The business numbers are all a fucking blur. I'm sitting in my home office and every time I add a line in my Excel sheet, thoughts of Karen come back to me. It can be a smell, a sound, a picture...fucking anything will set my mind reeling. And then there's Colt. I heard him stumble in during the early hours of the morning.

Colt was completely wasted. I don't know what happened last night, but all I know is that dinner was a bust. My idea of a calm family meeting blew up in my face faster than a match held to a gas tank. I'll admit my part in that. I was fucking drunk before they even showed up, and I was volatile. Seeing the way Colt and Karen were looking at each other, the way they exchanged smiles...it just fucking set me off.

After the fight, and getting kicked out of the restaurant, I went home, had a shower, tried to cool down, and I waited for them both. And that's when I heard Colt. He was so wasted I listened to him wrestle his key into the front door a fucking solid five minutes. He kept missing his mark, or not turning it correctly, and I could hear his entire keychain jostling. But just when I was about to go open the door for him, I hear him pop it open. I heard him bracing himself against the wall, sliding along till he got to his room. I'm surprised he made it, to be honest.

Karen still hasn’t shown up. I tried calling her, just to find out if she was safe. She never picked up. I don't know if I should give her space, or be worried. I never know with women.

Now I can't help thinking about how I’m going to apologize to both of them. This whole situation is fucked up. I can’t even think about the business because I feel like shit.

I shouldn’t even be bothering the kids with this whole mess. It’s my issue. Part of me feels guilty about dragging them into this mess. They both had plans this summer. They should be out enjoying it with friends. Bringing them here has fucked everything up. One minute, they're barely talking, and the next, Colt is salivating over her tits in the backyard pool and I see them arm in arm.

I still can’t believe they’re attracted to each other; it makes matters so much worse. Colt was always so full of himself, checking out any girl who breathed air in the same room as him. He seemed to think that it was a challenge he had to complete in under a minute, trying to get with a girl. Any girl. Every girl. Now he seems to be focused on Karen alone. Why her?

As for Karen, she was so hung up on Zach. He was the guy that she was going to marry and that was the end of it. She was so hell bent on that perfect image she had in her head that she refused to listen to any of us when we tried to tell her that Zach was a dog. And now, of all things, she’s into her stepfather and stepbrother.

“Daniel,” Colt says coldly as he walks into my office.

“I was just finishing some work,” I say as I look up from my computer. For someone who came home fucking wasted just a few hours ago, he looks pretty good after a shower. I suppose that’s the joy of being young. Heavy drinking becomes a bigger kick in the gut the older you get.

I feel as if I’ve aged twenty years lately because I don’t even remember the last time I got drunk to have fun. Most of the time it feels as if I do it to ease the pain. To get rid of my problems, and it never works because the next day the problems are still there with the addition of a hangover.

“Daniel, I don’t want to fight with you. It’s clear that you’ve got the hots for Karen.

And she’s got the hots for you.” Memories of the pair of them at dinner flash through my mind. I may as well not have been in the room. She couldn’t get her mind off Colt. She only had eyes for him and I need to accept that.

“Why do you think that she walked out when we started to tumble?” Colt asks.

I shake my head, “I haven’t got a clue. But listen, none of that matters. I shouldn’t have told you guys about the issue with the business and dragged you into my financial mess. It has nothing to do with you guys. Your mom left you the house. Her mom left joint assets, and just because the State of California tells us that she’s abandoned us and the money is ours doesn’t mean that we have to do anything with it now, you know?” I ask.

“I know," Colt says slowly. I can tell he's mulling this over. He continues, "So you must be pretty desperate." The words roll out of his mouth with the empathy of someone who understands. Colt and I have never been the best of friends, but we could always have a conversation. Even after his mother died, I would take him to the park and play ball with him. In a way, those were simpler times.

I saw him as the son that I never had, and here I am treating him like he’s an enemy. Where did it all go wrong?

“Tell me Daniel, what happened to the business?”

