Page 21 of Married with Mayhem

“That was your mother’s idea,” he says. “Don’t blame me.”

“I didn’t know it was a secret,” Sabrina says, glancing at Nico. “You should have warned me his name was such a sore point.”

“You told her?” I kick my brother under the table. “What else did you feel the need to reveal while I was gone?”

“Huh?” He continues to play his game.

“Relax,” says Sabrina. “It’s not a big deal. Nico just happened to mention it on the phone once.”

My irritation rises by the second. “I wasn’t aware you two were such tight buddies.”

“Sure, we talk all the time. At least once a month. Right, Nico?”

My brother finally looks up from his game. “What?”

“We talk,” Sabrina says. “We’re friends. You tell me things.”

“Sure.” He turns his attention back to the screen.

“You, on the other hand.” She reaches over and pokes me in the chest. “You’ve cruelly rebuffed a number of my sincere friendship efforts.”

“Cruellyrebuffed,” I scoff with an eye roll.

“Rejected. You’ve rejected my friendship. But hold on, I’ll send you a link to a dictionary app so you don’t feel left behind.”

“Sabrina, I don’t need help with my vocabulary. But you need help with your memory. I didn’t reject you. If you’d called, I would have answered. You haven’t called.”

“You’re telling stories, Monte Carlo. I’ve been in touch.”

“Stop calling me that. A handful of times you sent me random cartoon memes and TikTok videos with no comment.”

“They were conversation openers. All ignored by you.”

“How was I supposed to know they wereconversation openers? You should have just called.”

Nico tears his eyes away from the screen again in order to lecture me. “That’s not cool. Why’d you ignore her?”

“I wasn’t ignoring her. I was – know what? Get the hell out of this conversation and go back to killing fucking demons or whatever.”

“Did you skip lunch?” Sabrina makes a face. “You’re even grouchier than usual.”

I did skip lunch. “I’m not grouchy. I’m never grouchy.”

“Here.” She grabs a pizza slice and steers it toward my face. “Eat a few bites and your mood will improve.”

The pizza collides with my mouth. And I really am hungry.

Sabrina breaks into a grin of triumph when I snatch the slice from her and devour it in four bites.

“Better now?” she says while I’m still chewing. She hands over her drink. “Take a sip to wash it down. You could use the sugar.”

The only reason why I cooperate is because I’m thirsty.

“Answer me this,” I say as I set the half empty glass down. “If you and Nico are such great buddies then why wasn’t he the one you called to rescue you from the airport?”

“Alphabetical order. Your name popped up first in my contact list. By the way, I’ll be occupying your couch for a night or two. Nico already gave his approval. Hope that’s okay.”

“Hell no, it’s not okay for you to sleep on the couch. You’ll sleep in my bed.”

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