell fast asleep.
***
“WHAT THE HELL KINDof door is this?”
Charlie woke up to the clatter of the plywood door sliding and then falling against the kitchen counter. He rolled over and looked at the clock, seven a.m., he’d only gotten to sleep for about four hours. He rubbed his forehead and swung his feet out of bed. He could hear his brother rummaging around in the fridge. He padded to the railing of the loft and looked down. “Hey,” he shouted.
“Hey,” Jason looked up. “What happened last night?”
Charlie dressed in a t-shirt and some flannel pajama pants and joined his brother downstairs. “You tell me.”
Jason rubbed his temple. “Do you have any ibuprofen? I could use about a billion.”
Charlie filled a glass of water and handed a bottle of Advil to Jason. “What do you remember from last night?”
“Not much,” he grumbled and chugged the water. He popped four pills and finished the glass.
Charlie took it from his hand and refilled it. “Have a seat.”
“Ugh,” Jason groaned and sat down on the condo sized sofa. “Is this where my little brother tells me to smarten up?”
“Kind of,” Charlie said. “Do you remember being at the police station?”
“Vaguely.” Jason reclined and rubbed his stomach. “Why did you leave me in the middle of nowhere? The sun came up and it was like a fucking oven in that car.”
Charlie hadn’t thought about that when he abandoned ship in the middle of the night. “You’re not a dog, you know how to open the doors,” he shrugged. “And I wasn’t carrying you all the way here.”
Jason shifted on the sofa and then pulled a phone out of his pocket. “I thought that you might want this. It was on the road in front of the car.” He tossed the phone at Charlie.
