The door to the bar swung open with a flash of dark hair and bright, red fabric. Raven's fitted dress matched her lips, and there was no way that was by accident. "Jesus, Ry, give it a rest." She bumped the door closed with her hip and squeezed past him with a crate in her hands. "All I've heard for the last few minutes is you bitching in here."
"When did you get back? And I don't bitch."
"Twenty minutes ago. I finally escaped the clutches of Lucifer and the ridiculous waste of time that was that trip." She dumped the crate on the side.
"Did you bring lunch?" I turned to face her.
With a sigh, she rested her forearm on the side of the crate and looked up at me through long, dark lashes. "Why would I have brought lunch? Do I look like your personal assistant?"
"Because it's lunchtime," Ryan answered. "And we're hungry."
"What are you even doing here? You know I'm paying him to have his time wasted by you, right?" Raven pointed one finger in my direction, but her attention was focused completely on her brother. "Don't you have a job to do?"
"Day off."
"Wanna get this side of the kitchen and be useful?"
"Are you gonna pay me?"
"I promise not to pull out baby pictures next time you take a girl home to the parents. I won't even get out the home video of you playing with your penis like a helicopter."
I choked on thin air. I'd seen that video, and it wasn't pretty. It was Raven's go-to revenge tool whenever he pissed her off. One week or one year into a relationship, every single one of his girlfriends had seen the video of him sitting on the coffee table and spinning his penis like a helicopter propeller.
Ryan shrugged. "If you ain't paying, I ain't working."
"Great." A smile spread across her face, and I didn't know if it was genuine or vengeful. "Then get out, let him work, and I solemnly swear to save the propeller video for your wedding."
"That's fine...I'll save the video of you sobbing over the N-SYNC break up for yours."
"Go ahead. I don't care. That was a traumatizing day."
"I have a headache." I rubbed my hand across my forehead and headed for the fridge for a new bottle of water. "Is there any kind of painkiller that will make you two be quiet?"
"Yeah. It's called chloroform, but it goes over Raven's mouth," Ryan answered.
The plastic salt mill she launched at his head missed by millimeters, but only because he moved.
"I'll call you later!" he shouted over his shoulder, running for the door.
"Asshole!" Raven's voice was louder than his, unsurprisingly, and the rattle as she slammed her fist into the shelf beneath the heater lamps made me cringe.
Several seconds of silence passed before I said, "I guess your morning went well."
She spun her face toward mine. "Well? No, it did not go well. Not only was my drive out there completely pointless because everyone forgot about the buffet, as you well know, I was subjected to my aunt's displeasure about the lack of mimosas, my grandmother's insistence "the boy want" me, my teenaged cousins threatening to spit on each other's graves, and my mother's question time with the fucking president based on how many things she wanted me to answer. Oh, and at least three-quarters of this bullshit happened in Greek, so it took me way too long to unravel the quick-fired complains before someone else had started. Then, I get back here and save your ass from the same awkwardness I dealt with this morning, so you're welcome!"
Well, shit.
"And yes, I did bring lunch, but I couldn't tell my brother that!" She pulled a sandwich out from the paper bag inside the crate and dumped it on the side next to the plastic box.
I didn't quite know how to deal with this situation. She wasn't even angry, she just looked...stressed. Like she'd already had enough and it was barely even midday. The bar wouldn't open for another four hours, but she'd lost two and a half this morning where she had to go to Key West. Whatever clusterfuck she'd been involved in at home-I'd barely understood what she was saying-had obviously taken its toll on her.
Raven pulled things out of the crate and slammed them down onto the side. They were all various sauces and seasonings that I'd put on my list, and they'd obviously been delivered separately to yesterday's order.
"These are yours," she said, putting one last bottle down with a little too much vigor. All the others bounced with the force of that one hitting the metal top.
With Ryan gone, I knew we were alone. I walked up behind her, stopped, and wrapped my arms around her shoulders. She stilled for a fleeting second before she slumped, relaxing back into me, and brought her hands up to my wrists.