6 Mountain Brothers for Christmas

“Whatever. Don’t call me Kam-Kam.” I hadn’t minded the nick-name when we were together, but since the breakup, he’d only used it as a way to annoy me.

“I would have gone home with my girl, but we broke up. It was time for a change anyway. I’ve got plenty of girls barking at the bit.”

I wanted to say, “Seems fitting for a dog like you,” but I didn’t want him to think I cared enough. So I turned to go into the kitchen and help Aunt Helen. She lined a pan with bread, and I took over by getting the butter out of the fridge and buttering each piece.

“Thanks,” she said, wiping her brow. She took a load off while I popped the pan into the oven to make our toast. “You’re down early today.”

Rain joined her aunt at the table. “You’ve also been pulling doubles a lot lately. You should slow down.”

“I’m glad to have the extra work. It helps with the bills, and I’ve been enjoying this new phase of cleaning out unneeded trash and clutter.” I fought off the urge to say: ‘Devin being the first and biggest.’, but I stopped myself.

“I’m about to change the apartment up a bit. Maybe I’ll paint it and get a new couch. The ones I have now are too old.”

The truth was I couldn’t wait to move out of the apartment and had Devin’s nuisance to thank for that. Though, I couldn’t afford the rent in the area. At least for now I could enjoy my space for however long I was going to be here.

“Those couches are ancient, honey. I had them when I moved into this place forty years ago,” Aunt Helen said.

“It’s great furniture, but it’s time to die.”

Devin came into the kitchen and grabbed a mug before helping himself to a cup of coffee.

“I’m going to take this on the road.” He raised his mug and took a sip as she waved her hand dismissively.

“You go on ahead. Bring my mug back, though. You can’t find anything with Iggy on it anymore.”

The oven timer went off, and I got up to take a peek at the bread that was ready. As usual, there was way too much, and Aunt Helen stopped Devin.

“Come back here, honey, and get you some toast for the road.” She grabbed a paper towel and wrapped a few pieces up for him to take, which he gladly did.

“Thanks, Hel. Rain.” He gave my friend a nod and then met my eyes with a smirk.

I felt my blood boiling. Why did he have to hang around like an unwanted rag doll? He brought out the worst in me.

Once the door was shut, Rain giggled. “Wow, you could cut the tension in here with a knife. It’s one thing to have hard feelings, but you waste way too much emotion hating him, Kam.”

“Uh, hello? Can you blame me? He did nothing but put me down for months and cheat on me. Am I supposed to kiss his feet just because he’s a good guitar player?” I asked her.

I loved Rain, and knew that she had my back in most things, but I was still a little pissed that she stayed connected to Devin knowing how much he’d hurt me. I didn’t want to start a fight with my best friend, so I instead excused myself and made my way to my apartment.

As I walked in and threw myself on my coach, I heard Rain’s footsteps up the steps. She entered my living room with a concerned look on her face.

“You look like you’ve got a lot on your mind. I’m sorry Devin was here. I know it’s not easy, but I couldn’t let him drive home.”

“You did the right thing. I just wish he’d have the decency to at least try not to show his face around me. He’s always in my space and says things that only annoy me even more.”

Rain sat down next to me in the couch. “I wanted to tell you about something. Samantha at work was telling me about this dating site. I don’t know if you’ve ever considered that sort of thing, but this one is based locally, and it matches people based on your interests. Who knows you may find your perfect man and baby daddy. It’s called Matched Solid. She’s had a good experience with it so far.”

“I’ve never thought of using a dating site. I hear they can be dangerous if you’re not careful, and the last thing I need is a stalker.”

“This one is supposed to have security features in place, and you’re only sharing the information that you allow to share. It’s not like you rush into anything. If you find someone, you can call them and say hi through their chat and online call feature. That way, you’re not giving these men your numbers.” Rain shrugged, and I had to admit, it’d sounded different from anything else I’d heard of.

Rain’s concern was warranted. My life was beginning to feel like complete hell. And every time I had a run in with Devin, all my anger and resentment stirred back up. How the hell was I going to move on with my life like this? I needed something other than work as a distraction, because I was slowly going mad.

“So how much does this thing cost?” I knew there had to be some catch and I didn’t want to spend all my hard-earned tip money paying monthly fees.

Rain took out her phone. “Here, let’s look it up.” She sent her thumbs moving across the screen and put the phone in front of us. I leaned in close to get a better look.

“They have an introductory special. It’s a one-time fee of fourteen-ninety-nine. You can’t beat that. You get access to their forums and have your own profile page that you can add pictures to.”