by Chal, Bella
“Uncle Jack?” Kurt called out into the quiet house.
“Back here,” his Uncle replied from the dining room.
Kurt found him sitting at the dining room table with his laptop open chewing on an unlit cigar. His jaw clenched steadily as he studied the papers and folders spread out all over the table.
“You okay?” Kurt asked as he sat down next to his uncle.
“Nope,” Jack growled.
“Can I help?” Kurt asked as he leaned closer.
When Jack relaxed back into his chair, Kurt caught a look of panic in his eyes. “I think you’ve helped enough. I’ve been suspended at work and probably gonna be fired.”
“What?” Kurt shouted in shock.
Jack took out his cigar and rolled it between his fingers before speaking softly. “Sometime before Christmas, someone sent an anonymous email to Evan Johnson over at Johnson and Abernathy. It said you and I were behind a scheme to embezzle money from Deep Drilling and were using their high transportation costs to hide the theft. Evan panicked and terminated the contract with Deep Drilling which made my boss ask why. When Evan told him, I got suspended while they look into it.”
“But all we did was look into why the costs were so high? What about the evidence I found?” Kurt felt his stomach clench hard. “Oh, fuck, the job... it’s gone, isn’t it?” That job offer had been his talisman, a symbol that he could change his life. The idea of losing it rocked him to his core.
“Who’d you tell, Kurt?” Jack asked with quiet menace in his tone.
“Wait,” Kurt said in shock. “I never told...” Then he remembered the evening by the fire, the first night he and Polly had been together. “Polly knew about the job offer, but I’ve never told anyone what you and I—”
“It had to be you,” Jack shouted as he stood up suddenly. “I never even told Julie what we were doing!”
Kurt backed away, his uncle’s rage felt like the heat from a furnace. “Uncle Jack, I swear! I never even told Charlotte!”
“Get out of my house,” he growled. “I can’t believe I was stupid enough to trust you with this.”
Kurt’s confusion left him no choice but to leave, but his uncle’s words cut him deeply.
As Kurt walked out the front door, he unlocked his phone and wiped his eyes. Scrolling through the list of received calls, he stopped when he came to Evan Johnson’s entry and saw the phone number was blocked. Scrolling back further to Bo Tidewell’s entry, he found a valid number and pressed send. The phone rang while he got in his car and backed out of the driveway.
“You got some nerve calling me,” Bo growled.
“Bo, it ain’t what you think,” Kurt said. “Give me a chance to explain.”
“Naw, I don’t think so. We got strict orders about talking to you.”
In the midst of everything, the absurdity of the statement stopped him. “Then why did you pick up the call?” For a moment Kurt thought Bo had hung up. “Hello?”
“Look, when I mentioned you askin’ about the discrepancy on the manifest to Evan, he completely freaked out. I ain’t never seen him like that before. I don’t know what you was really up to, and I don’t want to know, but I’m a good judge of character. I think Evan fucked up big and is covering his ass.”
“Wow,” Kurt muttered as his head reeled.
“I can tell you’re a real OSV Master, Kurt. You can’t fake the skills you got. I gotta ask, man-to-man, do I need to get my resume up to date? I got a family to think about.”
Kurt was stunned by the question, but recovered quickly. “There’s somethin’ bigger going on. I’d hate for you to get blindsided by it, but I can’t tell you anything right now. If you want, I’ll keep you in the loop if I can.” Kurt figured he owed Bo something and it couldn’t hurt to keep him friendly.
There was a heavy sigh on the other end of the line. “Just text me if you need to tell me something, I’ll call you back when I can.”
“You got it,” he said, then Bo the call dropped without another word.
With no local job to move for, his plans with Polly were shot full of holes. After getting his heart set on the dreams he’d made with her in mind, the idea of giving up and going back to Morgan City made him feel physically ill.
He drove aimlessly, trying to figure out who could have known about him spying for his uncle. Everyone knew he had a local job, but he hadn’t mentioned the name of the company to anyone. He was certain of that. And Polly was the only one who had seen the offer letter besides Uncle Jack.
