When I was able to put my seatbelt on without strangling my dick, I left the Sea Siren and headed over to the Hollywood area, where the realtor was going to show me a possible property for our new club.
Later that night, I was doing my usual ruminating over Kate while I lay in bed. After the dream last night and having talked to Harper, I realized that while Kate and I had fallen in love five years ago, we hadn't spent any time with each other's family, nor did we know of each other's past.
As often happens when you're twenty-one years old, we lived life in the moment, not considering the past. If she and I were going to reconnect for forever this time, we needed to know everything about each other.
That meant I needed to tell her about Sandra and Chelsea, which could be a problem since she didn't want to know.
So many times, I’d nearly blurted it all out because she needed to know. But she was always so quick to stop me. So maybe starting with the topic of Sandra and Chelsea was a bad idea. I needed to start with benign topics and then work my way to the harder one about Sandra and Chelsea.
"No time like the present." I reached over to the bedside table and picked up my phone. Only after I dialed and the phone rang did I realize how late it was and wonder if maybe she was asleep. Or maybe she was still working at the Sea Siren.
"Hello?" The hollowed out sound around her told me she was in her car.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to catch you in your car."
"It's okay. I'm hands-free. Is something wrong?"
It said something about a relationship, or the lack thereof, that she assumed my calling meant something was wrong.
"Nothing's wrong. I just thought I'd call."
She was quiet on the other end for a moment. I could picture her sighing, maybe even rolling her eyes. At the very least, she'd have a wary expression. This was why we needed to get to know each other better.
"I saw a building in Hollywood that might work for our club. I'm just not sure. I have questions about the parking and... I don't know... the location might be too hoity-toity for us."
She let out a laugh. "Too hoity-toity for the Clarke Brothers? Is that area reserved for royalty or something?"
My lips twitched upward, glad that she was joining in the conversation.
"Maybe hoity-toity isn't the right description. We've decided we want to create something with a noir and prohibition vibe. I just don't think it would fit right there."
She asked me about the location, and while she didn't necessarily agree with my opinion, she accepted my thoughts about it. She told me about other areas in and around Hollywood and Beverly Hills that might work.
It reminded me of our morning at breakfast. Clearly, talking about business was safe, but we needed to go deeper.
“I’ll ask the realtor about it.”
"Your brother doesn't need to be here to see the locations with you?" she asked.
"He trusts me. Ever since I took his fourth grade English exam, he's been mostly deferential to me."
"You did what?"
"I took his English exam. I'm not sure if you noticed, but we’re twins. Back then, we looked more alike than we do now. Most people couldn't tell us apart." I slipped my arm under my head and settled in. This was good. Kate and I were talking like regular people.
"You would trade places?"
"Sometimes. Usually, we did it because we thought it was hilarious to confuse people."
"But you took his test?"
"Max has dyslexia, so that made reading and English really hard for him. He worked hard in school, but sometimes, he was stressed. In this case, he was afraid if he failed, he wouldn’t be allowed to go to the fifth grade."
“Poor guy. So you took the test for him."
"Yep." I’d never told anyone that story. I doubted Max had, either. I hoped he didn’t mind my telling Kate.
"If you're twins, how come you don't have dyslexia as well?"