Page 58 of Holiday on the Rocks
Yeah, this was going about as well as I’d anticipated. On a positive note, nobody had hurled knives or Christmas tree ornaments at in my direction so kind of a point for me.
Rachel’s arm shot up. “We don’t live in the same city as his family and there are Levi’s everywhere. I guess you’d prefer I go to his parent’s house and go through all the photo albums to ensure he’s not related to a horrible person?”
Lexi’s face was flushed. “Yes!” She looked at the group. “From now on anytime we meet new people we have to get the whole fucking family tree, do you hear me?” She shook her head. “Evan, we’ve always liked you, but this man this is unacceptable.”
Rachel spoke in a whisper as if nobody else was in the room. “It appears your cousin Levi was formally Allie’s Levi.”
Evan’s mouth dropped open as he looked back at me. The whole blood is thicker than water thing may have flown the coop as his eyes read he might be taking a place in the line of people wanting to murder me. “Wait, Allie was your Allie?”
Lexi’s eyes killed me. “She is not his Allie. Oh hell no.”
Evan was computing the situation in his mind. If anyone knew what me being in the same space as Allie meant, he did.
Lexi looked at Rachel. “How would Evan not know about Levi and Allie? Is he stupid?” She looked at Evan. “Are you fucking stupid, Evan?”
Rachel groaned. “We all agreed long ago to never talk about Levi or the accident. Remember? It was a pact we took to not talk about it or even speak his name, so I didn’t mention any of it to Evan because what are the effing odds of this?”
Lexi spoke through gritted teeth. “Fuck! I don’t think I can do this. Can I handle this?”
Allie flashed a tense smile, reached for the magic eight ball, held out her hand, and Lexi snatched it. She shook it hard with gritted teeth and looked into the window. “Fuck yeah.”
Allie nodded to the room. “See?”
Lexi tossed it on the couch. “I don’t see. I don’t see how all this shit in one house is going to be a thing.”
Allie took her by the arm. “Don’t you have those essential oils for calming down?”
Her head whipped back to me. “Yes, I’ll find essential oils. Rachel, which one calms other people down? Chloroform? It’s chloroform, right?”
Through the door came Royce who was all smiles. He’s two years older than me and started dating Lexi their senior year. He’s also Allie’s brother Will’s good friend which meant he was a full-fledged member of the Levi should burn in hell organization.
He looked up at me and his smiled faded fast. It was nice to see resting dick face was still on point. I couldn’t resist giving him a little wave, and I swore smoke was coming from his ears.
Allie held her hand out. “Everybody take a breath.” She pointed to her Rachel. “You, take a drink. I know you have alcohol somewhere on you.”
With that she yanked a silver flask from her purse and chugged. Clearly liquor was the word of the day.
“All eyes on me.” Allie ordered. “Yes, Levi is here. Nobody knew he was Evan’s cousin. Everything happened years ago, and Levi and I can be civil. The past is the past and we are all going to be grown-ups.”
Rachel huffed “Well, I’m a firm believer in burying the past.”
“I mean it. This is not a big deal. Nothing is like it used to be, this is fine.”
Lexi’s voice was sharp. “But Allie?—”
“No buts, we’re going to live by your golden rule. If we can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”
Her head shook. “That’s never been my rule. I’d not be able to speak for days at a time if I followed that freaking rule.”
Allie nodded. “And that would be okay, too.”
Rachel’s head shook. “I tell ya what, this blows ass.”
Lexi mouthed I wish you were dead to me. It felt good.
It was then a woman I didn’t know strolled through the door looking, well, either drunk or depressed. The gal was in her late twenties and sported Cookie Monster blue sweatpants and a white sweatshirt that either had spaghetti sauce or blood drops down the front of it. Her hair was tucked under a “Shit Happened to Me” baseball cap, and what I believed were mascara streaks ran down her face. I took a few steps to Evan who shook his head at me.
Allie sprinted over and pulled her in for a hug.
