Page 87 of Goodbye Paradise
Danny thumped him on the chest. “There are assholes everywhere, moron.”
Wasn’t that the truth? And now Danny and Jakobitz were both staring at me. “I don’t say much about my life. Pretty much all of it is freaky.”
“I don’t know, man,” Danny said, shaking his head. “Lotta people I know could say the same thing. The bar is set pretty high around here.”
At that, I smiled for the first time all night.
Our waitress was passing by, and Jakobitz reached out and touched her arm. “Can we get six shots of Jack? Seems like we need it.”
“Sure, hon.” She moved on.
I didn’t know what Jack was, but I bet it was going to be strong. “You know I have zero tolerance, right?”
Jakobitz grinned. “Could be fun, then. You eat dinner?”
I shook my head.
He got up and went to the bar, where I heard him order some fries.
Two hours later, the room was swimming, and I clutched the edge of the table with both hands, just so it didn’t get away from me.
“That is fucked up, my man,” Danny was saying. “If this girl knows you really want your boy, not her, she won’t marry you. A woman don’t work that way.”
The whole story had come pouring out after that first shot of Jack. All of it. Stealing the gun. Getting Josh kicked out. Finding him in the dirt behind the bus station. Washington. Maggie. Daniel. Chloe.
Miriam. Miriam’srape.
“I don’t know what to do for her,” I slurred. “She’s eighteen.”
“You’re twenty-one, right? Just a baby yourself. It’s not your fault what those assholes did to her.”
“Yeah, it is. She needed my protection and I ran away instead, so I could finally get laid.”
“Can’t believe you were a twenty-year-old virgin,” Jakobitz muttered. “That’s the weirdest part of this story.”
Danny ignored him. “You need to go home to your guy and apologize. Plead innocent, by reason of insanity. You gotta stay with the guy, because faking it with the girl sounds like a bad plan. You can still help her, though. Just not with a wedding and a ring.”
They made it sound so easy. “When I think of what those fuckers did to her, I just want to hurt somebody.”
“No kidding. But if you do this, you’re only hurting your guy, yourself, and that girl.”
“Why do people keep saying that?” I asked.
“‘Cause you’re in need of hearing it,” Jakobitz said. “Listen to Danny. He’s smarter than me. Just ask him.”
Danny gave Jako another thump in the chest.
“I need to go home,” I said.
“Yeah, you do. But none of us are driving. It’s taxi time. One for us, because we live close to each other. And one to drive you out to the sticks.”
“Shit.” That would cost a fortune.
“Or you could call home and ask for a ride.” Jakobitz pulled a phone out of his pocket.
I took it.
Half an hour later, I was holding up the exterior wall of the bar with my ass. My hands were slowly turning to ice. But the cool air on my face was helpful. It made me feel a little less drunk, although the war between whiskey and greasy fries in my stomach was not going well.
