by Blair Grey
That meant that I didn’t have to spend time chatting with him if I didn’t want to. There had been a few times when he’d tried to convince me to slow down a little, to take a break, and to hang out with him, back when he had first started here. But I had made it very clear that I wasn’t interested. By now, I was pretty sure he thought I was just some weird, overly hardworking girl. And I was okay with that.
I believed in getting my job done, and that was what I strived to do every day. If they were going to be paying me, I might as well be doing the work, which was what I always said.
I stretched, hearing my shoulders pop, and then started tidying up my side of the store, working faster than normal so that maybe I could be done a couple minutes early. Not that I had any big plans, but Lina and I were going to go out to dinner to get caught up. We tried to do that at least once a week, but it didn’t always happen given our drastically different schedules. It was nice to get to see her tonight.
She came in while I was just finishing mopping up the back room. Donald had barely started on his cleanup duties, and I wondered what the hell he was waiting for. But it wasn’t my problem. Once my jobs were done, checked off, and initialed on the log sheet, it was time for me to get out of there. I clocked out, rolling my eyes when I tuned in to the conversation between Donald and Lina.
“Seriously,” Lina said, but she was laughing. “I am never going to go out with you.”
“One day,” Donald said, putting a hand over his heart as though he was really pining for her. “One day, you’ll see it my way. I know you will.”
Lina continued to giggle. I shook my head. “Cool it, Donald,” I said. Then, I turned to Lina. “You ready to go?”
“Yeah,” Lina said, perking up. “Let’s go. I picked out this great little place. It’s new, but I’ve heard good things.” She chattered away about it as we headed down the street.
I gave Lina a skeptical look when she ordered a veggie burger at the café. “Are you going vegetarian again?” I asked her. It was something that she tried seemingly every other month lately, but it never seemed to stick.
She shrugged, looking away from me. “You know how much I like a good burger,” she said. “But I’m trying to cut back on meat. I’ve gained so much weight since we finished college, ugh. I thought I’d be losing weight once I started cooking for myself. It’s not like I don’t try to be healthy. But it just keeps adding up.”
“Oh quit that,” I said, rolling my eyes. “You were practically a skeleton in college; it’s a good thing that you’ve put on some weight. You’ve got beautiful curves. And the guys still dig you, don’t they? Donald hits on you every time you come into the pharmacy.”
Lina laughed. “Donald hits on everyone,” she pointed out. “I’m not sure I can take that as a compliment.”
“Fair point. But he’s not the only guy that I’ve seen eyeing you up when we’ve been out together.”
“Maybe they’re eyeing you up,” Lina said, picking at her chips.
“Next to you? Fat chance.” I grinned at her. “Come on, you’re beautiful, and you know it. Quit fishing for compliments.”
Lina snorted, but she smiled over at me. “All right, all right,” she said. “But I’m still going to try to cut back on my meat intake. I think it’s supposed to be healthier for the heart and stuff anyway.”
I rolled my eyes. “Half of those studies conflict with one another,” I reminded her. “I think you should just enjoy whatever you enjoy, and if you’re gaining weight, maybe we’ll start going to a few gym classes together. There’s a new place opening on Main, and it’s supposed to work around people’s chaotic schedules.”
Lina smirked at me. “You think we’ll find any hot, career-minded dudes there?” she asked.
“That’s not what I was suggesting,” I said.
Lina was quiet for a moment. “Do you think the two of us will ever find love?” she finally asked.
“That’s not something that we need to worry about,” I said, shaking my head. “You know as well as I do that guys are all dicks anyway. Besides, we’re too young to be worrying about whether or not we’ll ever find love. Can’t we just enjoy ourselves?”
“We’re not going to be young forever,” Lina reminded me. “If we wait too long, maybe all the good guys are going to be taken.”
I snorted. “The good guys?” I asked. “Have you ever met one of the good guys?”
“Well no, or else I’d still be with him,” Lina said, as though that were obvious.
“I don’t think they exist,” I told her. “That’s all just Hollywood propaganda. They want you to think that you could have this magical life with some guy who will actually listen to you. A guy who doesn’t just want his dick sucked or fucked.”
Lina laughed. “You’re too cynical,” she said. “How do you ever have any fun with an attitude like that?”
“Easy,” I told her, taking a bite of a fry. “I just don’t mix things up with guys. I have plenty of fun on my own, doing the things that I like doing. Speaking of which, are you coming to book club this week?”
“No,” Lina said, shaking her head. “I really tried to finish this book, but that dude, ugh. He was just so terrible.”
“Yeah, it seemed pretty realistic to me,” I said, grinning at her. “I think this was my favorite book that we’ve read for the club. Usually, the characters just seem so fake.”
Lina laughed, throwing a chip at me. “You’re the terrible one,” she said. “But maybe we can still grab coffee together once you’re done discussing the virtues of realistic male protagonists.”
