Page 121 of Until Tomorrow
Still, we tried. We made plans to talk, which was why I sat outside the bowling alley waiting for the video call to connect. I was kind of tipsy from drinking with Elliot, which made passing the time easy, especially considering the choppy faces she made while her connection lagged something awful.
“Look at you!” she exclaimed when everything settled.
“And look at you!” I said. “You look good for a woman with a leaf in her hair.”
“I do not!” She combed her fingers through her long, dark hair, frowning.
“Correction, two leaves,” I told her when she found a second leaf.
“This is what I get for hiking through the rainforest,” she replied. “It could be worse. You have no idea what the bugs are like that I bring back to camp. So gross, but that’s better than eating them.”
“You’re eating bugs now? In South America?” I asked. I guessed the last part. The rainforest could’ve been anywhere.
“I tried them, yes. Could barely swallow them. Not my thing,” Sasha explained.
“I thought you were in Greece.”
“That was my vacation. I don’t wear a bikini on a work site.”
“No, you just eat bugs,” I teased.
“Shut the fuck up,” she replied with a smile. “Tell me about you! You look happy. No, like you actually look happy. What happened? Oh my God! Did you meet someone? You did, didn’t you? Who is she? Where did you meet her? I want the details!”
“I can’t tell you the details if you don’t fucking shut up,” I cut in. “Breathe, woman.”
“Start from the top. Who is she?” Sasha demanded. My sister leaned toward the camera, giving me the most intense look she could muster, which was pretty intense, even from thousands of miles away.
“What makes you think I met someone?” I countered instead.Yeah, I was being fucking difficult.
“You’re happy!”
“That’s not an answer! I’ve always been happy.”
“Rhett, I love you,” she began,“but you’re an idiot. A lovable idiot, but still. You haven’t been happy in a long time. You adopted the broody artist personality a little too well. Or the grumpy mechanic. Depends on the day. Sometimes, it’s a double whammy, and we get both.”
“Fine!” I cut her off, ready to shut her up. “Yes! I met someone. Are you fucking happy now?”
“Yes!” She clapped her hands together happily. “Who is she?”
“Her name is Eva,” I told her and said nothing else.
“And?”
“And she likes me.”
“Jesus Christ, Rhett! Pulling teeth is easier!” Sasha snapped, but I just laughed. I liked pushing her buttons a little every once in a while. It was fun.
“Her name is Eva. I met her at a country bar when I punched out the guy she was on a date with,” I said.
“Oh, Jesus Christ, you walking red flag.” She sighed. “Why?”
“The guy had it fucking coming,” I shot back. “He was being a dick to her about how she owed him sex because the woman has curves.”
Fucking incredible curves.
“Tell me you broke his goddamn nose.”
“Of course, I did.”Okay, maybe I was a little too proud of that.“And then I got arrested—”
