Calvin smirked. “You decided that for me a long time ago.” He tried to take a step forward on his own but stumbled so that Sean had to come in for the rescue.
“I think it’s time we get you home,” Sean said. “You should sleep it off.” He looked at me, hopeful. “Can you give him a ride?”
I sighed. “Sure, why not?” I walked over and slipped Calvin’s free arm over my shoulder and let him lean on me, while Sean stepped back. “C’mon buddy. Let’s go.”
“My ride is here,” Kat said. “I’ll, uh, see you two on Monday I guess.”
“Have a good weekend,” I said lamely.
“You too.” She opened the back door of the sleek black car that had pulled up to the curb and slipped inside. “Thanks for taking Cal home.”
Calvin started to yell something at her, saying he could take care of himself and whatnot, but she shut the door before he got the sentiment out and the car drove away. I glanced over at Sean. “I got it from here. You go ahead and close up.”
“Thanks man,” he said. He smiled at me and then motioned with his head in the direction that Kat’s ride went. “She seems cool.”
I shook my head and said nothing. I had no idea how much Sean had seen, whether he’d witnessed the near-kiss, but I didn’t want to find out. Especially not with Calvin standing right there, able to hear everything.
“Have a good night,” I said, and then I took Calvin around to the other side of the building and got him settled in the back seat of my car. He laid down and I tried my best to get him right-side-up again, so that I could buckle him in, but he wouldn’t budge. “Alright, fine, but if we get in an accident and you go flying, I don’t want to hear you whining in the hospital about how I didn’t follow the proper safety precautions.”
“That’s a very dark joke,” Calvin said. “Usually, I’m the one who makes the dark jokes.”
I got in the driver’s seat and took a big swig from the water bottle I had sitting in the cup holder. I only had two full drinks and left my third one half finished on the table, and the blast of cold air from walking out of the bar served to sober me up pretty fast. I knew I’d be fine to drive, but I drank a little more water and sat around for a couple minutes just in case.
“What are we waiting for?” Calvin said from the backseat.
“I want to make sure I’m all good to drive.”
He laughed. “When did you become such a dad?”
“Probably around the time I became a literal dad,” I said. “Besides, you’ve always known me to be the responsible one, or may I remind you that this isn’t the first time you’ve been passed out drunk in the back seat of my car. Also, please don’t throw up in here. If you have to, tell me, and I’ll pull over so you can open the door.”
“I didn’t even drink that much.” He pushed himself up and rested his chin on top of the front seat. “I just missed dinner, so those couple of shots hit me harder than I was expecting.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Cal, is your sister really the only reason you didn’t come out and have a drink with Sean and me?”
He shrugged. “I didn’t want her there tonight.”
“Then why did you invite her?”
“I didn’t!”
“You didn’t?”
He shook his head. “No, why?”
“She uh—” I stopped myself short of telling the whole story. I suddenly felt the urge to protect Kat, not to give up her secret. “Nothing. I don’t know. I just assumed that you invited her I guess.”
“She told you I invited her, didn’t she?”
I winced.
“I knew it,” he said. “Whatever. I shouldn’t have even been surprised to see her there tonight. Kat likes to get what she wants, and shehatesbeing excluded from things. Once she learned about the gig, from whoever, she would’ve done anything to make an appearance.”
I felt bad, since not only was I the one who told her about the gig, but I had pushed her to go even when she said she maybe wouldn’t.
“I had no idea the stuff between you two was so… What’s the word?”
“Don’t look at me,” Cal said. “I don’t know what to call it these days. Though Kat did a pretty good job of summing it up earlier. She said that we aren’t friends anymore, and I think that’s probably accurate. We’re still siblings, we will find ways to be civil when we see each other at holidays and weddings, but we just aren’t friends.”