Pulling myself back to the cruel, mad world in which I found myself living, I checked my voicemails.
The first message was from my agent.
“I have good news and bad news, Gav. You didn’t get the movie roll you tried out for,” he said. “I’ll let you know for learning purposes why you were turned down. Despite your recent impressive resume, you were too tall, apparently, and your accent was too hard for them to understand.”
Too hard for them to understand?
The part was for an Irish gangster from Dublin.
It wasn’t as if I was trying out for the role of some regular American dude.
“The good news is that you scored the part in the sitcom. Welcome to the big leagues, son. Everyone is saying the success of this show will be reminiscent of Friends. I hope you’re ready for your life to change. Come in tomorrow around ten, so we can go over the contracts. There’s a nice signing bonus. And when I say nice, I mean you’ll be living on Easy Street for a while.”
I punched the air. Today was my fucking lucky day, and I put that all down to meeting sweet Maggie. Not only had I met the girl of my dreams, but I’d also landed the job of my dreams. Nothing would bring me down from cloud nine.
I tapped on my messages to send a text to my brothers and let them know my good news. But my heart sank once I looked at the screen.
There was a text from Eoin.
Crap.
I could almost hear him sobbing. Our dad had OD’d again and was in the hospital.
Eoin didn’t remember the first three times dad had OD’d and had yet to draw the same conclusion that I had, which was that if dad was going to die, Satan would have to bloody well come up here and do it himself. This was a sentiment that even my old man had expressed in his more lucid states on more than one occasion.
Still, I felt incredibly down until I remembered that it wasn’t such a horrible day after all. I’d landed a job and had met the amazingly hot Miss Maggie Sanders, and we had set up a date, or a sort of date.
Granted, it was to her ex’s engagement party to her stepsister, but I intended to make the most of the occasion and help her have the best time possible. And by that, I meant that I intended to help her make Raquel the Revolting as miserable as possible. It wasn’t going to be very hard, since seeing Maggie with me clearly bothered Raquel.
Karma can be a real bitch, bitch.
I picked up my phone and dialed the most familiar number I knew. It took several rings for anyone to pick up, which made me wonder if things back at home might be worse than I thought.
“Gavin?” Eoin said, his voice sounding worried and frantic. “Hi. Hello.”
“Hello yourself.”
“You got my message?”
“Aye.”
“It’s really bad, this time, Gavin,” Eoin said.
“How bad?”
“They had to use the paddles.”
“His heart stopped?” I asked, not expecting that.
“For ten seconds.” Eoin’s voice cracked. “He was dead for ten seconds, Gav.”
“And then he was resuscitated?”
“He was.”
“Praise science!” I said, with all the evangelical fervor I could muster.
“Stop. He might hear you,” Eoin said, panicked.
“You’re there with him?”
“Aye.”
“Look. I’m sorry but there really isn’t much to be done,” I told him. “I’ve known the man longer than you. He has a head harder than cobblestone. All I can suggest is that he gets his arse into rehab. The fact that he nearly died permanently might just be enough of a kick up the arse this time. It’s up to him after that.”
“Aye, you’re right. I know you are. But getting him there will be a battle.”
“I know it will be, but if he’s going to do it for anyone, he’ll do it for you. Love you, brother.”
“Love you, too.”
I hung up and closed my eyes for a brief second. Guilt at not going back to Ireland to fix the mess my dad was in sucker-punched me, but I knew that if I went back, I would never leave. I would just get sucked into the quicksand that was the constant MacFerguson Family drama, thanks to our pathetic excuse of a father.
I blinked my troubles at home away and tried to cheer myself up by letting my mind wander back to Maggie. She hadn’t been wearing a particularly sexy outfit when we’d met– just a plain black pant-suit– but I could still tell she had a really nice figure underneath.
I imagined what she would look like naked, my cock instantly hardening.
I thought about her getting down on her knees in front of me, without a stitch on, and gently sucking my cock, her eyes locked on mine, while she rubbed her soaking wet pussy.