Page 40 of Eye Candy

Here, with this wealthy New York crowd, the first sign was still when glasses started smashing, but the second was when drunk men started bragging about their investment portfolios.

Same shit, different feather boa.

As I watched, Joe knocked a glass and a small plant off the window ledge. With the reflexes of someone who was used to dealing with kids or drunks or both, Jemima lunged for it. She managed to save the glass, but it was too late for the pot plant, which hit the ground and instantly shattered. Horror spread across Jemima’s face, and she fell to her knees, frantically picking shards out of the roots.

Before I could think better of it, I was climbing off the too-tall-for-me stool.

“Joe, you need to cool it with the martinis,” Chase was saying when I joined them at the fire escape. “I’m happy you and Jemima are here. I’m not going to lecture. I don’t care who you date. See, look, Teddy is here.” He gestured at me like I was a suitcase full of cash on a game show. “But you’re hammered, little brother. You need to go and sleep it off.”

“Teddy’s here?” Joe’s bleary eyes found mine, then darted back to Chase. “You said Teddy was a Dollar Store?—”

“Water?” Chase interrupted, shoving a glass at his brother.

Hurt wrapped around my chest. “A what? You said Teddy was a Dollar Store what?”

Chase put a palm up toward me. “It’s not what you think. I was trying to explaineverything. We can talk about it later. Please, Te—” He broke off. “Fuck, I can’t keep calling you that.Floss. Just let me sort this out first, please. Joe, you know where my room is?—”

“Have some water, Joe.” Jemima interrupted, taking the water glass from Chase and forcing it into her boyfriend’s hands. “I’m sorry,” she said to us. “He started at dinner.”

“Obviously.” Joe belched again. “I wazzn’t coming here sober.”

Jem offered me her hand. “Hello, I’m Jemima. You must be the notorious ex.”

“Nice to meet you.”

I’d seen a picture of her on Joe’s social media when I was having a stalk yesterday. Most people looked better online than in real life—I definitely did. But Jemima was one of those enviable people who were somehow even prettier in real life. Her jet-black hair and pale skin shone, making her look like she’d walked out of the pages of a storybook. When she kissed the air over my cheek, my nose tingled with the scent of magnolias.

The good-natured atmosphere of the room had paused, almost suspended in time, as the two brothers—half brothers—faced off. Despite their common genetic line, they couldn’t have been more different. One was dark-haired, wearing a T-shirt and jeans with a physique that looked like he was about to star in a superhero movie. The other was golden, in his habitual knitwear, looking like he never stayed up past ten p.m.

For years this family had been gossip fodder in a way that an outsider like me couldn’t understand until I was in the middle of it. Everything Chase and Joe did was dissected, everything was read into, and there were layers and layers of context and conjecture applied to everything. Their lives were fishbowls. And the people here tonightlikedChase, enough that he would invite them to his home. I couldn’t imagine what their wider circle was like.

It was enough to drive a person to drink. Experiencing this, I felt like I understood Joe a bit better.

Joe muttered something under his breath but knocked back most of the water. Carelessly, he placed the glass on the windowsill and condensation slid down the side.

Chase reached for the glass at the same time I reached for a nearby coaster. Our eyes met.

Awkwardly, I let go of the coaster.

Joe, drunk as a skunk, still noticed this. He let out a delighted hoot. “Look at that! Fixy might have finally found his soulmate. Too bad she’s my ex. Allegedly.” His eyes took on a mean glint. “I know you love recycling Chase, but isn’t this taking it a step too far?”

Gasps ran through the room and Chase went as still as a statue.

I opened my mouth to say something—I didn’t know what, specifically, but it was going to eviscerate the slut-shaming little shit—but I didn’t get the chance.

Because Joe yakked.

Everywhere.

CHASE

Because of our proximity,physically closer than we’d been in years, when my little brother retched twice, like a cat, and evicted a fountain of champagne, martini, and hors d’oeuvres, I caught some of the splash.

“Shit!” I jumped backward.

Jemima froze. “Noooo …”

“Son of a b… Barbie doll.” Floss’s eyes were saucers.

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