I see a shadow of a smile tip her mouth before she sticks her tongue out at me and returns to her breakfast. She sips her shake and glares, pasting a patently fake smile to her lips.
“Mmm, delicious.”
“Oh good, then you won’t mind drinking it at lunch or dinner,” I say cheerily, laughing all the way to the bathroom as she curses me to hell and back.
I step under the spray and let the soothing heat of the water relax my tense muscles before soaping myself quickly and rinsing off. I trust Bee about as much as a serial killer at a birthday party, so I hurry through my routine and dress, making it back to the kitchen in just over ten minutes.
“Calm down, Mother, I ate it all and even finished that slime shake,” she mutters, flipping me the bird to show her annoyance at my lack of trust. “So, what are you up to today?”
I pour myself an orange juice—another friendship sacrifice I’m making besides the liver—and lean back against the counter.
“I have to swing by Vern’s and collect my checks for the paintings he sold, and then I thought I’d take you shopping for clothes that actually fit your thin ass.”
Tough love, baby. Tough love.
“You also have your first appointment with your shrink at three, so I guess we have a pretty full schedule for today. You’re gonna be so happy I made you eat that breakfast, bitch. You’re gonna need your strength to keep up with me.”
“Oh really?” she snorts. “You forget I’m a full year younger than you, Grandma. I can run circles around you no problem.”
I hide my smile and refrain from telling her that this excursion is on doctor’s orders. Bee has to start getting out and not hide in the apartment all day when she’s not working—another thing I need to ease her into, because she’s officially fired after I’d called Angie yesterday and told her Bee needed some time off.
Thank God I’m getting some money in from Vern and Vincent, or we’d be in deep crap.
“A hundred bucks says you’re crying for mercy by noon,” I taunt, sipping arrogantly at my juice.
Goddamn, I don’t know how people function without a cup of coffee in the morning.
“You’re on old lady.”
***
“You need to slow down, Sis, I can’t…”
I stop in the middle of the crowded sidewalk and wait for Bee to catch up, her breaths wheezing as she grabs onto me and stands panting for breath.
I’d set a grueling pace the last hour, and though I feel a little guilty about pushing her so hard, I hold my hand out and point my finger at my palm.
“Pay up, sucker.”
“You are such a bitch. Have you been powerwalking in your sleep? Where the hell did you learn to walk that fast?”
“Stop dodging the issue. You lost, now pay me my money.”
Her face falls slightly before her eyes narrow and pin me, making me feel as transparent as the windows in my studio at Vincent’s. I feel like she knows exactly what I’ve been doing, that I’m pushing her to her breaking point on purpose, and I feel like pond scum.
But it has to be this way. I need her desperate, bleeding a little, so that when she goes to her first appointment with that shrink she won’t be strong enough to bullshit the guy. Bee is a class-A bullshitter, and I know that head-shrinker won’t stand a chance unless I open her wounds a little.
“Sis, you know…I don’t have any money.”
“Then you need to offer an alternative. No, wait, I already know what I want,” I say, flagging down a cab.
When we’re in and headed to the shrink’s office, I turn back to her.
“All I want from you is one thing, Bee, one tiny thing. If you can do that for me I’ll consider your debt paid. If not…” I shrug and meet her eyes with a hard stare. “I’ll call Jeff and he can take over from here.”
She stiffens for a second before the fight leaves her and then nods her head once.
“I want you to swear to me that you will never see, speak to, or be in any kind of contact with Eric, ever again. Not a text, note, phone call. Nada.”
I see the tears that spring into her eyes and shimmer there and feel like the worst heel, like I’ve kicked a defenseless puppy. Of course this is hard for her. She loved—still loves—Eric, no matter how much she knows that’s not smart.
But I’ve decided that her shrink can coddle her. I’m going to be the whip that cracks against her ass every time she tries to veer off course.
“That’s worth a lot more than a measly hundred dollars.”
“Okay, then pay me and we can move on.”
“Christ, you’re like a dog with a bone, you know that? Fine, I promise I won’t have anything to do with him again. Satisfied?”