Moses
Icy cold water pouringdown on my head broke me out of a sound sleep. Shocked and disoriented, my half-awake body rolled off my mattress onto the floor, then a foot connected with my ribs. “Wake up, deadbeat.”
My sister.
“What the fuckity fuck, Yael? Why are you in my apartment, dumping water on my head?”
My movements were slow. It took me a lot longer than it should’ve to sit up. Yael smirked, hands on her hips, making no effort to help her poor, drenched brother.
“Why do you look like you just proved something?” I asked.
“Other than your ass is a pathetic drunkard?”
I cupped my throbbing forehead. “Yeah. Other than that.”
She squatted in front of me, cocking her head. “Look, I can appreciate a good hangover. I’ve been there, man. We all know I have no room to look down on anyone’s proclivities. But you’re taking this drunk, artistic hermit vibe a little too far. You smell, you need a haircut, and I haven’t seen you in days.”
“What makes you think I want to see you?”
She huffed and flicked my nose. “Youalwayswant to see me.”
That was true. Our parents hadn’t been the lovey-dovey kind, but they had done one thing right continuously shoving Yael and I together. We were the living, breathing version of two peas in a pod.
She held her hand out, and when I took it, she helped haul me to my feet. “Go take a shower. I’ll change your disgusting sheets and make you breakfast. We’ll have a chat.”
I had someone who would change my sheets for me, but Yael knew that. She knew everything about me.
Except one thing.
I still hadn’t told her about Michaela. I didn’t even know what to say at this point. It had been three months since Vegas, and based on her Instagram, I knew she was back home. She’d posted a picture of herself lying in grass, with the caption, “The grass is always greener at home.” I’d nearly cracked my phone thinking about who’d taken the picture of her.
I stepped into the shower, and when the water hit me, I realized Yael was right. I smelled. I was a damn mess. This thing with Michaela had thrown me for such a loop, I didn’t know what to do with myself. The band was taking a short break while our drummer, Maeve, and our bassist, Santiago, enjoyed their newly married life. And we deserved it. We’d been touring and making records nonstop for years. A couple months off would do us some good, except I didn’t know what to do with myself.
So I drank. Partied. Stared at Michaela’s Instagram. Imagined what she was doing, who she was with. Wondered if she remembered the things we said to each other at our wedding and before we fell asleep.
Finally clean, I wrapped a towel around my waist and looked at myself in the mirror. I needed a shave and a haircut. I could use a smoke too. Yael wouldn’t judge if I lit up a joint over breakfast. Hell, she’d probably join in. She was a good sister like that.
On the counter, my phone lit up. An incoming call from an unknown number. My gut clenched in the same way it always did when I got calls like that. But Crazy Dancer Chick had been served with a restraining order and had pretty much faded out of my life.
Taking a chance, I answered. “Hello?”
“Hey. Um…hi. This is Michaela. Michaela Ashwood…”
My head started swimming the second I heard her voice. My face looked murky and far away in the mirror. “You think I wouldn’t recognize your voice, Michaela?”
She breathed. “It’s been a while. And we’ve never spoken on the phone.”
This woman wanted to divorce me. Had been actively trying for the last six weeks. I was so fucking angry at her, so betrayed, I couldn’t get my jaw to unclench long enough to speak.
“Well…I’m wondering if it would be possible to get together? There are a few things we should talk about. I don’t know where you are, but I’m at my brother’s place in New York. I could come to you, whatever is easier.”
I swore to all things holy, I went blind for a second. “You’re in the city?”
“Oh.” She let out a breathy laugh. “No, his house is in the suburbs. He rides the train in to work.”
“I’m in New York right now. Manhattan.” I’d relocated to New York full time after splitting my time between here and Baltimore for several years. We were in the same state, breathing the same damn air, and I’d had no idea. “Tomorrow night? I have a thing. We can meet there.”
She paused, and I heard rustling and shifting. “Okay. I can do that, as long as we’ll be able to talk…you know, alone.”