3
Landon
We finally pulled into Sarasota on Friday. It had been a pretty nice cruise, with decent weather the whole way, but I had to admit, I was a little worried about Braxton. He’d been having issues nearly the whole trip, heavy nosebleeds and other sinus problems. It wasn’t unusual; he’d dealt with this for years now. Something to do with issues from our foster parents’ secondhand smoke. It was exacerbated by changes in the atmosphere, pressure changes, and I had a feeling that this was just because of that.
But I was still worried. Lose too much blood, and you start to have other problems. He might act like a tough guy, but I had seen how many bloody tissues were in the trashcan in our hotel room.
“You know where the house is?” Braxton asked as we drove into town.
“Yeah, but we have a stop to make first,” I told him. “I called ahead to get you a doctor’s appointment so we can get your nose sorted out.”
Braxton groaned. “Seriously, dude. I’m fine.” But even as he said it, his nose started to bleed again. It was just a trickle this time, but I could see he felt it. “Damn it,” he muttered, shoving a wad of tissues against it.
I shook my head. “We need to see a doctor,” I told him. “No reason for you to suffer. And if you’re going to be effective in solving this problem that Ray’s friend is having, then you’re going to need to be at full strength.”
“Fine,” Braxton muttered, even though I could tell that he still wasn’t pleased about this.
It was another of these things. Always having to look out for my brother. Braxton should have been the one making the doctor’s appointment. He should be able to tell when something was really wrong with him. But instead, he was always insisting he was fine. It was like he thought he was immortal or something.
We got to the doctor’s office not long before they closed, and I could tell that the receptionist wasn’t particularly happy to see us. Probably meant that she had to hang out until we cleared out of there. But it wasn’t like we had dallied on our way there. We had put pedal to the metal the whole way to Sarasota. Braxton was eager for his babes-and-beaches vacation, and I was eager to meet Ray’s friend and start working on the problem.
“So what seems to be the trouble?” the doctor asked when we were ushered back.
Braxton rolled his eyes and pulled a bloody wad of tissues away from his nose. “Isn’t it ob
vious?” he asked. “Or didn’t they teach you what a nosebleed was when you were in med school?”
The doctor frowned at him. “I see that you’re having a nosebleed,” he said. “But that’s the effect, and I don’t know the cause. Were you in a fight?”
“Yes, my brother called ahead to schedule an appointment with you because he just had a feeling that I would be in a fight this afternoon when we arrived in Sarasota,” Braxton said sarcastically. “Amazing foresight, isn’t it?”
The doctor’s lips thinned, and I stepped in. “They’re normal for him,” I said. “One of his previous doctors said it was probably caused by secondhand smoke when we were growing up. I can’t remember what he prescribed, but it was something just to calm his sinuses down.”
The doctor grunted and scrawled something on a piece of paper. “Here’s a prescription,” he said. Then, he made an exaggerated show of looking at his watch. “Unfortunately for you, the local pharmacy is closed now and won’t be open again until Monday.” He smirked at Braxton, and I could see that he was getting enjoyment out of the fact that Braxton was going to have to deal with this over the weekend.
I was tempted to give the man a piece of my mind, and I could tell that Braxton was as well, but I knew that wasn’t going to solve anything. The doctor might be amused that the pharmacy was closed and that Braxton would have to suffer for a couple more days, but it wasn’t like he was the one setting the hours on the pharmacy. There was nothing we could do but wait for the place to reopen.
Besides, the sooner I got us back to the house that Ray had us set up in, the sooner I could start looking up alternatives. There had to be some sort of pharmacy in Sarasota that was open on the weekends, right?
I grabbed Braxton’s arm and led him out of there. Sure enough, the secretary started locking things up as soon as we were out the door.
“Did you see his face?” Braxton grumbled. “Jesus, I just wanted to throw my tissues right at him or something. Hell, he didn’t even do anything. He didn’t do a checkup or anything. Just wrote the goddamned prescription. Some doctor.”
“I mean, it was pretty obvious what was going on. I had your previous medical documents sent ahead, so I’m sure he knew what you needed before you even came in.”
“Then why the fuck did he ask so many stupid questions?” Braxton griped.
“Come on, let’s just get out of here,” I said, putting on my helmet and swinging onto my bike.
It was a quick drive over to the house. “Wow, Ray’s getting fancy,” I said as I slowly swung off the bike. The inside of the house was even nicer than the outside. This was definitely the nicest place that Braxton and I had ever lived in, and I wondered what kind of strings Ray had had to pull to net us a place like this. Not that I was complaining.
Although I was definitely going to have to put up with more than a little partying from Braxton in a place like this. Not until his nose healed up, though. That was probably more fuel for his anger.
Sure enough, it came. “I can’t believe that doctor didn’t give me some kind of medicine,” Braxton whined as he dropped his bag in the middle of the front hall.
“Maybe he would have had more sympathy for you if you hadn’t been so snarky,” I suggested, already pushing doors open and exploring the place.
“Oh, fuck off,” Braxton said. “He’s a doctor. He’s supposed to help me no matter what. Prejudices aside and whatever.”
I laughed. “He wasn’t being prejudiced,” I said, shaking my head.
“Sure he was. He just didn’t like bikers or something. He’s afraid of dudes with tattoos.”
