After the Climb (River Rain 0.50)

“Genny isn’t a high school girl.”

“Bowie, with the dating you been doin’ since you and Dora split, have you not figured out they’re never not girls? Try buying a woman a vacuum cleaner for her birthday. That’s a mature, adult, ‘hey, we’re doin’ this, makin’ a life together’ gift. It’s not like you’re declaring she’s the only one who’s going to use it because she’s the little woman and you got football to watch, not rugs to vacuum. But Christ, she’ll act like you just called her ugly and went out and killed her dog. Buy her somethin’ pink, and it doesn’t matter what that something is, it could even be a pink goddamn vacuum, she’ll kiss you all over and remember that shit when it’s bedtime.”

“Harv—”

Abruptly, Harvey leaned across the table as far as he could get, and his face had turned to granite.

“Fuck him,” he whispered. “And Bowie, this is the best way to fuck him. And I’m not advocating this just for revenge. Lord knows, what Dora put you through, I wanna see you happy. And from what I can tell, Imogen Swan is a stand-up gal. It’d be good she’s got some happy too, and I know you’ll break your back to give it to her. But take back what he took from you. I can’t imagine what this feels like for you. But as your friend, it burns in my gut, way down deep, that a man you called friend did that to you. Reverse the damage, Bowie. You got a chance. Don’t blow it.”

Duncan could not let his friend’s words get in there.

He wanted to.

But this was about Genny.

He had to look after Genny.

“You did not see her back then, Harv. You did not see her when she was begging me to listen to her. When she was swearing she’d never do that to me. When she was telling me she loved me, she’d never love a man like she loved me. I was it for her, I was her future, she’d never step out on me. You did not see her, buddy. She was wrecked. I wrecked her because I didn’t listen to her. I listened to Corey.”

Harvey leaned back a little, shook his head and replied, “Okay. I get that had to be rough, for both of you, and you’re in a bad spot because you didn’t listen. But honest to Christ, Bowie, this came out of the blue. Even she has to admit that if Szabo came to her and told her he knew beyond a doubt you were cheating, she’d take a minute on that.”

Duncan did a slow blink.

Because he hadn’t thought of that.

She would.

Genny absolutely would take a minute.

And he’d have had to talk fast, shout, beg, plead, crawl to get her to listen.

That was who Corey was to them.

The both of them.

“This guy was your guy. Both of your guy,” Harv spoke Duncan’s thoughts. “Neither of you could have any clue he’d purposely, with evil intent, and premeditation, inflict that kind of damage on you.”

Jesus.

“Country fried scramble,” the waitress stated, dumping a plate covered in food in front of Harv, who moved back from the table to receive it. “Green chile and cheese omelet.” And Duncan had his food. “Be back ’round for a top up. Anything else?”

“No, Shirl,” Harvey replied.

“Thanks, honey,” Duncan said.

She winked at him, shot Harv a sassy smile and said, “Don’t mention it.”

Then she sashayed away.

Duncan went for his cutlery.

So did Harvey.

They started eating.

Harv was the one who took them back to it.

“You know, I’ve met the man, and truth is, a man like that is no man at all.”

Duncan lifted his eyes from his food to give them to his friend.

“Sorry?”

Again, it was like he didn’t talk.

“And you are not the man you were back then,” he kept at it.

Duncan had a sense he knew what this was about, and it was no longer about Corey.

“Harv—”

“Your father was a jackass, Bowie.”

Yep, that was what he’d sensed.

Harvey raised one of his big mitts and waved it before he carried on talking. “Sorry, but you know it’s true way more than me. He fucked with your head. And Szabo was a genius and proved at his end that came in a variety of ways. He fucked with it too. You’re beyond that now, and she should know the man you became, despite those two.”

“My weakness destroyed us,” Duncan pointed out.

“Brother, you were twenty-somethin’ years old. You barely knew your ass from a hole in the ground.”

“That still happened.”

“You know, I had a dad who was proud of me from the minute Ma pushed me out. And he made no bones about it. And growin’ up, that was everything to me, Bowie, everything.”

Duncan said nothing, pleased as fuck Harv had that.

And to that day, fifty-four years old, missing it like a lost limb that he did not.