Page 30

TWENTY-FOUR

lorenzo

When I knock on Cash’s door, it’s his twin sister who answers.

“Lorenzo! How you been?” Maisy hugs me and steps back to let me inside.

“Hanging in there.”

“You look as good as ever. Cash says you’re healing well.”

“Yeah, feeling good. Hoping for the best. I’m finally allowed to be out of the sling part-time.” I pat my shoulder. “I didn’t know you were around this summer.”

“I’m out of here in two days for my internship. Crashing on this guy’s couch since I moved out yesterday.” She nods toward Cash as he comes out of his room.

Cash leans on the doorframe. “Do you know what it’s like to come face-to-face with your sister’s bra during your five a.m. shower?”

“What are you doing up at five a.m. in June?” I ask.

Cash pats his stomach. “I’m thinking about upgrading to a ten-pack for senior year. Maybe twelve.”

Maisy rolls her eyes. “If only the brain was a muscle.” She eyeballs me for a long couple of seconds, and her face lights up. “I just figured it out!” she says to Cash, then turns to me. “What are you doing tomorrow night?”

“Committing to nothing.”

“Okay, I have a friend?—”

“No,” I say.

“It’s not a date! My friend from forever ago might be transferring to Shafer, and I just want to show her a good time so she’ll want to go here. It would be a group thing. No pressure.”

“Sounds like pressure. Convincing someone to transfer colleges? That’s a job for a marketing team and a college brochure.”

“You don’t have to convince her, I just want her to see the best Shafer has to offer.” Behind her, Cash pretends to be offended.

I laugh. “The best?”

“Yeah, the cream of the crop.” She smiles a pretty smile.

“Ooh, you know how to lay it on thick.”

“Yeah, seriously, Mais,” Cash says. “So he’s got a Hollywood face and basically leads the nation in tackles. But the cream of the crop? Shafer’s got better than that.”

Maisy ignores him. “Please? Pretty please?” She presses her palms together in prayer and drops to her knees in front of me.

Cash’s face turns serious. “Don’t do that near my friends.” Thanks to the drunken kiss Maisy and I shared freshman year, Cash doesn’t trust his friends around his sister—despite her deciding sophomore year she wants to date only women.

She gives him a contemptuous look. “Grow up.” Then she turns her smile back on and looks up at me. “Please, Lorenzo? She’s so easygoing, I swear. You don’t have to put on a show for this girl.”

Cash comes over and takes her arm, trying to pull her to her feet. She ignores him completely, keeping her smile in place and her eyes on me and smoothly jerking her arm from her brother’s grip.

“I can’t.” I extend a hand to Maisy to help her up. “And what would she want with me? Your brother’s got a hundred friends dying for a chance at some fresh meat.”

“Yes, but you have actual manners. This girl just needs a night out; she’s not trying to fuck a football player.”

“Wow, you really know how to sell a guy,” Cash says sarcastically. “Let me help.” He turns to me. “Maisy says she’s hot.”

Maisy nods. “And unfortunately for me, she’s also straight.”

“What about the fine upstanding gentleman you call your brother?” I ask.

She draws back like I’ve offended her. “No! My brother’s not even allowed to breathe near my friends anymore. Not after the number of friends he’s cost me.” She shoots an accusing look at Cash.

“Can’t help it if girls have no self-control.”

I take a seat on the couch. “Sorry, Maisy, can’t do it this time.”

“Grandpa Lor strikes again,” Cash says.

Maisy cocks her head. “You have a new girl on the line?”

“I don’t know.” I notice my knee bouncing up and down and I quiet it. “Something like that.”

Cash jumps on me as soon as Maisy leaves.

“When did you find time to meet a new chick between all the shoulder exercises you’ve been doing?”

I hesitate. I wasn’t planning on telling Cash anything yet since Ruby and I haven’t talked about what we are and who needs to know about it.

But hiding it feels sketchy, and anyway I’m dying to run the situation past someone else who can tell me whether I’m nuts for going down this road with my best friend. “She’s not exactly new.”

“Dude.” He looks disappointed. “I didn’t think you were really going back for round two with Alli.”

“I’m not. It’s Ruby.”

I watch Cash’s face move through a series of expressions—shock, elation, disbelief—before he speaks. “Come on.”

“No, I’m serious. We’re giving it a shot.”

Cash laughs like he just won a bet. “I can’t fucking believe this!”

“You’re telling me.”

