CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Cherry
I stood on the sidewalk in front of Colby’s school and watched the sleek black car pull to the curb. How embarrassing was this? Being picked up by my sponsor, in the very car I fucked him in two nights ago. Because my little brother wanted to be a comedian.
Caleb stepped out of the car, his concerned eyes on me. Heat scorched through me, and I fought it, determined that my face wouldn’t turn red and give me away.
His eyes went to Colby, and he stuck his hand out, as if he weren’t picking him up because he was suspended. I made the introductions and we got in the car, Caleb behind the wheel.
“I guess we better take him to the doctor. I can have my secretary look up a specialist.”
I swiveled my head toward Caleb, who was pulling away from the school calmly. “He’s not sick. Didn’t I tell you?” Sometimes being with Caleb, it was hard to know what was reality and what was fantasy, because my mind was always working on a new fantasy.
“Yeah, you can’t tell at first though. There’s a twelve-hour incubation period.”
“What’s an incubation period?” came from the backseat. Colby’s forehead was creased with a hint of worry.
“Caleb, he just got suspended for trying to trick a teacher into drinking a goldfish,” I spit out, my pitch going higher. “A. Gold. Fish… Swimming. Alive.”
Was that a smile Caleb was holding back? A hot breath was pushed from my lungs.
“I know!” he exclaimed. “But did he come in contact with the goldfish directly? Or even the goldfish water.”
Colby huffed. “Course I touched it. Only wimps are afraid of a little bit of fish water.”
Caleb’s voice raised in volume. “Are you sure? The goldfish or goldfish water touched your skin?”
A, “Yeah,” that sounded more like a duh came from the backseat.
Caleb slammed on his brakes and pulled over to the side of the road.
“Caleb?” I wondered if he’d lost his mind since I saw him on Saturday.
He turned to me, his eyes wild, then focused on Colby. “I can call the doctor I know, but I don’t know if it’s too late.” His head swung back to me and his eyes popped open larger so I could see the white surrounding the blue. “You haven’t heard?”
Then I got it. At least I think I did. He was putting on a show for Colby, but he looked so genuinely horrified that my pulse skipped up a beat. “Heard…?”
“Well, it depends on where the school got the fish, I guess.” Caleb sighed and plunged a hand through his hair.
“What depends on where the school got the fish? What are you talkin’ about? You’re freakin’ me out, man. Fess up.” Colby said the last like he was a gang member homey.
“I’m taking it that neither of you have heard about the outbreak.”
I pursed my lips, studying Caleb’s face. I’d never seen him this animated. I knew he was joking, had to be joking, pulling a prank on the prankster himself. But he was convincing. “Is there some kind of goldfish disease you can get, is that what you’re saying?”
Caleb’s eyes opened to disbelief proportions, and he tilted his head toward the backseat, hissing through his teeth, “I don’t know if we should tell him.”
A laugh propelled its way into the top of my chest, and I had to look away and out the window, hold by breath to keep it in. This was better than any punishment I could have doled out.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Colby was gripping Caleb’s headrest now. “I didn’t know about no disease.”
Caleb just silently reached across me, his arm touching my legs as he opened the glove box and got out a napkin. Then he silently wrapped the napkin around Colby’s hand and lifted it from his headrest with a shudder. “Please don’t touch anything.” His upper lip twitched upwards as he took off into traffic again.
There was silence in the back, and I chanced a quick glance. Colby looked like he’d just swallowed the damn goldfish himself. When his eyes went to his hands, I thought his bottom lip quivered a little. I shrunk down in my seat and concentrated on not laughing.
“I’ll call in the doc, but I’m sure he’s not going to want to take the chance of your brother contaminating his office.”
Colby shouted from the back, his voice cracking with panic, “Contaminating? What’s wrong with me? Am I contaminated?” There was a telltale sniff that told me Colby was succumbing to tears.
Tears squeezed out of my own eyes with the effort it took to hold in laughter. My chest was burning.
“I guess I better tell you.”
“Yeah,” Colby sniff-hiccupped.
“They found out yesterday that some of the goldfish that had been sold in Louisville had a disease that made them grow fingers, like humans. Scientists think that if humans come into contact with either the goldfish or maybe even the water they live in, some may begin to grow orange fish scales or even fins.” Caleb pulled into the gym parking lot.
There was silence in the backseat for a full ten seconds. Then, “Bullshit! You’re full of bullshit.”
“Colby!”
Caleb held Colby’s gaze through the rearview mirror, and looking back, I could tell Colby was pissed that he’d fallen for Caleb’s prank.
“Let’s go in, I’ll show you around the gym.”
Colby slammed out of the car, and I cringed as the expensive car shuddered. “I’m sorry. You don’t have to—”
Caleb grinned and winked, opening his door to get out. “There’s more than one way to skin a goldfish.”
As Caleb took Colby around the gym, introducing him to people and showing him the different sections, a strange melty feeling lodged in my chest, making it hard for me to swallow. No one since Dad had treated Colby this way, it was as if Caleb had known him forever. Colby wasn’t the type of kid to learn from being punished for a wrong. Caleb had hit the nail dead center when he pranked the prankster. Mama would still ground him, but he wouldn’t forget this one for a long time.
Tears welled. I’d been so worried when I’d missed training and broken my phone that my chance would be gone. That I’d be fired. I was pretty much flat broke. I had spent almost all of each check on food, new clothing for the kids, and then all of the bills we were behind on. We were mostly caught up now, but my next stipend was partially reserved for several things. Everyone in the house still needed new shoes, and I desperately wanted to get the truck fixed so Mama could drive to work instead of taking the bus.
I watched Caleb as he took off his suit jacket, rolled up his sleeves and showed my brother how to use the punching bag. I knew Caleb had already sunk so much money into me — a trainer, massage therapist, now a dietician — was it terrible of me to want more? To want not just these things he did for me, but the man himself?
To me, the thousands and thousands of dollars he had spent on me seemed astronomical. But to him? That money wouldn’t even cover a mildly comfortable vacation. He had probably thrown away more money on a single night on the town. I was not even a dent in his wallet.
I couldn’t help but feel that something changed when he invited me to his place. Something subtle, but there nonetheless. Then, I hadn’t been ready for him to drive me to my house and have him stroll into my personal life, but for a moment that night I’d felt closer to him, until I ruined it by bringing up his possibly dead sister. Now though, my world and his collided in a grin like I hadn’t seen on Colby’s face in four years, since Dad died.
Caleb was everything I could ask for in a man. Tall, built, and with a sort of swagger that wasn’t born of cockiness, but rather an assured sort of confidence that was unfairly alluring. And at the same time, he was distant, and could be cold.
I sighed. Why couldn’t any of this be easy?
For once, I didn’t want to be on my own. I wanted to talk to Grace, or even my mom, but my phone was so completely shattered that the screen was just a mass of tiny intricate lines. When had I grown to be so reliant on others for emotional support? I liked to think of myself as a strong, independent person who could fight her way through any situation. I was the one other people came to for help, and yet here I was, letting a charming, good-looking man whisk me and my brother away from our troubles.
Ugh, I needed to get out of here.
So then why were my legs taking me over to the weight bench to begin a workout that would take several hours?