A hint of a smile appeared on her puffy pink lips, but she covered it up, determined to prove to me I would fail in making her laugh.
“Why are we at a table for six? Aren’t we waiting just for my my sister and her boyfriend?”
“Fiancé,” Hannah corrected me. “And no. Someone else is coming.”
“Not my pesky neighbor, right? Because I’m not answering his phone calls either, but I am not as fond of him as I am of Clem.”
The waiter came and I ordered a scotch. I remember how Hannah did the same last week. She wanted to appear tough. There was a glass of wine in front of her now. I presumed that was what she usually drank.
“Why is your neighbor calling you?” Hannah asked and though she tried to cover up the curiosity in her tone, her eyes shone with anticipation of a good story. She reached for her glass. I waited for her to tilt it and take a sip, then I answered.
“I drugged him.” She spat her wine back into her glass in a not at all ladylike fashion. Her eyes were huge. “Relax,” I waved my hand in the air. “I gave him pot brownies. He starts walking around his apartment at seven every morning. With his cane. I need my beauty sleep,” I pointed at my face while I examined hers. I liked the way her expression changed from curious to shocked to enraged.
“You drugged an elderly man?”
“No, he’s blind.”
“Jesus, Tyler!”
I couldn’t keep it together anymore. I laughed at her outrage.
“I’m messing with you, Spencer. I didn’t drug him. He just wants me to do him a favor.”
Hannah let out a loud breath. “You got me.”
“I know.”
She finally let a smile form on her lips. “What kind of a favor does he want from you?”
“Something needs to be put together. I don’t care.”
“Why don’t you do it?”
“Why should I do it?”
“To help a neighbor?”
“How altruistic of you, little Spencer. Let me know how that worked out for you, thirty years from now.”
I hit a nerve there, because she tore her gaze away from my face and looked at her wine as if she was trying to make the glass move with the power of her mind. The waiter brought me my scotch and left us alone again.
“So? Who else is joining us tonight?” I changed the subject. Hannah looked at the empty chair on her other side and answered my question.
“My boyfriend.”
So Spencer had a boyfriend. Why wouldn’t she? She was beautiful. She used to be smart and funny, and if she hadn’t lost her wits, she was actually a good girlfriend material. For someone who wanted a girlfriend.
I made a show of looking at the empty seat she eyed a moment ago.
“Your imaginary boyfriend?” A loud throaty laugh escaped her body. I enjoyed making women laugh. I probably shouldn’t be making Hannah Spencer laugh though.
“Okay, fine. You are funny. Stop it now.”
I faked a bow and that got me another giggle out of her.
“Too bad you can’t tell that to the lovely lady you shooed away last weekend.”
“You’ll survive.”
I was surprised at how easy the conversation with her was going. I assumed she held a grudge against me because of our last encounter five years ago. She was over it, apparently. Not that it was a bad thing. On the contrary. If all the women I had disappointed in my life, acted like Hannah Spencer did, my life would be a lot easier. But then again, she had years to recover from what I did. Most of the women came looking for retribution immediately after I pissed them off.
“They should have been here already,” she said looking around. “Do you think they got lost?”
“That would be hilarious.” Hannah shot me a look. “What? They are in their mid-twenties. And we have things like Uber, and I can name at least five map apps right now.”
She opened her mouth to answer me, but I saw Clementine in my periphery, with Lucas right behind her.
I stood up and seconds later my sister’s body slammed into mine with all the force she had. It still amazed me how much she changed. There was no sign of the grumpy teen she was in high school.
“I can’t believe you came,” she looked at me wide-eyed.
“You were the one that flew here, remember?”
“Yeah, but I still thought you wouldn’t come see me.”
I didn’t want to answer that. I didn’t know how to answer that. It was a good thing I didn’t have to. Clem turned around to face Hannah who was just releasing Lucas from a bear hug. Didn’t she wait for them at the airport? What was with all the hugging?
Something passed between the three of them. Hannah looked at Clem from head to toe like she was seeing her for the first time. They shared a quick hug and I saw her whispering something in my sister’s ear.
Something was happening and I started to feel like a piece of shit for ignoring Clem’s messages for so long. Was she sick?
I scanned her up and down just like Hannah did. She was a little pale, but otherwise everything looked normal. I moved my gaze to Lucas. He was beaming.
I was missing something.
“Hey, man,” Lucas offered me a hand and I shook it. “It’s good to see you.”
“Same,” I mumbled. I wasn’t going to squeeze him to death like Hannah did, but he was good for Clem. And the moment my sister slammed her body into mine a minute ago, I realized I missed that little monster more than I admitted to myself.
“I’m sorry we are late, but I wasn’t feeling very well,” Clem said as she sat at the table. My instinct was to tease Hannah about the fact she reduced them to two eight-year-olds who couldn’t find their way into the city. Or should I say five-year-olds? Kids knew how to use technology better than adults. But I focused on Clem instead.
“Are you sick?”
“What?” She giggled nervously. “Of course not.”
The waiter came and tried to leave us the menus, but Clem started a conversation with him about the healthiest choices she could order. I sensed Hannah’s eyes on me and turned to look at her. The moment I did that she opened her menu and pretended to read it.
Fifteen minutes later their small talk was grating on my last nerves. No one tried to approach the big topic we were supposed to be discussing.
“Sorry to interrupt,” I cut Lucas off even though the girls were laughing at his story. He talked about his younger brother Troy falling in love with every girl he met. “I thought there was something you wanted to talk about.” I continued and turned to Clem. “Spill it, little monster. What’s going on? Are you pregnant or something?”
It was a joke. I didn’t really think she was pregnant. That was something she could text me, right?
But then Hannah gasped. Clem’s face went blank. Her mouth fell open. Lucas reached and covered her hand with his on the table. He looked like the happiest man alive.
“Are you?” I asked this time for real.
“Thanks for ruining the surprise,” Clem’s eyes watered.
Shit.
“I…It was a joke. You don’t look pregnant.”
“Well, I am,” Clem sniffed. “Ten weeks pregnant.”
What I did next surprised me maybe even more than it surprised the others. I bolted up and pulled my sister up from her chair into a hug.