by Amanda Aksel
“How long are you in town?” I asked Amanda.
“I leave in the morning,” she replied.
“Oh that’s too bad, now that we’ve only just met.”
“Why don’t you have dinner with us tonight?” she said.
“No, I don’t want to intrude.”
“You won’t be. It’ll be fun,” James said. I looked at Amanda who, for some reason, wouldn’t stop smiling.
“Okay, sure. What time?”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Family Ties
I met James and Amanda at Bacco, an Italian restaurant that Amanda was fond of. We shared a nice bottle of wine and Amanda told me all about her life in Albany. She was a patent attorney who lived with her husband Evan and their four-year-old daughter, Addison.
“So, what was James like growing up?” I asked.
“Well, for a long time he was the baby,” she said, as the oldest by four years, “and he followed me and Andrea around all the time. If we were playing hide and seek, he wanted to play hide and seek. If we were playing dolls, he wanted to play with dolls too.” James’ cheeks were freshly flushed.
“Dolls huh?” I turned to James. He cleared his throat robustly.
“I was really little.”
“He was adorable and so polite too. He was a football star in high school, but was friends with everyone. Now look at him, a successful physical therapist living in San Francisco with a beautiful girlfriend,” Amanda said.
I smiled at James who was still blushing.
“But,” she said, looking at James. “You’ll always be my little brother.” She leaned over and gently rubbed his cheek.
My phone buzzed. It was Telly for the second time in ten minutes. I ignored her call again.
“How come Andrea didn’t come visit too?” I asked.
“She’s stationed in Australia,” James said.
“Stationed?”
“She’s an officer in the military. She’s up for orders pretty soon. Hopefully back to the states,” Amanda said.
“Oh, wow,” I said.
James and I had a lot of conversations, but never talked much about family. Maybe that was my fault. I usually avoided the subject of family so I didn’t have to talk about my own.
“I talked to her last week on Skype,” James mentioned to Amanda.
“Oh, yeah, I talked to her earlier in the week too.”
“It’s nice to see you’re all so close,” I said with an adoring smile, but feeling a little jealous that I didn’t have the same fuzzy feelings about my family. I loved them all very much, but close was not a word I would use to describe our relationship.
“Do you have any brothers or sisters, Marin?” Amanda asked.
“An older brother,” I said and took a sip of my wine.
“Does he live close?”
“Yeah, about forty-five minutes.”
“That’s nice. You must see each other all the time.”
“Not too much, holidays mostly. He’s very busy.” I smiled, hoping she would drop the topic, but nope.
“Oh, what does he do?”
“Cancer research.”
“Fascinating. You must be so proud of him,” she leaned in and batted her eyelashes. “Couldn’t be prouder.” Not! I forced a smile. Telly called again. It was a welcome interruption and I excused myself to the ladies room and huddled in a stall.
“What’s up, Telly?” I whispered.
“Why are you whispering?”
“I’m in the bathroom at Bacco. I’m having dinner with James and his sister.”
“What the fuck! Didn’t you confront him about the other woman?” she asked.
“His sister is the other woman.”
“Eww, gross. Incest?” she said.
“No, Tell. His sister is the girl in the pictures. She’s visiting from New York. That’s why they were so close and she stayed at his apartment.”
“Holy shit! Are you serious? That means he didn’t cheat on you.”
“Nope.”
“Well, I guess it’s still game on.” Yeah, but hanging out with James’ wasn’t a game I wanted to play.
“So what’s up? Why did you call a dozen times?” I stepped out of the stall.
“Oh, uh . . . you got a second?” Her tone changed from aggressive to passive.
“Yeah.”
“So, yeah . . . I kinda slept with Will the other night,” Telly said.
“I knew it. You’re such a liar,” I said.
“I know. I’m sorry, but listen. He’s calling me to go out again. I don’t know what to do,” she whined. In every other area in her life she was levelheaded and in control, but when it came to matters of the heart, her sense was somehow missing.
“No, Telly. How many times have you done this to yourself?”
“I don’t know. Four or five?” she said as if to downplay their number of breakups. Before I could say another word, Amanda walked in.
“I gotta go, Telly. I’ll call you later,” I said.
“No, wait! Marin, you need to—”
I ended the call and looked up at Amanda. “Hey.”
“Hey,” she said and walked to the sink. “I came in to check on you. You’ve been gone for a while.” She ran her hands under the running faucet.
“Yeah, my friend’s having a little crisis.” I held up my phone and shrugged.
“I’m sure it’s nothing you can’t handle.” She smiled.
I joined her at the sink. “I hope so.”
“From what James tells me you’re a good friend and good girlfriend too.”
“He said that?” I asked keeping my head down. I couldn’t look her in the face.
“He really likes you, you know? It’s kind of a big deal. He’s not the type who’s eager to give his heart away.” That makes two of us. “James is a really good guy, and I’ve seen him get hurt before. Be careful with him, okay?”
“Okay.” I smiled with a shrug as if I had no intention of being reckless with him. Why did she feel the need to tell me that? Was it a courtesy to me or to James? Could she see through my façade? Or was she just being a protective big sister? Whatever the case, she made me uneasy.
