Page 130 of Begin Again Again

“Yeah, I set up my account when I was thinking about moving over here. Then COVID started and I moved in with my mate Lara instead.”

Beth wondered how much more or less of a shitshow her life would have been if she’d stuck to her original housesitting plan. She and Lara would probably still be friends, but she might not have met Byron. Bit of a mixed bag, really.

“Can you go interstate?” Sal asked. “Like to Sydney or Brisbane and stuff?”

“Why, is that what you want to do?”

“Kind of.” Sal caught sight of the bar. “Holy fuck, is that real?”

“Sure is.”

“I can’t believe this is inside someone’s house.” They wandered closer. “Teichenné Absinthe! I’ve always wanted to try that.”

Beth checked her phone. It was almost three. “I’m allowed to drink anything I want from the bar. Can I make you something?”

“Seriously?”

“Totally. You can have absinthe if you want, but I’ve been dying to do up a cocktail.”

Sal eyed her suspiciously. “Byron wasn’t up for a cocktail?”

Apparently, a good memory and deductive reasoning ran in the family.

“Byron’s trying to lay off alcohol a bit,” Beth told them. “For a month.”

She resisted the urge to add‘It was all his idea and I’mnottrying to change him.’

Sal sat on one of the white leather barstools. “Fair enough, I guess. So what cocktail can you make me?”

“Pretty much anything. I worked in a bar all through uni. Although I mostly just cracked KGB lemons.”

“What’s a KBG lemon?”

“Better you don’t know.” Beth considered Mrs J’s stash. “How about an Old Fashioned?”

“I’ve always wanted to try one of those!”

Beth muddled sugar and angostura bitters and peeled a twist of fresh orange into a highball glass. She added a shot of Peerless rye whiskey and slid the drink across the counter to Sal. “Now I’ll play movie bartender and ask, ‘What’s on your mind, kid?’”

Sal sipped the Old Fashioned. “This is good. Thanks.”

“Anytime.”

Silence fell between them. Beth was sure something was on Sal’s mind and that like their brother, silence was the best way to extract it. She turned to the sink and cut the orange she’d used into quarters so they could eat them. When she turned, the slices on a plate, Sal met her gaze directly. “I need to get away from my parents. Byron told me you were housesitting, and I think it would be perfect for me.”

“That makes sense.” Beth hesitated. “Aren’t you happy staying with him?”

Sal gave her a look. “Do you have any brothers?”

“Two.”

“Are you close?”

“Not at all.”

Sal sighed. “Then maybe you don’t get it. I love Byron, but it’s hard to be near him. Especially when he’s working with Dad. Dad keeps bitching to him about me and putting him in the middle—it’s a lot.”

“I can imagine.”

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