I stared at him in disbelief, wondering if he was being serious. But sure enough, he was. I shook my head again. There was no explaining things like this to Braxton. But I wanted to try. “Maybe if you learned how to talk to people, rather than just being so sarcastic all the time, he would have done more to help you.”
Braxton made a sound of disgust. “I’d rather tough this out for the weekend than kiss ass to some doctor,” he said. “Especially a doctor who clearly didn’t deserve my praise anyway.”
He was never going to get it. No amount of explanation would change that. So finally, I just shook my head and fell silent. Fortunately, we reached the kitchen just then, and there was an easy way to change the conversation. “Ooh, looks like Ray went ahead and had this place fully stocked,” I said, opening the fridge and eyeing the contents. “How do you feel about barbecuing tonight?”
I was a little worn out after the multi-day ride, but I knew that burgers were Braxton’s favorite. It was a peace offering, not that he really needed it. Or deserved it. We had said much worse to each other over the years and had always come back from them. The perks of being twins. We could never hate each other.
It would be nice to kick back on our ample deck with a couple beers (also already stocked up) and just chill for a night.
“I don’t know,” Braxton said, though. “I think we should head into town. Get the lay of the land. See the babes.”
I sighed. I should have known. “You’re bleeding out your nose,” I reminded him. “And we’re here for a mission.”
“So?” Braxton challenged.
“So maybe we should just have a quiet weekend, meet up with Ray’s friend, and see where things go,” I said. “Celebrate with babes afterward.”
Braxton laughed. “Well you’re no fun,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m not dying.”
“I know you’re not,” I said. “But seriously, man. Let’s just, like, chill out for a bit. Aren’t you tired after that ride anyway?” There was a pause.
Braxton continued to try to stare me down. Finally, he looked away. “Yeah, I guess,” he admitted.
“I’m going to go fire up the grill,” I said. “You want to start taking out everything that we’ll need?”
4
Anne
I grinned over at Lina as I drove us to the beach. “I can’t remember the last time we got a beach day in,” I said, shaking my head. “It feels like forever ago.”
“I know,” Lina groaned. “Seems like every time I happen to have a weekend off, either you have something else that you’re doing, or the weather is terrible.”
“Not today, though,” I said cheerfully, putting my hand out the window for a minute as I drove along, feeling the warm sunshine on my skin. It was a perfect day to go to the beach. I was excited.
What was even better was that when we got to our favorite locals-only beach, there was practically no one on it. We had the whole place to ourselves. “Come on, let’s set up our blankets over here,” I suggested, leading the way to a spot that was close enough to the water for swimming but not so close that we were in danger of getting wet while we sunned ourselves.
I immediately stripped down to my bikini and flopped onto my blanket, peering up at Lina. “Seriously?” I asked, looking at her conservative one-piece and cover-up. “How are you going to get any sun dressed like that?”
Lina gave me a look. “I don’t feel comfortable wearing bikinis anymore,” she said.
I rolled my eyes. “Come on; you’re curvy.”
“I’m fat,” Lina corrected. “It’s okay, I admit it. I just don’t feel like showing off that much skin.”
“How are you ever going to find a man?” I teased.
Lina cracked a smile. “Well, I hope that when I do find a man, he won’t just be interested in my skin,” she said.
I lounged back on my elbows, watching the waves and the couple of people on the beach. “This is just what I needed,” I said, feeling relaxation flood through my body.
“Long week at work?” Lina asked sympathetically.
“Yeah, we were pretty busy,” I said. “And I worked with Donald for, like, half of it since Jenny has been on vacation. It’ll be good to have her back.”
“Yeah I bet,” Lina said.
“I feel bad complaining about being busy at work, though,” I said, then laughed. “Because I know that whatever m
y busy days look like, they’re nothing compared to yours. At least all of my customers can articulate what they want.”
Lina laughed as well. “Working with kids definitely has its challenges,” she said. “But I can’t imagine working anywhere other than the daycare."
“I don’t know,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t think I could ever do something like that. Let alone have kids of my own.”
“One day you’ll change your mind, I’m sure,” Lina said, smiling over at me. “Besides, it’s different when they’re your own kids. Especially in this day and age. It’s just so hard to discipline kids when they’re not your own. You don’t always know what the parents would take exception to. Like, one of my colleagues had this parent come in and try to tell her that putting his kid in time-out was isolating, and that if his son grew up to be a serial killer, that would be the reason. Can you believe it?”
“Jeez, I don’t know whether to laugh or to be horrified,” I said. “Again, I could never do it. If I do have kids, and I’m not saying I will, it’ll be a long time from now. I can’t even imagine becoming a parent right now.”
“There’s plenty of good things that come along with working with kids, though,” Lina reminded me like she always did. “Some of them are just downright adorable. And the things that they say sometimes.”
“You always tell me that,” I said, “but I’m still not sure I’m convinced.”
“I guess it’s a conversation that you’re just going to have to have with your future husband.”
“If I ever meet someone who fits that description,” I said, rolling my eyes.
“I started an online dating profile,” Lina said suddenly. “For myself, not for you.”