Page 54 of The Fallen Man

“Fuck yeah!”

“I may have said that, yes.”

“Well, who is he? What’s his name? What’s he do?”

“His name’s Jackson, and I think he works some sort of private security.”

“That’s kind of vague,” said Jessica disapprovingly. She began to go through the pens on a bar napkin and discard the non-functional ones into the trash.

“Well, it was a one-night stand. We weren’t exchanging resumes.”

“You’re not going to see him again?” Jessica looked disappointed. “Best sex of your life, and really, you couldn’t saycall me?”

“Well,” said Caitlin, feeling less confident than she had a moment ago, “he didn’t say to call him, and he didn’t even give me his number. So… there you go. Besides, like I keep saying, Idon’t have time to date.”

“Why do you always do this?” demanded Jessica.

“Do what?”

“It’s like you’re scared to make yourself feel good.”

“Uh… I didn’t have to because he did a fantastic job of making me feel good all on his own.”

“And that was great, but you do know you’re allowed to be happy more than one day, night, whatever, in a row, right?”

“No, I don’t think so,” said Caitlin. “Pretty sure one great night is probably my quota for the decade. Why ask for more?”

“Why not demand more?” asked Jessica.

Caitlin sighed. “Because I’m not going to get it, and I can’t take much more defeat. Just let me have this, OK? Just let me be happy about this.”

Jessica’s face softened, and she flung her arms around Caitlin. “I’m sorry, Katie. Of course, you should be happy.”

Jessica went off to help set the tables, and Caitlin began to set up the bar.

“Hey Caitlin,” said Vince coming in.

“Hey, Vince!”

“Hey, uh, did you see the news last night?”

“No? Why? Something horrible happen?” She was only half kidding. The last three years of her life had been nothing but horrible things happening.

“Nothing big. I just saw that the Senate was talking about releasing the Absolex Hearing files. I was going to see if that would help you any.”

Caitlin flinched, then looked around the bar area. Vince and Angela were the only ones at work who knew about her father and Absolex. And she intended to keep it that way. The pitying looks from Vince and Angela were bad enough.

“Well, hopefully, that means they will either finish seizing all of Dad’s property or unfreeze his remaining assets. It would benice to be able to sell that shit or stop paying the taxes on it.”

“You’re paying taxes on it?”

She smiled up at him. “Didn’t I tell you?” It was a stupid question. She never told him anything unless he point-blank asked. Thinking about it every thirty seconds of her waking life was bad enough. “Even though the assets are frozen, they’re saying I inherited his shit, so there’s an estate tax. I owe the IRS like seventy-five thousand.”

“Holy fucking shit. You need to get a lawyer and a tax attorney.”

“I had a tax attorney, but I have a hard time paying him. The last advice he gave me was to wait until the case wrapped up and then dispute the charges. But that doesn’t get all the people that are pissed about their pension funds evaporating off my back.”

“Do people actually come looking for you?” he demanded in disbelief.