Page 35 of Last Letters to Ara
Once my apartment is filled with smells of Mexican heaven, he plops down on the couch next to me, setting the plate on a pillow between us. I cross my legs underneath me so I can sit facing him and he does the same. Neither of us wait to dig in.
“The good news is you can still be my friend,” I say, feeling like I need to be the one to break the ice after my display of emotion.
“Bestfriend,” he corrects. “And as a fellow nacho lover, I have to say I would completely understand. It would be nothing short of a deal breaker if you didn’t like nachos.”
“I’m glad we’re on the same page.” As usual, it’s not awkward with Theo. Ever. It has me feeling brave again. “So, Theo, what’s your story?”
“I want yours,” he says simply.
“You knowwaymore about me than I know about you. You’ve seen my design room. You know where I work and that I’m quitting. You know where I live.” I pause. “You know that my dad died. My favorite breakfast place. My favorite spot at the airport. AllIknow is that you’re a writer of some kind, that you drive an old BMW, and that you have a douchebag of a father.”
He laughs. “I really do sound like a stalker.”
“Yeah, you do.” I smile. “So it’s only fair.”
“Fine. Which version do you want? The not-so-depressing abridged version, or the crush-your-soul overshare version?”
“Crush my soul. Definitely.”
“Then I’m going to need alcohol and permission to stay on this couch tonight.”
“I think that all I’ve got is vodka,” I say in a silly attempt to not bring alcohol into this equation. Theo has me losing my mind even when I’m sober.
“It’ll do.” Totally unbothered.
Great.
Theo makes his way back to my kitchen, reaching for the only cabinet containing alcohol like he’s done it a thousand times, and grabs the vodka leftover from God knows when and two shot glasses with cheesy souvenir writing.
“Here are the rules,” he says, setting the glasses on my coffee table, filling them up in turn. “When it gets too depressing, we both take a shot.”
This is such a bad idea. “Okay.”
“And questions about the airport and the diner are off limits.”
I hesitate. What could he be so secretive about that he’s worried about me broaching the subject when he’s got alcohol in his system? However curious I may be, this is a chance to learn more about him, and I don’t want to miss out completely. “Deal.”
The answers to my questions about how he found me at the airport and then the diner will have to come another day.
“I’m originally from Maine, but moved down here when I was about fifteen, after my father found out how much money was in getting trust fund babies out of DUIs in Florida. I don’t want to know what other kind of people he’s ended up defending to make the money he’s made, but that’s how he started.” He takes a deep breath. “My mother died giving birth to me, on Christmas, and he’s always hated me for it.”
“Take a shot.” Because that’s fucking terrible.
“Taking shots already?” he says a bit darkly. “We’re in for a long night.”
We both knock one back before he continues.
“Childhood wasn’t too terrible beyond the general shittiness of being an attorney’s son, but especially an attorney who lost the only person he cared about. My father was demanding, overbearing, and a dick on a good day, but it was tolerable until we moved down here.
“Everyone in Maine knew him and my mother. It’s a small town, so he could never go too off the rails without someone sticking their nose into his business. After we got here, the defense cases started pouring in, along with the money, and eventually so did the alcohol.” He pauses. “I need another shot for this next part.”
We both take one.
“Things got pretty bad after that. One night he came home extremely drunk. I woke up to him choking me, saying that I murdered my mother and deserved to die.”My stomach churns and it’s not because of the alcohol.
“After that, it was a pretty dark time in my life, I won’t lie to you. For a while, I wasn’t sure what I was sticking around for.” Theo takes another shot and I follow suit. “One night, I was sitting out by the water for...what I intended to be the last time.”
No. It can’t possibly be. Someone thisgood,thisbright,failed by the world and left to consider such a thing.