The only person he could imagine sending an email like the one Uncle Jack described was Trey. Kurt hadn’t spoken to him since Thanksgiving weekend, so it didn’t make sense how he could have known. His head fought with his heart over the inevitable conclusion, but if Trey had sent the email and Polly was the only one who knew who he worked for, there was only one answer left.
* * *
Kurt parked his car in front of Trey’s fraternity house and slammed the door after he got out. Fists clenched tight and face twisted into a scowl, he ran up the stairs and through the main entrance. Since Trey’s vintage Camaro was still in the parking lot, Kurt knew he was around somewhere.
“Trey Thibodeaux!” he shouted into the quiet house. “Fils de putain, get your ass out here!”
A few people poked their heads out of their rooms, but shut their doors again when they saw him. One big guy came out of the large common room acting tough. “You want somethin’?”
“Yeah, I want Trey Thibodeaux to come take his licks,” he shouted again.
“I got this,” Trey said as he came down the hallway pulling a rolling suitcase. “You got some balls, I’ll give you that.”
“So do you,” Kurt said as his stomach clenched and boiled. He felt the hairs rising up all over his body as he stepped close, using his height to stare down into his cousin's face. “Do you know what you’ve done?”
Trey sneered and shook his head. “You can’t prove a thing, bioque.” That comment alone proved he had sent the email as far as Kurt was concerned.
“Yeah, but we both know you did it,” he growled and pushed him hard.
“Embrasse mon tcheue!” he shouted. When he tried to push Kurt back, the big guy got between them and kept them apart.
“No fightin’ in the frat house, gentlemen,” he said. “Take it outside.”
“Go back to the swamps, ragondin, I ain’t got time for this,” Trey muttered. “I got a plane to catch.”
“Uncle Jack lost his job!”
“And so did you, I bet,” Trey said with a laugh. “What did you expect would happen when y’all started stealing?” Trey grabbed his suitcase and made for the door.
“We ain’t stole nothing, salaud.”
“I don’t care,” Trey said from the door. “I’m going to Germany to visit Jennifer for New Years.” The dirty laugh that followed sounded forced.
“How’d you find out?” Kurt asked the hard question as fear gripped his heart.
“She didn’t tell you?” Trey asked looking pleased with himself. “Polly told me after I fucked her that one last time. She really liked it, too.”
Kurt felt his heart freeze up. The night she saw his job offer was their first time together. That meant she and Trey... He couldn’t finish the thought. “You’re lying.”
“You know it’s true, I can see it in your face," Trey said. “You know, we used to laugh about you everyday. The dumb, lovesick, water-bus driver who followed her to the big city.”
The words ripped out his heart. “That ain’t true.”
“Then why you cryin’?” he asked and walked away with a laugh.
* * *
Kurt found himself sitting in the bar at Dave and Buster’s after driving around all afternoon. He’d turned off his phone and started filtering a bottle of Jameson though his liver. The black mood he was in seemed to keep the bartender from bugging him, but after a couple of hours of drinking he got cut off until he ate something.
Sitting
with a cold burger on the bar in front of him, Kurt swirled the amber liquor in his low glass. He was thoroughly drunk, but nowhere near his limit. The alcohol made his face feel numb, but it did nothing for his heart.
The fact she had been with Trey wasn’t the issue. Trey was slick, good looking, and knew how to sweet talk a girl into bed. Besides, he’d gone off with Camden and Cathy after writing her off as a lost cause.
But after that night at the fire when he’d poured out his heart to her, she’d taken him to her bed and they’d started dreaming together. She had to have been with Trey after that. It was hard to imagine when she’d had time to meet with him, but maybe she lied about going to work. If she was gonna sneak around to fuck Trey, what were a few lies added on top of that?
He swallowed the whiskey and sat the glass back on the bar hard enough to get the bartender’s attention. “Another one,” he growled.
“Look, man, it’s none of my business—” he started to say.
