Page 22 of Gambler's Fallacy

He opens his mouth, but I give him a warning look. His expression is sullen, but he doesn’t comment.

I rub my eyes. “She has a lot going on right now,” I tell Seven once we’re inside the elevator.

“So do you,” he tells me.

I ruffle his hair. “I’m not.” But she is. The latest request for moneyisgetting to me, and her refusal to try something different is rubbing me the wrong way. I pause, then I carefully tell Seven, “We need to get you an ID.”

He looks apprehensively at me. “I don’t have any of the stuff you need for one of those.”

“I know,” I say. “But we can get you one anyway. We need your—” I see the way his eyes widen, the way fear starts to curl around him, and I amend, “a name. Any name you want. And you can choose your own birthday, too. We can make a whole event out of it. What do you think?”

“You’re just worried someone will think I’m jailbait for real,” he mumbles, but he doesn’t sound angry.

“No,” I tell him, leading him out of the elevator when it reaches the top floor. Well, maybe it’s partially that, but it would be easier on him all around. “Sometimes, someone is going to want to make sure you’re actually twenty-one.” I have to give it to Seven; he doesn’t bat an eye or even twitch. He might be lying about his age, but he’sgoodat that lie, at least.

I wonder what other things he’s good at lying about.

“Besides, wouldn’t it be nice to have another name someone can call you?” I say, shaking off my thoughts.

He shrugs, and I can see that I’ve lost him for the moment. Fuck.

I sigh. “Well, let’s talk to Caleb about it anyway. All right? I’m sure it’s on his to-do list already.”

“I’ll think about it,” Seven says vaguely.

In other words, it’s probably never going to happen. I resist the urge to sigh again — I’ve been doing a lot of sighing this evening between my sister and Seven — and open the door to Caleb’s penthouse.

I’m surprised to see Caleb sitting on the couch, eating ramen out of an instant cup and watching an anime. He also has a laptop open on the coffee table, and he keeps stopping to type something.The two cats are curled up at his side, with Nacho half on Caleb and half on Miss K.

It’s weird to think that Miss K had been hissing at Nacho and chasing him off not that long ago.

I don’t know much about cats, but they seem to be settling pretty well.

Seven passes me and goes to the couch to sit on the other side of Nacho, cooing over the orange tabby. I don’t know how something so small can have a purr so loud, but it makes me grin despite the stress of the evening.

“Hey,” I tell Caleb. “Found Seven wandering around.”

Seven rolls his eyes at me. “You didn’t find me. I came to find you. And it’s a good thing I did!”

“I was having dinner with my sister. I didn’t need rescuing,” I tell him.

Caleb makes a derisive sound. “Which MLM has its claws in her this time?”

Before I can answer, Seven asks, “What’s an MLM?”

“It’s… a kind of business,” I hedge. I know they’re scams 99% of the time, but I don’t really want to tell Seven that my sister is doingthat.

“A multi-level marketing scheme, where you find some schmuck to sell terrible products to, and they have to sell it to the next schmuck and convincethatperson they want to peddle this trash, who then has to find a new schmuck, and on and on.” Caleb looks at Seven. “You’d make more money gambling, because theoretically youcanwin at the games. MLMs exist only to separate a fool from his money.”

My cheeks are burning by the time Caleb finishes explaining it to Seven. I know my sister is acting like an idiot, but to hear him tear down people like her who are only trying to make a living… “She’s not a fool,” I snap. “And gambling never works out for anyone.”

But I can’t face this. I can’t think about this.

“I’m going home,” I tell them. “Have a good night. Try to talk toSeven about an ID or whatever.” I turn on my heel, heading for the door.

“You need to cut her off,” Caleb says.

I ignore him and shut the door.

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