Page 54 of Two for Charging

It was ten thirty, so it must be past noon in Montreal. “Don’t you have class?”

“It’s Saturday.”

“Oh. Right.”

Across the street, a mom corralled two kids who were begging her to go into a toy store. She carried two bags of groceries and had a kid-sized backpack slung over one arm. Her hair fell in her face, and she didn’t have any free hands to reach the kids and stop them from picking up every single item in the display outside the store.

“Why are you calling?” Matty asked around a yawn.

“Gotta check up on my little bro. How’s university?”

“Fine.”

“Fine? That’s it?”

Matty groaned. “Seriously, I’ve been awake for thirty seconds. University’s great, my classes are cool, my dorm room is shitty, and I’m making friends. It’s all good.”

“And girls?”

“Is this about Tabby again? Are you—”

“No, no. Just wondering.” It was only sort of a lie. Chris had texted Tabitha a few times to ask whether she liked Vancouver and make sure she knew he still cared even if Matty had broken up with her. But he’d never pressure Matty about her or even mention it to him.

Matty hesitated, and then he said, “Yeah, I met a cute girl at a party last weekend.”

“Tell me more.”

“Well, Dad would hate her.”

Chris snorted. Her and so many other people. “So she’s not Italian.”

“She’s Métis and super into activism for indigenous people and stuff.”

“She sounds awesome.”

“Yeah.”

“So are you seeing her again?”

“Eh. Probably not.”

Chris frowned. “Not because of Dad, though, right?”

Matty scoffed. “Please. Dad won’t be satisfied no matter who I date.”

“He’s never said anything about any of the girls I dated.”

“You were never super into any of them, though, were you?”

Chris had hit his limit on embarrassing conversations about his lack of dating prowess for the day. Maybe for the year. “If not Dad, then why aren’t you seeing her again?”

Matty didn’t say anything for a while. The mom across the street had finally gotten her kids to move on, but one of them bawled as he walked. His whole face turned red, his mouth stretched wide open, and Chris was scared to roll down the windows and hear how loud it was.

“Wasn’t feeling it, I guess.”

“I know what that’s like.” The words came out before Chris could reconsider saying them, but Matty either decided to be nice about his string of failed relationship attempts for once or hadn’t woken up enough to mock him.

“I guess you do. Anyway, is this really why you called?”