Tangling Hearts

18. Brendan

Chapter Eighteen

brENDAN

M ark: heartbroken. Me: Over it.

I look at Mark’s sad sack of a face and shake my head. “We’ve gotta get you out of the house.” He doesn’t move off the couch. He looks up at me like I’m saying it’s time for your colonoscopy now.

“I’m fine,” he mutters, unconvincingly looking away.

I walk to the coat rack and grab his jacket, walk back and toss it at his long face. “Seriously. Get up. We’re getting drunk.”

Mark grabs the jacket and holds it to his lap. He and I have been roommates ever since he asked me to move in, after we graduated college. I have never seen him like this over some woman. It’s pathetic. He reaches for the clicker, but I lean down and grab it first.

“Oh no you don’t.” I hold it in the air. “I’m not watching Real Housewives of Alaska one more time.”

This draws a smile out of him. He jokes, “But I want to see if Alice was able to ice fish with her husband still banging the maid.” As if he’d ever watch that show.

“We’ll record it. And then we’ll get you some lipstick and a bra.” I chuckle. “Now come on.”

I grab my own jacket while Mark slides his arms through his, following. I don’t know how you can get so hung up on a woman who’s all the way in New York. Secretly, I think that’s why he’s this gone over her – because of the distance. It can’t be because he’s in love. He just met her. That doesn’t happen.

Mark locks up and we head for the street, taking the stairs down from the penthouse. We moved into this loft a year ago, as soon as the contractors put the finishing touches on it with walls that separate the bedrooms, and an office for me. “Hey, have you ever taken the elevator?” I ask him, throwing a questioning look his way as I shove my hands inside my jacket pockets to keep warm. It’s gotten chilly now that fall is descending into winter.

His voice echoes as our steps noisily clamor down the stairs. “Only when we moved the furniture in.”

“Oh yeah. That was a good day.” I open the staircase exit and step out into The Mission District, our neighborhood.

“Yeah,” he mutters, his thoughts still somewhere else. I toss him a glance, but he doesn’t catch the worried look behind my sneer. “Don’t say it.”

“You’re going soft of me.”

“You said it.”

“I did.”

We walk side by side, looking ahead, but I’m the only one who’s really here. He’s three thousand miles away, as he has been for the past month and change. The bite of the wind nips at my face and I hold back a shiver. I don’t know where we’re headed, but we’ll probably find one of the old haunts. The second I think that, I feel irritated, like I need something new.

I’m tired of running into the same old faces and we’ve gotten too comfortable, just like everybody else. The routine has become… routine. I’m not happy. I haven’t been in a long time, but it’s only begun to sneak into my consciousness. This feeling has been pulling at me, like something is missing from my life.

I need something. And I don’t know what it is.

If I’m going to get my heartbroken buddy back on track, I’m going to have to change the scenery… turn this train around to a different route. As we pass by Mission Bar, he says nothing, but when I pass Knockout, he turns to go in and double-takes when he sees me not following.

His eyebrows aren’t any more shoved together than they have been for the past four weeks, but there’s confusion in his eyes now. “Where you headed? What’s up?” He stands by the door with his hand on the handle.

I stop and look up at the sign, so familiar. I can even see Teri inside smiling at one of her friends. Teri’s always a great time and can your mind off anything. I’m very tempted to just say Fuck it. Open the door. But something inside, stops me. I step back instead, pulled by an urge I can’t quite put my finger on. “Let’s go someplace new. We need to change things up.”

Mark’s eyebrows go up and I think I see relief. He releases the door and walks back in line with me, moving away from same old same old, with less weight in his stride. “Where dya wanna go?” he asks.

I look around. “I don’t know. Let’s walk until we find a place. Anything to get that ugly mug of yours to stop looking so damned pathetic.”

He scoffs, replacing relief with frustration. “You don’t get it, Brendan.”

“I don’t get what? That you think you’re in love? Oh, I get it! You think walking around like this is the way to handle being dumped? Let me tell you, there is no woman so amazing that you throw away a month of your time dragging your feet around when the best thing that’s ever happened to you is finally here.”

“What?” He looks at me like he doesn’t know what I’m talking about.

“Unbelievable!” I stare at him. Still nothing. I smack him in the shoulder. “Hello! You’ve got investors financing your app! Or they’re interested, at least. You’re sitting on a gold mine. You’re going to be able to quit your job and be self-sustaining! I mean, COME ON! I’m sorry, but I would be pretty fucking stoked right about now.”

He looks everywhere else but at me. He’s listening though. And he must hear the sense I’m making, because if he didn’t, he’d just tell me to shut the fuck up. We walk awhile in silence until he says, “How about that place?”

I follow the jut of his chin to see a small lounge bar, painted black, with a big window that runs floor to ceiling. I check out the metal sign. “Le Barré? Huh. Must be new.”

He nods. “They used Atlas. I like it.”

I step into the street. “Please tell me you’re not talking about fonts again.” He smirks and I mutter, shaking my head, “Dweeb.”

We cross the street and I hold open the door for him. “Since you’re being such a girl, allow me.”

“Shut it,” he mutters.

“If it’ll make you happy, dear.” I close the door and follow him in. A new place. Huh. I don’t know why, but my blood quickens as soon as we walk into the dark room.

It feels like something is about to happen…