Page 3 of Ruthless Beast

“Do you ever wonder what our lives would be like if Mom and Dad were still alive?” I say after a few moments of silence.

“All the time.”

“Do you think you and I would be this close?”

“I’d like to think so.”

“I miss them, Davy.”

“I miss them too, Ems. They’d be very proud of you, you know.”

“What about you? You’ve done incredibly well for yourself. You’re so young, and look at the life you’ve made for us.”

David is far away. I can see that he has something on his mind.

“What is it?” I ask, resting my hand on his knee.

“Nothing,” he says after a while. “Just thinking about work stuff.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, of course.”

“You’d tell me if something was wrong, wouldn’t you, Davy?”

“Probably not,” he grins.

“Come on. I’m an adult now. You don’t have to protect me from everything anymore. I’m tougher than I look.”

“Don’t I know it! Trust me. It’s nothing serious. I’m just preoccupied. Come on. No more talk of work or studies. It’s tequila and loaded nachos time.”

“You don’t gotta tell me twice, Amigo.”

“It’s a good thing you’re not a language major,” David chuckles.

“Oh, come now. I talk English so very deliciously.”

David is making light of things, but I sense there’s something he’s not telling me. I hope that in the course of the evening I’ll be able to pull out of him whatever it is that’s bothering him.

I don’t know much about David’s work. He doesn’t speak much about his clients, but I understand that. Client confidentiality is key when you’re an accountant, and my brother is nothing if not honorable.

The restaurant is packed, but the owner always makes a space for David and me. It used to be our family’s favorite place to eat, so after the owners learned of our parents' accident, David and I were pretty much guaranteed a permanent table no matter what.

“Hello, you two. So nice to see you.”

“Hi, Pedro. It’s always good to see you,” David smiles.

“It smells heavenly in here as always,” I chime in.

“The usual for my special friends?” Pedro asks.

“Oh, yeah. And keep ‘em coming,” I grin.

It isn't long before I’m in Mexican food heaven.

“I could so die deliriously happy right now,” I grin after licking the habanero sauce off my fingers and washing it all down with a healthy glug of margarita.

“No one wears habanero better than you, little sis,” David laughs.

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