I lean over my desk, closer to him. I'm wracking my brain, trying to think about where to start to explain the predicament that I’ve found myself in. I feel silly, stupid in fact, trying to explain it to him. But I take a deep breath and decide to start from the beginning.

“When I lost your mom I kind of lost my way. I spent so much time on the business and you. Just keeping myself busy. And then you know Gary suggested that I go to the party.”

He nods, “I know the drill. You met Clara and you fell in love. Funny, I don’t even remember the last time I saw Gary after that...and you guys were close.”

“I kind of lost all my friends the moment Clara came into my life. I spent all of my time trying to make her happy and it was all in vain.”

I had to tell him the truth. The real reason that things went pear-shaped after I married Clara. “I told you certain things to gently get you used to the idea that you would have a stepmom in the house. I knew that it was going to be difficult for you. I didn't want you to feel like I was replacing your mother.”

“I was fifteen; you didn’t have to sugarcoat it for me. Mom had been dead five years; I knew that eventually you would move on,” Colt shrugs his shoulders as if it's not big deal, but deep down, I know that transition wasn't that easy for him.

I shake my head and continue, “It wasn’t as simple as that. Clara was interested in investments. At the time I even thought that she loved me. When it was clear that this was just a financial arrangement between us, I invested. I grew the business and she did whatever she felt like.”

Colt shakes his head. He looks stunned. “Wait a minute, take a step back; do you mean that she had other men?”

Telling the truth is a tricky thing. Sometimes it feels like you're swallowing a cactus and you're fucking sitting there, watching it settle in your gut and trying to talk at the same time. Right now is no exception. I feel ashamed to admit it, but I also feel like Colt deserves to hear the truth “She did.”

“So, why marry then? She didn’t need to marry you for anything.”

I laugh, “Thanks Colt.”

He shakes his head. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just meant, if she wanted to be with other men and you knew this then why did you both get married?”

“Whenever you step into McDonald’s do you expect the burger in the picture to be the same as the one that you order? The one that they actually give to you?”

“Fuck no!”

“Well, that’s what marriage is like. There is this billboard—”

“—Like McDonald’s?”

I laugh at the idea that of all the analogies I could've used, I choose the one place that I love to hate. “Yes, like McDonald’s. You start thinking that it’ll be like that. Perfect. And even when you realize that it isn’t, you still stick it out. No matter how many times the burgers are different from the picture, you still go back and you still order from there. There's still something that tastes good about it too, during the act of eating it...and it's only later that you wonder what the fuck you've done.”

“Alright, enough of the McDonald’s comparisons. I get it; I understand where you’re coming from. I suppose that’s the reason that I’m thinking that I’ll never get married. One thing's for sure, Daniel. You’ve shown me that marriage is a fool’s game and I refuse to play it.”

I hate to actually agree with him, but he has a point. “I just never expected it to end so soon.”

“One year!” Colt exclaims.

At this point, both of us are lost in our uneasy thoughts. I’m too busy thinking about what to do next. He seems to be willing to hand everything over because he thinks that Karen wants to be with me.

“Colt, you’ve got a bright future in front of you. And I think Karen wants to be with you. I just don’t want to fight anymore. You’ve got my blessing and I want you guys to be happy. You two are good for each other.”

Colt’s just about to say something when Karen walks in. I didn't even hear her approach.

Immediately she says, “You guys have got this all wrong. I don’t want one of you.”

I see Colt’s eyes go dark. And disappointment clouds my soul.

But Karen continues. “I want both of you.”

We both stand up and look at each other. She looks tired, as if she's spent the night on the street. I’m glad that she’s okay, but then I realize that I’m confused about her statement. It’s clear that I’m not the only one because Colt repeats, “Both of us?”

She drops her jacket on the table and says, “Yes.”

Colt and I sit back down, but Karen doesn’t. She parts her wet lips in a smile and leaves the office just as fast as she entered it only seconds ago.