“You know I hate it when you use that expression, bro.”
“Seriously? Damn, man. Show your brother some love. Ain’t we brothers? I sure saved your ass enough times to be considered part of your family.”
“I think you’re remembering things backwards. I saved your ass.”
“If that’s the case, then hell, I’ll call you whatever I want because, to me, you are my brother.”
Dutch rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. “Sorry, man. Malin just kicked me to the curb.”
“Seriously?”
“You use that word too much, and yeah, she asked me to leave.”
“The country?”
“Even I don’t go that far. Although maybe I did. I asked her if she meant the cottage or her life.”
“What did she say?”
“The cottage. For now.”
“What did you do?”
“I assumed she wanted to be with me as much as I want to be with her.”
“Any sentence that starts with ‘I assumed’ never ends well.”
“I thought we were on the same page.”
“Before Islamabad, when’s the last time you saw Malin?”
“The night I went and picked Alegria up at the bar. I guess you could say it was the night we broke up.”
“Seriously?”
“There you go again. Quit saying ‘seriously.’ And actually, I saw her in Germany, but I had amnesia and didn’t know who she was.”
“It took you a minute to go from adios to assuming she’d marry you, bro. What did you expect?”
“I didn’t ask her to marry me. Although I did think she’d go to Mantis and Alegria’s wedding with me.”
“Still, with a woman as fine as Malin…hehe, just bustin’ your balls a little there, anyway, how would you feel, bein’ jerked around like that?”
“Where are you staying?”
“Upstairs in Doc’s old apartment, why?”
“Does it have more than one bedroom?”
“I think it has three.”
“You’ve got yourself a roommate.”
“Okay, but don’t bitch tomorrow morning if I wake you up at dawn.”
“Why are you getting up at dawn?”
“Naughton asked me if I wanted to ride. All the flying I’ve been doing, I feel like it’s been a month since I’ve been on a horse.”