Derrick arches a thick, dark brow. He and Evie share the same pale green eyes, but that’s the extent of the family resemblance. He has brown hair instead of blond, olive skin, and towers a full foot over his petite sister. He could easily overpower her and storm inside, but he stops, making me hope my planned intervention won’t be necessary, after all.
“And how are you going to do that?” he asks. “Do you have an attorney on retainer I don’t know about?”
“No. But I’m prepared to face the consequences of my actions.”
“Jesus, Evie, I—”
“But I’m also barely functional right now,” she cuts in. “I need to sleep and wake up ready to face all of this tomorrow. On the bright side, I didn’t do anything illegal or awful. I just embarrassed myself in front of my ex. I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who can empathize. Who hasn’t wanted to give the person who dumped them a piece of their mind?”
“Or barf on their new girlfriend,” I add.
Derrick’s gaze shifts my way, his eyes narrowing. “So, you were there the entire time? And you just let her get wasted right in front of you, without even trying to stop it?”
“He wasn’t sitting with us,” Evie says before I can answer. “And Ian doesn’t ‘let me’ do anything and neither do you. I make my own decisions. I’m a grown woman, Derrick.”
“You really acted like one tonight,” he shoots back.
“Yeah, I did.” She slides her shoulders back and lifts her chin. “Sure, I did a dumb thing, but grown-ups make mistakes sometimes. Everyone does. And that’s okay. I don’t have to be perfect to be a good person or worthy of respect.”
Derrick curses beneath his breath before continuing with forced patience, “Sadly, that’s not the way the world works, Evie. Especially these days. One mistake, one misstep, one video that makes you look bad and goes viral is all it takes. You can ruin your entire life before it even gets started. Do you honestly think upper management is going to want to keep you on as an art therapist helping the team with their anger issues once they see you can’t even control your own temper?”
Evie’s shoulders slump. “I didn’t think about that.”
“Obviously. You didn’t think about anything.” He drags a hand through his sweat-damp hair. “You got wasted and started running your mouth, just like Dad after Mom left.”
Evie flinches. “I’m not like Dad. That was the first time I’ve ever been that drunk, and I have zero plans to get that way again.”
He exhales as he mutters, “Right.”
“That is right,” she insists. “Now, I’m going to get ready for bed. If you want to talk more about this, call me in the morning.”
“By tomorrow, the situation will be even worse,” Derrick says. “We need to send take-down notices now and get an attorney to start drafting cease and desist letters for—”
“Surely it can wait until morning,” I cut in. “She’s had a rough night already.”
“Your input isn’t required, Ian,” Derrick snaps. “If you wanted to help, you should have stepped in before she made an ass out of herself.”
“Like she said, I wasn’t sitting at their table,” I say. “And yeah, I did notice that she was hitting the whiskey a little hard, but—”
“And you just let it happen,” Derrick cuts in. “Great. Thanks, friend. Way to help a brother out. Now I get to spend my Friday night cleaning up my drunk little sister’s mess.”
“Also, like she said, she doesn’t want you to—”
“Stop! Both of you. That’s enough,” Evie says, grabbing my arm and pushing me toward the door. “Go. Get out. Go boss each other around because I’m done with both of you.”
I step through the doorway to stand beside Derrick, lifting my hands in surrender. “I’m on your side, Evie. I promise.”
“You don’t even know me anymore,” she says, the heat in her tone making us both take a step back. “Neither of you do. But that’s not your fault, that’s my fault. My inner voice was right, I have been sitting around with my thumb up my ass waiting for other people to give me permission to do the things I want to do. But that stops right here, right now. From now on, I’m going to be my true, authentic self.” She exhales a rush of breath. “As soon as I figure out who that is. So you two can either get on board with that or get lost.”
She slams the door. The deadbolt turns and the chain rattles back into place and then Evie’s soft footsteps pad away, leaving us in stunned silence.
We glance at each other and look away, clearing our throats.
Finally, I say, “Well, I guess that’s that.”
“She’ll come to her senses tomorrow,” Derrick mutters.
“I don’t think she will. I think she’s serious. And I think we owe her—”