Thou Shalt Not(34)

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“It’s Brad,” she sighed, as the waiter approached the table with our dinner. He gave me my plate first, which really irritated me since it seemed like common courtesy to serve the lady first. I planned on adding that to my list of determining factors regarding the size of the tip he would receive. The fact that he had an overall unkempt look to him, and very disturbing and visible nose hair would also factor in.

When Carl the cruddy waiter was gone, Holly continued.

“He was staying with that family I was telling you about. You know, the Mitchells?”

I nodded.

“Well, they have a pretty strict no alcohol policy in the house on account that they have a fifteen-year-old son living there also.”

“Oh boy,” I said, as I could see where this was going.

“Yeah, exactly. So the bastard goes and gets drunk with Kevin at a party, and they decide to come home with a few extra bottles they swiped from the party stash.”

“The Mitchells kicked him out?”

“Goddamn right they did. And I don’t blame them. God, he knows not to do this shit. He saw what it did to our parents.”

“Well, he is a guy,” I offered. “We do stupid shit no matter how many times we see a bad example go flying by our faces.”

She cracked a smile. “That’s true.”

“So, he’s going to stay at your place then?”

“Yeah, I don’t think he has anywhere else to go. And I need to keep an eye on him. I swear he’s a baby sometimes. You have to follow him around everywhere to make sure he doesn’t do something stupid.”

She just shook her head again and started in on her dinner, clearly done talking about Brad. The rest of the meal was enjoyed in relative silence, minus our positive comments about the food, and our negative ones about Creepy Carl.

“I guess you are going to have to go back and stay at your apartment now that he’s there?” I asked as we drove back to my house.

“Yes,” she said, sounded rather dejected. “I was really enjoying staying with you. But, I’m sure you’re glad to get rid of me for a while.”

“Not true,” I said. “I told you that you hadn’t worn out your welcome yet.”

“Brad said he would start asking around tomorrow. So, maybe he won’t be there for long. But, you never know with him.”

When we got back to the house, we went inside and I helped her get her things and take them out to her car. We kissed before she got in the car, and then with her window rolled down once she was in the car. She started the engine, looked up at me, and said, “Don’t miss me too much.” And with that, she was gone.





It was after 9, and I changed and plopped down on the couch to check and see how the Rays were doing. They were playing in Detroit, and would play one more game there the next day before coming home for a while. This, of course, meant the return of dear Marco to the area.

I turned the vibration and sound on my phone back on, and still had yet to receive a reply from April. It was pretty much a foregone conclusion that I wouldn’t be hearing from her for the rest of the evening.

As I watched the Rays continue to get pummeled (10-3 in the seventh inning), my thoughts went to work the next day. I had planned on missing the entire week and had given the substitute plenty of movies to watch with the kids. But, as I had found myself feeling a lot better than I had expected to earlier in the day at the funeral and then at the reception, I informed West that I would be back the next day. I would probably just let the kids finish the movies, but it would still be nice to be there and get back to the grind, especially with Holly no longer there to keep me company.

My text tone went off and my heart froze for a second, thinking it might finally be April. But it was Holly, thanking me for dinner and for dealing with her “shitty drama.”

I was typing a reply as I heard “suspended by the Rays for one game for conduct detrimental to the team. The manager and GM will decide on whether or not to extend the suspension.” I paused mid-text, hoping they would mention the name of the person they were talking about. But they resumed calling the game, so I had to get up and find the remote to rewind it back. Thank God for the technology that let people rewind back to things they missed. I have no idea how anyone survived without this.

I rewound back a minute and hit play.

“He got into a verbal shouting match with the manager, reportedly throwing a bat and bucket of balls across the locker room. So, Batista was suspended by the Rays for one game for conduct detrimental to the team...”

Oh my god. Maniac Marco got suspended for going berserk.