Page 66 of Between Now and Always

“Don’t talk to her like that. Be a better man thanthat, please,” she hisses angrily while she buttons her coat and pulls her hat on.

She looks over my shoulder at Lisa, her eyes are cold. “That was very rude. You should get some help and stop working your pain out on other people. It’sreallyunattractive,” she advises in a terse voice. She stuffs her fingers into her gloves and walks out of my door.

“Wait, don’t go. We need to talk about this,” I grab her hand.

She yanks it away and glares at me. “DNA be damned, Carter. You can’t be my lover if you don’t know how to be my friend.”

I feel the indictment in her words keenly, It’s a rude awakening. My head is no longer up my own ass, but it’s too late.

I can see from the look in her eye that a simple, “I’m sorry” won’t cut it.

“I fucked up, didn’t I?” I ask, unable to meet her eye.

“Royally.” She presses the letter into my still outstretched palm, and then stuff her hands in her pockets as if to make sure I’m not even tempted to try again.

“Call Dean. He can tell you where to go for the test.” She casts a glance over my shoulder at my open apartment door.

“Have fun.” She says with cold grimace and then she’s gone.

Because I’m Happy

CARTER

ONE WEEK LATER

“What are you doing here?” my mother asks from behind the chained door of Joe’s apartment. I lean back, check the number on the door before I peer at her again.

“What areyoudoing here?” I raise my eyebrows.

“I’m helping Joe with a project,” she says cagily.

“Is Beth with you?” I ask, I didn’t know she and Joe were friends.

“It’s 1 o’clock in the afternoon, I think she’s at work. You haven’t said whyyou’rehere. Shouldn’t you be at practice? Your show is in less than six hours,” she says and I forget her weirdness and light up when I remember what brought me down here.

I hold the paper up so she can see through the small crack in the door. “Because, The DNA results came.”

She screams and then the door slams shut, I hear the chain disengage and the door opens wide.

“Oh my God. What does it say?”

She freezes in the middle of trying to loop her belt and gapes at me. I hold up my phone, waving it in her direction.

“Phil and I - 99.9% full siblings. But Liz and I have absolutely no DNA in common.”

My mother’s eyes bug out of her head, and she covers her mouth, muffling her screamed “What?”

I nod, my heart feels like it’s dancing the reel in my chest. I laugh at her dazed expression as she crosses the room and takes the phone out of my hand. Her eyes race across the screen, growing more frantic in their paces as she reads the results.

Her head snaps up, her eyes full joy that’s tentative, as if she’s scared to believe it.

“So…what does that mean?”

“She’s not my sister, mom. She’s not even my third cousin removed.”

She blinks rapidly, her face tightening in confusion, her brown furrows with worry. “If she’s not related to either of you… But she’shisdaughter. She was born to her mother while they were married, right? So, then who’s sons are you and Phil? I can’t believe that shitty little friend of hers could do this. That poor girl, she’s been crying her eyes out over it every day. If could get my hands on that little Dina, I would rip her—Why in the world are yousmiling?” She demands indignantly and crosses her arms over her chest.

I laugh, I didn’t even realize I was smiling. But I’m not surprised. I’m going to get my heart back. And nothing can dampen that joy.

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