“Is he going to be there?” From the sound of it I was hoping not. They didn’t seem to get along.
“No. I swiped his tickets. He won’t be there.”
I knew I heard him wrong.
“I’m sorry. What did you say?”
“I stole his ticket. I took it from his mail at work. I thought you’d enjoy going so I took his invites.”
“My gosh. Joshua. Don’t you think he might get mad?”
“He’s always mad about something. You should know.”
“What?” I had no idea where this conversation was going.
“Isn’t he always grumping around every day, at the office.” Joshua’s face was calm but sly. “Marty Reid. Besides, he’s got a couple of big meetings coming up in the next couple of days, right? He’s too busy.
This conversation had taken me from Park Avenue down to some seedy alley in the Bronx.
“Marty Reid is your brother?” I almost choked. My whole body flushed yet I felt a chill. Was it possible to instantaneously come down with the flu? Now I knew why I had the luck of two billionaires vying for my attention. It was because the universe likes practical jokes. Somewhere some divine being was laughing so hard tears were streaming from his divine eyes. He’d be repeating this incident to the other angels or saints or whoever he told jokes to and they’d all be laughing with wide eyes saying “no you di-int” while they searched the cosmos for my face that I swear has the word SUCKER written on my forehead in some kind of invisible ink only these divine beings can see. I probably have KICK ME on my back, too.
“Didn’t I mention that?”
“No.” I said, barely hearing the words come out of my own mouth.
“Yeah. He’s my big brother. How did you think I got you that job?”
I shrugged my shoulders.
“And that was how I found out.” I said, sinking my teeth into the greasy, fully-loaded cheeseburger that tasted so good.
“Does Joshua know you’ve been with his brother?” Diamond asked after swallowing down almost a fistful of shoestring French fries.
I shook my head no.
“Are you sure?” She pressed.
I licked the corners of my lips.
“I don’t think he knows. I mean, he doesn’t talk to Marty very often and well, I would think that one of them would have said something by now, right? I mean, one of them would have said hey, I hear your dating my brother, too. Greedy much? Right?”
Diamond nodded her head.
“Do they look alike?”
“Well, I suppose now that I think about it they have similar features. But I wasn’t looking for a family resemblance, you know.”
“So what are you going to do?”
“Well, I’ve thought about it a good bit and I’ve decided to do nothing.”
“Wha…” Diamond began to cough. She pounded her chest and gulped some water, regained her composure and looked at me like a wild woman. “What?”
“Yeah. I like them both. And from what I can tell they both like me. Why shouldn’t I let a few more dates go by and see if one of them pulls away from the pack?”
“Hey, no shame in that game. But, Nat, are you sure that’s you? I mean, when I describe you to people I don’t think I’ve ever used the word ‘playa’.” Diamond said.
“I should hope you never say ‘playa’ just because you sound retarded saying ‘playa’.”