Later when James dropped me off at my apartment, I told Amanda it was nice to meet her, and I hoped we could meet again sometime soon. I was being polite, of course. The late hour and unexpected events of the day were exhausting, and I couldn’t wait to be alone in my apartment.
I called Telly on the way to work to find out what she did about the infamous Will.
“I went out with him last night,” Telly said, as if it was no big deal.
“What?” I stopped in my tracks. It was one thing for her to have a little reunion fling in Napa, but it was quite another to start seeing him on the home front.
“Telly, why did you do that?”
“You hung up on me remember? I needed you to talk me out of it.” For a lawyer it was a terrible defense.
“You’re really gonna have to start listening to your own good conscience.”
“Too late now.”
“What happened?”
“We kinda had sex,” she said.
“What?” I stopped in my tracks again. At the rate I was going, I’d never make it to work.
“I know, I know,” Telly whined.
“You know I’m all for you having these flings, but if you told me any ounce of truth about you and Will, then this is a very dangerous venture.”
“I know. What’s wrong with me? Why can’t I tell him no?”
“Because you haven’t learned your lesson yet.”
Telly let out a frustrated grunt.
“Do you want to learn it all over again?” I asked.
“No,” she said.
“Well then, you can’t see him anymore. Say you won’t see him again.” Silence hung on the line. “Telly?”
“Okay. I won’t see him anymore.”
“Good, problem solved.” I approached my office building and quickly realized the
re was a huge crowd standing outside. My vision expanded revealing several police cars and a fire truck.
“Telly, hold on a sec.” I took the phone away from my ear. “What’s going on?” I asked a woman standing in the crowd.
She turned to me and said, “A fire broke out on the fourth floor.”
“Oh, my God! Was anyone hurt?” I asked.
“A couple people were taken to the hospital. I think they’re okay. Probably smoke inhalation.” I could hear Telly trying to get my attention by yelling through the phone, and I put it back up to my ear.
“There was a fire in my building,” I said.
“How bad?” she asked.
“I can’t tell. Doesn’t seem too bad.”
“Any cute firemen?”
I looked around, spying a small group of San Francisco’s finest. “Yep.” I smirked.
“I’ll be right there.” Telly hung up without an ounce of sarcasm. Before I could get her back Katie appeared at my side, worry covered her face.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Yeah. I arrived just as the fire truck did.” We stared up at the building, looking for some indication of the condition of our office.
“So now what?” I asked.
“We go home. They shut the building down for today. It could be the whole week.”
“Oh, no,” I said. “What about our appointments?”
“You better start calling your patients. I’ll call you when we can go back to work.” Katie seemed annoyed at the situation. On the outside I sympathized with her, but on the inside I was excited and relieved to get an extra day to myself. My relaxing weekend away turned out to be somewhat stressful. I peered over the crowd, wondering if everyone else was secretly thrilled about getting to close up shop for the day. Then, I spotted a familiar face. Telly was schmoozing a group of firemen. I made my way to her, noting the increasing waves of laughter with each step. She was obviously laying on her lucky charms and they thought she was delicious.
“Marin!” She waved me over. “This is my best friend, Marin. Marin, this is Jake, Doug, and Sebastian.” She pointed to one smitten fireman after the other. They gawked at her as she handed each of them her business card. “If you need a divorce attorney, I’m your girl!”
They turned back to stare at Telly every few steps as they returned to their truck.
“How did you get here so fast?” I asked.
“I was on my way to the office only a couple of blocks away.”
“When you said you’d be right there, I thought you were kidding,” I said. Telly stared at the suited-up firemen still loading into the truck.
“Sweetie, San Francisco firemen are no joke.”
“You feel like playing hooky?” I smiled and did a playful dance.
“Wish I could. Hey, maybe I can start a fire in my office?”
I let out a small chuckle and told her to catch up with me later. Not knowing what to do with a whole day to myself, I decided to treat it like a Saturday. I cancelled my appointments, picked up groceries for the week, then went for a long invigorating jog around the park. The US Half Marathon was still months away, but with my recovering knee I needed all the preparation I could get. Before I knew it, it was three in the afternoon and I had nothing left to do. I settled on my couch with the paper and a glass of iced tea. I had just gotten comfortable when I heard it, Drip, Drip, Drip.
The sound of a leaky faucet.
Thinking I probably didn’t shut the water off all the way, I went over to the kitchen to investigate. The faucet was all the way off, which meant it was a leak that needed to be fixed. No problem, right? Wrong. Not only did I not know anything about fixing faucets, but my landlord always took his sweet time getting to repairs. I once spent two weeks without a working stove, causing me to gain five pounds from all the take out I was forced to eat.
No way I was going to let the sound of dripping water disrupt my sleep and run up my water bill. Holly was handy and so was Chad, but both were completely unavailable to me. Then I remembered . . . I have a boyfriend. I picked up the phone to call my beau. Since I had yet to catch him in the sack with someone else, I figured I might as well take advantage of the situation.