“All throughout freshman year I swore you guys were hooking up. Sophomore year I swore one day you would hook up. Last year I finally accepted it was never going to happen, and now you pull this shit on me.” He grins. “How did it happen?”

“First of all, keep your mouth shut. We’re not out there as a couple.”

He tugs the front of his shirt. “Hey, you can trust me. Now talk.”

“I don’t even know. I guess it’s been building, but when Ruby found out I was having dinner with Alli, she let it spill she was jealous and then we kissed and—bam—here I am. Not even sure how I got here.”

“Can always count on Ruby to make rash decisions.” He nods eagerly. “So it’s good, right?” He’s way too excited for this to be an innocent question.

“We haven’t had sex.”

“Oh, wow.” He chuckles. “Wow.”

“What?”

“Nothing, it’s just ... taking it slow? For two people who already know everything about each other?”

“So what?” I ask more insistently.

“I mean, this is for real, right? Not just hooking up for the fun of it?”

That’s the thing. Hooking up for the fun of it would never happen with me and Ruby, which means he’s right—this is for real. I think it’s only now hitting me. I let out a long breath. “I don’t know what it is. I mean, no—it’s not just hooking up.”

“Didn’t think it through, did you?”

“Nope,” I admit.

“Regrets already?”

“No,” I say quickly. “No regrets. Just got ahead of myself is all. Ruby’s ...”

“A lot.”

“She needs to be with someone who can handle her ups and downs.”

“You’ve been doing that forever.”

“Yeah, but take care of her; really take care of her. I’ve got my own life I’m worried about.”

“Shit, you really are a grandpa. Take it easy, man, you haven’t even slept together. You don’t have to protect her from the whole world just yet.”

“I just want to have my shit together, that’s all.”

“Pretty sure you’d know if Ruby considered that a prerequisite.”

“And if Ruby put any forethought into anything, that might comfort me. She didn’t have prerequisites for this thing. She just jumped into it.”

“Like you.”

I shrug. “What was I supposed to do? I’ve wanted her for basically as long as I’ve known her.”

“Knew it,” he brags.

“Well, look at her, dude. An infant could guess I’m attracted to her. You’re not Nostradamus.”

“So why now?”

I slump, exhausted by the question. “I don’t know, man, I guess it’s like this: When you’re a kid, you think you’ll never run out of time.

I thought eventually, way down the road, the timing would just be right and Ruby and I would get together.

But look at us: Graduation’s a year away. Anything could happen after that.”

“So it’s got nothing to do with Brad stealing her out from under you?”

My jaw tightens thinking about him. “Maybe. Until he came along, it’d been years since she was really into someone.

And Ruby’s wild. She’d be that girl who marries someone in Vegas she met three hours earlier.

Anyway, I realized, what am I waiting for?

I want her. And how many chances am I going to get?

” When Cash doesn’t respond, I lean forward, annoyed by his silence. “So? Am I an idiot?”

“I mean, yeah. Jumping into a relationship with your best friend without thinking about it is idiotic.” He shrugs. “But I could see you two working out. And idiotic decisions can pay off. Isn’t that how we ended up housemates sophomore year?”

“I guess.” My brain wants to run away with all the possible ways this could go wrong.

“Look, man, enjoy it. You both wanted it; now you have it. Stop overthinking it.”

“Yeah, that works great with girls you don’t plan to be friends with for life.”

“You guys could come back from this. So the romance fizzles? Big deal. You can’t be friends just because you’ve seen her naked a few times?”

“Isn’t that basically your entire approach to life?” Cash has never had a relationship last longer than a month.

“You’re not me, much as you might hate to hear that.” He smirks. “If you want to be with her, be with her. Make it work, brother.”

Cash isn’t half as convincing as he thinks he is. Going back to just being friends a few months from now is an impossibility. Making nice with Ruby’s next boyfriend? Attending her wedding? Fuck all the way off.

But there’s a nugget of wisdom in his bro-philosophy ramblings. We both wanted it and now we have it. Why should I be anything less than happy? Besides, Ruby and I have weathered our share of shitstorms together. We might be able to get through anything.

“So what are you doing tonight?” I ask.

“Taking you out to a bar. Unless you’ve got plans with your girl?”

“She’s on her own tonight, so I’m in.”

“Really? No kicking and screaming? No lectures about how alcohol consumption can lead to reckless behavior, which in turn could threaten the lives of you and everyone you know?”

“Nah. Sounds like I’ve made my views clear.”