“I’ll take care of him, Dan,” Camden’s voice said from behind him.
Kurt didn’t look around, just hung his head and took a deep breath to steady himself.
Camden sat down next to him and said, “Everybody’s looking for you.”
“I been here,” he muttered.
“I can see that. For a long time, too, from the length of your tab.” She touched his back with the palm of her hand. “Want to talk about it?”
Kurt shook his head. “Nothin’ to say.”
“I don’t know what happened, but Charlotte says that Jack and Julie had a huge fight. She left with Jackson to stay at her mother’s apartment. Polly’s been going crazy trying to find you.”
“I don’t wanna be found,” he said. “I just wanna be drunk.”
“Mission accomplished,” she said and leaned closer to him. “What happened?”
“Can’t say,” he whispered. “Uncle Jack told me to keep it a secret and I never told anyone.” The words loosened his control and his eyes began to leak tears. “Why’d she sleep with him again?”
“Who? Polly?” Camden asked as she rubbed his back.
“Trey said she told him after...” Kurt couldn’t continue. “I need another drink.”
“Let me take you home,” she said. “You can have a drink there if you want.”
“I don’t have a home,” he said. “Uncle Jack threw me out. I don’t want to see Polly. And I’m too drunk to get back to Morgan City.”
“Come on, we’ll go to my place then,” she said as she pulled him to his feet. “Do you need to go to the restroom?”
“No,” he mumbled as he put his arm around her shoulders. They walked toward the entrance just as Polly and Charlotte were coming in.
“Fuckin’ Cathy,” Camden mumbled when she saw them.
“Kurt?” Polly asked, looking back and forth between him and Camden.
“I don’t want to talk to you right now,” he growled.
“What happened?” Polly begged. “Julie said Jack got fired and that you had something to do with it.”
“No, you had something to do with it,” Kurt said as his anger grew. “Trey said you told him about my job right after you and him..." He stopped to swallow his pain. “Then he sent that fucking email and now I lost my job, Uncle Jack hates me, and you... you ruined everything!”
“No, I...” she said, but then trailed off as her eyes and mouth opened in horror. “I didn’t know it was important!”
There it was, Kurt told himself. That’s the look when the lies come home to roost. “I’m done with you,” Kurt said as he started walking past.
“Kurt, stop,” Charlotte said, taking his arm. “We all need to calm down and talk about this.”
“I don’t,” he said, jerking his arm away. “Right now I need a drink and Camden offered to get me one.”
He turned his back on them both as Camden continued to guide him out the door to her car. He heard Polly sobbing, but was strangely unmoved. She actually admitted telling Trey, he thought as the pain cut through his fog like a cold wind. It was all a lie.
Camden’s car was small and cluttered with clothes and trash. He squeezed into the passenger seat while she danced around to the driver’s side. “What are you in the mood for?” she asked.
“Whiskey,” he said. “But not bourbon.”
The world spun by the windows while Camden played some kind of pop crap from her phone through the car stereo. It didn’t sound like English except for a few words here and there. He hated it, which suited his mood perfectly.
She ran into the liquor store while he shut his eyes for a moment. The spinning was worse in the dark, so he opened them again to see her coming back with a bottle inside a brown paper bag.
“Thanks,” he said as she got back in.
“You can pay me back later,” she said with a grin.
After they arrived at her apartment complex, his head cleared a little as he followed Camden up the cement stairs to her apartment. She was wearing a short skirt and he could see blue and white striped panties peeking at him with each step. The grin on her face when she caught him looking said she didn’t mind.
The apartment was just as big a wreck as it was the last time he was there. He sat down on the stained couch while Camden went to fill some glasses with ice in the kitchen. “Do you want coke with it?” she asked.
“Naw, just over ice for me,” he said.
She brought two glasses of ice and the bottle back with her to sit beside him on the couch. The bottle and glasses went on the coffee table long enough for her to fill them, then she handed Kurt his glass. “Cheers,” she said before they both took long drinks.