“Hey, you. What’s going on?” He sounded happy to hear from me.
“I need your help with something.”
“Sure, what is it?” he asked eagerly.
“My kitchen faucet is leaking. Do you think you could help me fix it?”
“Yeah, no problem. I’ll come over after work and bring dinner too.”
“What a relief. Thank you so much.” I couldn’t hate the fact that he was so accommodating.
I turned on some music to disguise the dripping sound, then read until James came over, which he did promptly at five-thirty. When I answered the door he held a bag of takeout in one hand and a tool bag in the other. He wore jeans and a grey t-shirt that hugged his swelling biceps.
“Dinner and a wrench. You’re my hero.” I smiled and gave him a little kiss as he walked in.
“I prefer the title Awesome Boyfriend,” he said as he set the food on the breakfast bar.
“I suppose that works too.”
He walked over to the sink and I followed. “What seems to be the problem?”
“I’m not sure. It’s dripping constantly,” I said as I unloaded the food. He examined the faucet and quickly came to a diagnosis.
“It just needs a washer.”
“Let’s eat first,” I said.
“I’ll take care of this first. It’ll only take a few minutes,” he said. I didn’t know much about sinks, but I would be impressed if he could fix it that fast. He turned off the water and then took apart the faucet.
“So, Amanda really likes you.” His voice was muffled from under the sink.
“Oh, yeah? I really like her too.” I set the table, having a flashback of the conversation with Amanda in the bathroom.
“So when am I going to meet your brother?”
I shuddered at the suggestion. “You want to meet Michael?” I asked, hoping I misunderstood.
“Well, yeah.” Who was this guy? Usually women are begging their boyfriends to meet their family and here he was offering himself on a silver platter.
“He’s really busy, you know, trying to cure cancer. But I’ll see if we can get together with him.”
“That sounds good.” He turned the faucet on and began washing his hands.
“You’re finished?” I said in disbelief.
“Yeah, check it out. I told you it would only be a few minutes.”
I examined the faucet. No leak. Impressive. I looked up into his striking blue eyes and said, “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome,” he said, and then he kissed me.
We talked over dinner, and I told him all about the fire in my building and the “conference” in San Diego. He told me about the weekend with his sister. I was half listening and half surveying my apartment for things that needed fixing. If James was going to continue to be “faithful,” then I might as well get some use out of him, which I did later in my bed. He didn’t stay the night since we both had to be up early for work. At least that’s what I thought.
Not long after waking, I got a call from Katie. The building wasn’t yet ready to return to. It would’ve been nice to sleep in a little that morning since I didn’t have to be at the office, but once I’m awake, I’m up. Repeating my same Saturday routine, I was done by ten. I rested on my couch with a cup of coffee that tasted like a little piece of heaven and contemplated going to the library, a museum, or Crate and Barrel. Then, my thoughts drifted to the conversation I had with James about meeting my brother.
There wasn’t much point in James meeting Michael. After all, I knew eventually the “relationship” would end and my brother would see it as another one of my failed relationships. It’d be another reason to get crap from him and my parents.
Truth be told, I hadn’t seen Michael since Christmas and the only correspondence I�
�d had with him was a brief call when I told him that the wedding was off. It wasn’t the greatest of talks, but one thing about Michael, he was incredibly honest. I decided to rent a car and make the drive to Berkeley to surprise my cancer-curing brother.
“I’m looking for Dr. Johns,” I asked the medical assistant behind the reception area.
“And you are?” she asked with her lips pursed and eyebrow raised.
“Dr. Marin Johns,” said an unmistakable voice behind me. I turned and sure enough it was Michael. He was only a couple years older, but the years had been good to him. With his job, two kids, and a wife, I was amazed that he managed to keep his dark wavy hair combed let alone perfect. But that was Michael for you, the brains and the beauty. He towered over me for as long as I could remember and his almond shaped brown eyes stared down at me, looking surprised.
“Hey, big brother. How are you?” We engaged in an awkward hug.
“I’ve got two sick kids at home, a series of paper cuts on my left hand, and I have the medical board up my ass about budgets. What brings you all the way up here?” he asked with little patience. Nice to see you too.
“Just wanted to visit. I haven’t seen you in months,” I said.
“That’s it? You came all the way here just to visit?”
He gave me the same look I’d seen a million times, a look that diminished me. It was so easy for him to make me feel like his ridiculous little sister, with her silly counseling job, in her tiny apartment, and husband-less existence.
“Yeah.” I cowered.
“That’s too bad, because I’m really busy. You want to visit? Come up on Fourth of July weekend.” And just like that, he started to walk away. The nerve of him. If I thought it would do any good, I would have called up our mother to tell on him right then. I followed with a little more stomp in my step.
“What? Michael, I drove all this way and you can’t even spend five minutes with me? You didn’t even ask me how I was since, I don’t know, the last time we talked I told you my wedding was off.” My voice started doing that high-pitched, neurotic, nagging thing I hate. Surely, he hated it too.
“What do you want me to say? Chad was a douche, and I never use that word. You’re better off,” he said.
