Charlie
Mark is finally settledat home in his own apartment. He’ll have pulmonary therapy for a few months, but he’s going to be all right.
“Stop staring at me,” Mark grumbles as he moves about his kitchen. I’m sitting at the table watching him as he makes himself a sandwich.
“I’m not staring.”
“You sure as hell are. Knock it off.” He brings his plate with a ham sandwich to the table and sits with me.
“Thanks for letting me stay here, Mark,” I say when his mouth is full of bread.
He frowns while he chews and nods. “You can stay as long as you need, Charlie.”
“I know. But Silvia has the extra room and without having a job right now, she could use the help with the rent.” The insurance is helping to keep the staff on payroll, but they’ve all agreed to take a pay cut to be sure the insurance stretches as far as it can. Once we’re back at work, I’m planning to give them bonuses.
“That guy you were dating, where’s he been?” Mark takes another bite.
“He’s gone. It didn’t work out.” An understatement and a lie at the same time.
Mark looks at me. “He do something I need to do something about?”
I laugh. “You’re carrying around an oxygen tank, what do you think you’re going to do?”
“I can still kick his ass,” he deadpans. “An oxygen tank upside the head, now that will leave a mark.” He winks.
“You remind me so much of Dad,” I say, a bit of sadness creeping into my voice.
“You look a hell of a lot like him, too,” Mark comments. “You know,” he says after a long pause. “That deli was his dream. Your mom bought into it because she loved him so damn much, but that place was your dad’s baby.”
“I know,” I nod.
“He wanted something better for you kids than he had growing up.” Mark pushes his plate away. “His father wanted him to become a lawyer. He constantly beat it into him he needed to go to college to get a degree. He needed to be a lawyer just like him.”
I don’t remember much of my grandfather, but I know his relationship with Dad was strained. That was probably why.
“He hated it. Everything about it.” Mark scrunches up his face. “And he’d be heartbroken as hell if he thought his dream became your nightmare.”
“What are you talking about?”
“That deli. You’ve worked yourself to the bone for it, but you always refer to it as though it’s still your dad’s. When you make decisions, you consider what your dad would want. Not what you want.” These are all true statements.
“If you’re keeping the deli and working your ass off like this for his dream, you need to stop. That’s not what he wanted for you. He’d be rolling over in his grave pissed as hell if he thought you were doing that.” His blue eyes peer into me, the same way my father’s did when he was trying to figure out if he’d gotten through to me.
“Every time I walk in there, it reminds me of them. I can still see Mom in the office writing out checks and cursing over the receipts.” I take a slow breath. “There are things I want to do different. I want to make our own bread; I almost had the cash for it.”
“Okay, that’s good. What else?”
“I want to start adding some hot stuff to the menu. Soups, chili, that sort of thing.” I had mentioned it once to my dad and he’d brushed it off. It wasn’t his thing, so I added the idea to the list of other changes I would have made into my notebook.
“Great,” Mark smiles. “You know you don’t have to keep the place. You can sell it. It doesn’t have to be your dream just because it was his.” He says this softly.
“I know,” I nod. “I’ve always loved the place, though. But, yeah, it’s never really felt like mine. And with Oliver…” Another pain hits me. I have no idea where he is or what’s going on with him. I trust Nikolai though, so I know he’s all right, I just wish I knew what was happening.
“Your brother has his own demons to fight off,” Mark frowns. He knows it was Oliver who set the fire, but he doesn’t know what happened right in this kitchen. It’s been two weeks, and still I can feel it like it just happened. My own brother pointing a gun at me.
“I put his portion of the insurance money in a money market account for him. When he’s ready, it’s all his. But he’s out of the business. It’s going to be just mine now.” I watch his face for the look of disappointment I’m sure to find. Kicking Oliver out of the family business isn’t very sisterly.
“I think that’s the right decision. And to be honest, Charlie, one you should have made a while ago. He’s been nothing but a thorn in your side. You’re always chasing after him with a safety net.” He leans forward with a finger pointed at me. “He’s your big brother. He’s supposed to be watching over you. Not the other way around.”