But if digging up his past bothered him, for once he wasn’t showing it. Perhaps he felt a need to prove something to me, or himself. That he was over it. That it was in the past. I just hoped he knew what we were getting into.
Still, I repeated, “Mental?”
“Yeah,” he said without missing a beat. “Fucking mad as f**king madness. Jimmy has been breathing down my neck about what our next plans were but I just felt – no, I just knew – that eventually the people at Riverside would cave in and let us. That’s why I didn’t want to book us anywhere else. Fuck, I didn’t look anywhere else.”
Jimmy was his boss. Well, our boss. And he was very good at breathing down Dex’s neck. Luckily, I never had to deal with the jerk, only through Dex.
“Well, gamble paid off then.”
“Paid in spades and worked out perfectly. Next Friday is the Shownet Christmas party and I figured you’d come up to Seattle for that anyway.”
That was presumptuous of Dex, as usual. Granted, I still didn’t have a full-time job, so it wasn’t like I wouldn’t be able to take time off or anything. It’s just assuming I’d go all the way to Seattle for a Christmas party, one that I hadn’t been officially invited to. I still didn’t feel part of this whole company, even though they were the ones playing my meager salary.
“Perry?”
“Yeah, sorry. I was just thinking,” I said, scrunching up my forehead with my hand. “Are you sure I’m invited?”
“To the party? Don’t be a tard, kiddo. Of course you are. I just invited you.”
“Yeah, I know. But I don’t know, I just don’t feel like I belong to your whole work thing. And I haven’t gotten an invitation in the mail or anything.”
“Ah, jeez. Come on. You do belong to the whole work thing, and if there’s any reason that you feel like you don’t, it’s because you haven’t met anyone else but me. And Jimmy that one time. And I swear, the rest of the crew is so much nicer than Jimmy and I put together. We’re the rats of the whole bunch.”
That was probably true. “But…”
“Also, everyone knew I would be the one inviting you. Everyone expects you. Everyone wants to finally meet the famous Perry Palomino, the reason I have a broken nose.”
“Oh, Dex, you didn’t,” I stammered, feeling my heart drop.
“Didn’t tell them you punched me in the nose? I told everyone you punched me in the nose. It’s a good story.”
Oh f**k. My face flushed red with heat. I had already been worried what people at Shownet thought of me and now they thought of me as a partner puncher.
“I bet Jenn wants to kill me,” I whispered.
“Uh. Well, no. She laughed and said I must have deserved it. And I did. And everyone is really, really jealous of you, Jimmy especially. And I wouldn’t be surprised if you ended up getting some special plaque for it.”
I shook my head, despite the fact that he couldn’t see it over the phone.
“So, it doesn’t matter. You’re coming. And it would be better if you could come a few days earlier too. Say, Sunday night.”
“Well, how long is Shownet going to cover the motel costs, cuz I can’t afford anything right now.”
“Motel? No, you’ll be staying with us.”
My breath froze somewhere in my throat. I had to cough to get it out.
“Us?”
“Yeah. Forget about a motel. We have the spare room. You’ll stay with me, Jenn and Fat Rabbit.”
“Who the f**k is Fat Rabbit?”
“Fat Rabbit is our dog.”
This was all too much. I wasn’t sure what to focus on, the fact that I would be staying with Jenn and Dex, or the fact that they had a dog. A dog called Fat Rabbit.
“When in God’s name did you get a dog, Dex?”
I heard him scratch his chin scruff over the phone. “Hmmm, maybe a week ago. I sold my old apartment, got a new one. And the new one allows dogs. And now we have a spare bedroom, perfect for guests like you. You’ll be our first one.”
“I need to lie down,” I managed to say, and did just that. I lay back onto my bed with a pillowy thunk, while Dex explained that his old apartment in the Queen Anne district had been for sale for a while. Someone finally bought it and they snapped up one in Belltown, right beneath the monorail. And all this time, Jenn had wanted a dog but they weren’t allowed pets. Now that they were, Jenn went and bought some sort of white French Bulldog that apparently looked like, well, a fat rabbit.
I didn’t know what was more disturbing. The fact that all this happened and Dex never said a word of it to me or the fact that they got a dog together. Sure, there was no kid on the way, thank God, but a dog was a huge commitment.
And now I had the chance to see it all up close.
Still, I couldn’t turn Dex down. If I did, he’d think something was up. And honestly, as much as the idea of living with Jenn and Dex made me want to vomit (for real, the bile was making its way up) and cry, I couldn’t afford to be in a motel, not after all the money I’d spent in the last few weeks.
I did have to turn down Sunday night though. Because that was my date with Brock.
“I’m sorry…what?” Dex said after I told him.
“I have a date,” I repeated.
He burst out laughing. The anger steamed up inside me.
“What’s so funny, ass**le?”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, kiddo. It’s not funny, it’s just surprising. Who is it with?”
“Brock. My bootcamp trainer.”
He started laughing again. Howling, actually. When he calmed down long enough he sputtered, “The ‘roid monkey?”
“He’s not a ‘roid monkey!” I said defensively, even though I had called him that earlier. Ugh, I definitely talked to Dex too much. “And so what, why can’t I go out with him?”
I was hoping Dex would say something that would make me think he was jealous in some way. But no.
“You can go out with whoever the hell you want to, kiddo. But you’re a hard rock chick of sorts and he’s a jock. And those two types don’t mix.”
“Dex, this isn’t high school. Grow up.”
“Some things don’t change.”
“Oh, were you a f**kface back in high school too?”