Page 52 of Paradox
"What gave it away?"
"Solitude doesn't seem to have dulled your cheery disposition."
"I'm on the roof. You're lucky I answered at all."
"You didn't."
"Yet you still persisted."
"What else am I gonna do?"
"Still be sleeping. It's seven-thirty in the morning."
"You know I workout every morning before work."
"You mean you're still showing up?"
"Someone has to make us some money."
I rest my forehead in my palm, and the initial pressure is a relief until the throbbing starts back up. I should have drank more water. "How's Carey going?"
"He's fine. I've got him coming in three days a week."
"I told you he could help out."
"I don't know what the fuck we were paying Shawn to do. Carey does her work in half the time, then spends the rest of it chatting up customers."
"You know why I liked to keep her close."
"Not close enough," Tek mutters.
"Fuck you! She's the one who cheated on me."
"Don't give me that shit. You and her were broken well before you found the pair of them together."
"Don't hold back, Tek. What else d'you have to say?"
"You're a coward, Eden. You've always run away from your problems. It's why you refused to move to San Diego, and it's why you're playing Davy Crockett in the middle of the fucking forest."
"Fuck you."
"I think catching her was a relief."
"I think you don't know shit."
"I know you better than she ever did, and for a hell of a lot longer, too."
"So that gives you the right to—"
"Twenty years gives me the right to say whatever the fuck I want."
"Then why not have the next twenty without me?"
"Cause that's not how real family works."
"Where the fuck is your brother, Tek?"
"What?"
