Sidecar Crush

“Hey,” she said with a big smile. Her makeup was done, and her hair too. Looked real pretty, but I wondered what was up.

“What’s with the outfit?” I asked, pointing to her clothes. “You goin’ somewhere?”

“I thought we could go out. I know we have to leave in the morning, so we won’t stay late. But I figured you could use a distraction. And now that your sculpture is on its way to Charlotte, it’s not like you have to work tonight.”

I rubbed the back of my neck. “I’m not sure I much feel like going out tonight.”

“Really?” she asked. “Gibson’s band is playing the Lookout. It’s always a good time.”

Now I definitely wasn’t going out. “I don’t want to be shoved into a crowded bar with my brother. Sorry you went to the trouble to get all dressed up, but I’m stayin’ in.”

I glanced at the flat tire again and just shook my head. I’d have to deal with it in the morning, which would mean getting a late start.

“What happened to your truck?” she asked.

“Flat tire.”

“I can see that,” she said. “I thought maybe you’d tell me how it happened.”

“I don’t know how it happened. Look, I’m going to have to get an early start tomorrow to fix this before we leave.”

“I know,” she said, like she was trying to mollify me. “But you’ve been hiding out here ever since we got back from L.A. Don’t you think it might be good to get out for a little bit? Take your mind off everything?”

“You’re starting to sound like my sister.”

“Maybe your sister is onto something.”

I sighed. “Not tonight. If you want to come in, that’s fine, but sittin’ in a bar with my angry bastard of a brother is not happening tonight.”

“How long is this feud going to last?” she asked.

“How in the hell am I supposed to know? Until Gibson finds someone else to be mad at?”

“Maybe you could talk to him,” she said. “He seems like he’s in a good mood when he’s playing. Could be a good time to deal with it.”

I shook my head. “Darlin’, Gibson is never in a good mood, playing guitar or not. And don’t worry about me and my brother. This sort of thing happens. Eventually we’ll both forget what made us mad and we’ll go back to the usual way we ignore each other—without the anger.”

“That’s… that’s awful.”

“It’s not awful,” I said. “It’s just how things are between us.”

I was a lot less confident about that than I sounded. I’d never fought with Gibson before. I’d seen him fight with Scarlett. Even Bowie a few times. And that pattern seemed to hold. Some time would go by and tempers recede. I didn’t expect there were ever many apologies from anyone—except maybe Bowie. But he was good with this kind of thing, and the rest of us weren’t. I didn’t rightly know where Bowie had learned it. Maybe in college. Certainly hadn’t been from growing up with Mom and Dad.

But I didn’t know how this thing between me and Gibson was going to end, and it wasn’t something I wanted to think about tonight. Not with everything else I had on my mind.

“Okay, no Gibson,” she said. “But what’s going on with you?”

“What do you mean?”

“You’ve been acting weird,” she said. “Since L.A.”

I rubbed the back of my neck. My head was starting to hurt. We’d been back for a week, and I’d been busy from dawn till dusk trying to get my piece ready to ship. The days I lost taking her to L.A. had taken their toll.

“I’ve just been busy.”

“Yeah…”

“But what?” I asked, not bothering to hide the annoyance in my voice.

“I didn’t say but.”

“You trailed off like you were agreeing with me, but getting ready to tell me how you’re not agreeing with me.”

“It seems like it’s more than that,” she said. “Are you upset about something?”

“I don’t think now is the time for this.”

“When?” she asked. “Is that how you do things too? You ignore your girlfriend until you forget why you were mad and hope everything turns out okay?”