Camden’s phone rang, but she silenced it without looking at the screen. “So,” she said, stretching the vowel out until he looked up. She was grinning at him in a way that made it clear how she was thinking.
“Thanks,” he mumbled as he leaned back against the overstuffed couch. The room spun slowly when he shut his eyes, but they wouldn’t stay open anymore. It only felt like a second had passed, but suddenly Kurt woke up to Cathy screaming something at Camden about Polly.
“She’s your friend, not mine,” Camden yelled back. “I don’t care what you promised her. And it’s not like I had to twist his arm to get him up here!”
“What is your problem?” Cathy shouted. “You know how she feels about him! You heard her talking about him the other night at D and B’s.”
“What about what I feel?” Camden shouted back in her face. “Her thing with Trey didn’t work out, so why should I have to suffer because of it?”
“God forbid you think of someone other than yourself,” Cathy muttered as she pushed past to go toward Kurt on the couch. “Are you awake?”
Kurt rubbed his face and sat forward. “Yeah.” Camden went into her room and slammed her door.
“Get your shit together, I’m taking you over to see Polly,” Cathy said with her arms crossed under her breasts. “You should be ashamed of yourself for coming here.”
“I ain’t done nothing to be ashamed of,” he said quietly.
“Polly is going out of her mind! Why would you do this to her?” she asked, standing in front of him with her fists on her hips.
He looked at her for a moment, then shook his head. “Do you know what she did to me?”
“Oh my god, she told Trey something you said,” she said in an exasperated tone. “So what?”
“She told him after they slept together,” he growled back.
She blinked a few times, “And? You knew they’d been together.”
“I didn’t tell it to her until after they broke up and we started seeing each other,” he explained. “Did she forget to mention that part?”
“Wait,” Cathy said with a frown. “That’s not right.”
“Yes, it is,” he said as he got up. “There’s no other way she could have known what she told him. No one knew but me and Uncle Jack. She even admitted it to my face.”
“No, I don’t believ
e it.” Cathy tried to stop him at the door. “Wait, you need to talk to her.”
“No, I don’t,” he whispered. “This whole trip was a mistake. I’m going back to Morgan City.” He left Cathy standing at the door and began the long walk back to get his car at Dave and Buster’s.
Chapter 14: Polly
Jack hadn’t spoken since Julie left, but Polly refused to leave the dining room table where they were both sitting. Her stubborn hope was that Kurt would have to come back to get Charlotte and his things at some point. Maybe she could get him talk to her. Maybe he would forgive her whatever it was he thought she’d done. She wiped her eyes again and pushed those thoughts away for what felt like the millionth time that day.
Charlotte had gone to sleep hours ago after the two of them finally got the girls in bed. When Julie had left without saying goodbye, Lisa had a total meltdown. Polly guessed it reminded her of when Sophie and Jack had fought before their divorce.
Jen had shut down completely until Polly hugged her goodnight. As they sat together on her frilly pink sheets, Jen asked in a scared voice, “Is Julie-mom coming back?” Polly held her and told her reassuring things, but privately worried.
Jack had kept a secret from Julie that Polly still didn’t understand entirely. Since buying the house, Julie had worried constantly about the debt, fearing something would happen and steal her new life away. The way Julie explained it, Jack had taken a major risk without consulting her. She considered it serious enough to take Jackson and go stay with her mother.
Polly had pieced together bits and pieces of the secret from everyone, but it still confused her because Jack refused to explain. She knew Jack had brought Kurt to Houston to try and get him a job with a transport company. When Kurt had gotten the job and went on a delivery run, he’d learned something critical for Jack in the process. After Polly mentioned where Kurt was working in passing to Trey, he evidently pieced together whatever the secret was and sent an email bomb that wrecked their plans.
Her phone beeped with a message from Cathy. Kurt was here when I got home from work. Call me if you want an update. Her heart pounded in her throat as she read the words. He’d been there with that little slut Camden, she thought, but pushed that pain away to deal with another day.
