Chapter 5
If I was going to snap out of it, I would have by now.
Sophia
“I don’t understand why you’re not moving back home to stay with us,” Mom says as she sets one of my suitcases down in Weston’s living room.
“I am not moving back home,” I say for probably the millionth time since I discovered the bathroom in my new apartment building needs to be completely gutted.
“Why not?” She pouts. “Do you not love us?”
I roll my eyes. “Don’t bother with your guilt trip. You know why I’m not moving home.”
“No, I do not.”
“Okay, I’ll play. How about you turned my bedroom into a crafting room?”
“Which she never uses,” Dad mumbles.
Mom slaps his stomach. “You can use your brother’s room.”
My head rears back. “Have you fumigated his room since the last time I was home?”
Mom’s nose wrinkles. “His room is pretty smelly.”
“There you have it. The reason I will not live with my parents.” I bow to my audience having proved my point.
“I’ll clean his room. It’ll be fine. Or you can sleep in the basement.”
She thinks she’s won. She has not. “And do you promise to never do naked yoga again?”
“I wasn’t naked,” Mom huffs.
“You weren’t wearing a top either.”
“Topless is not naked.”
Weston raises his hand. “I agree. Topless is not naked.”
I lift my eyebrows. “You’d be happy to walk in on Mom doing the downward dog without a shirt on?”
His face pales. “Um, no.”
I smirk. “And there you have it, folks. The reason why I’m living—”
“Temporarily.” He interrupts.
“Temporarily.” I amend. “With my big brother.”
“Okay, I’ll allow this,” Mom concedes.
“I’m thirty, not some rebellious teenager, this is happening whether you allow it or not,” I grumble.
“But,” she continues as if I hadn’t spoken, “you are required to attend our family poker game every month.”
“Do you still play drunk poker?” I ask, although I doubt my parents would ever do anything as boring as play regular poker. There’s nothing regular about my parents.
I used to wish my parents were ‘normal’ in high school, but my girlfriends adored them. I had to beg them to leave on school nights. They never wanted to go back home. Considering their home lives at the time, I couldn’t blame them.
“Of course. Is there any other way to play poker?”
“Strip poker,” Dad suggests.
“No!” I hold up my hand. “I don’t need a reminder of the time I found the two of you spread out on top of the poker table.”
Mom shivers. “It was a very good time.”
“Yuck.” I feign barfing. “Enough.”
“Speaking of strip poker.” Dad winks at Mom. “I think we should leave the kids to settle in.”
“Don’t forget about poker next week,” Mom hollers as Dad drags her out of Weston’s house.
I shut the door behind them and lean against it. “I’d go to a therapist to deal with the damage having those two weirdos for parents has done but any therapist on the island would tattletale to them.”
“Come on, sis. They’re not so bad. At least they stuck around.”
I sigh. I know exactly who Weston is referring to – Flynn’s dad. He took off after his mom died. Left without any parental supervision, Flynn went wild. Shoplifting, drag racing, pickpocketing – name a petty crime and he probably did it.
But then Mom and Dad took him in. Their rules weren’t strict, but they didn’t abide crime. It took a while, but Flynn straightened up.
“You good here?” Weston asks and brings me out of memories of watching Flynn turn into a man my heart desires. “I’m off to Bootlegger. It’s Mermaid Karaoke Week.”
I chuckle. “Have fun. But don’t let her mesmerize you or you’ll be stuck swimming around in the ocean as a merman for eternity.”
He sticks out his chest. “I’d make an excellent merman.”
“You do know merman don’t have any…” I indicate my crotch region.
He winces. “Knock it off. There aren’t any actual mermaids at karaoke anyway.”
I open the door for him. “This is Smuggler’s Hideaway. You never know…”
One of the legends of the island centers on a mermaid. According to the story, a smuggler fell in love with a beautiful mermaid. They could only spend brief moments together as she couldn’t stay on land for very long and he couldn’t stay in the water.
One day another mermaid came to the smuggler and promised him he could stay in the water with his mermaid love forever. All he had to do was dive into the ocean.
Unbeknownst to the smuggler, his mermaid love paid a visit to a witch. In exchange for her mortality, she was given legs to live on land. But when she arrived on the island, she discovered her smuggler had drowned in the ocean. She committed suicide by diving into the ocean from the highest cliff on the island.
The cliff now has a statute to commemorate the legend. There’s even a small theme park there.
“I’ll make sure to not fall in love,” Weston says as he leaves.
I shut the door behind him and grab my suitcase to unpack in his guest bedroom. The room is pretty threadbare. There’s a bed and a dresser, and nothing else. There are no night tables next to the bed. There’s nothing on the walls.
It’s kind of depressing. It’s also temporary. Soon enough I’ll be back at my own apartment. I hope.
I change into my pajamas and settle into bed with my tablet. Tomorrow is my first day working at the brewery and I want to be well rested. I may be part-owner of Five Fathoms Brewing , but I still want to do a good job. I need to show the people on the island that I’m not a failure.
I startle when my alarm wakes me out of a hot dream of me and Flynn in this very bed. I rub a hand down my face. No more dreaming about the man who doesn’t want me.
I throw the covers off and make my way to the bathroom in the hallway. The door opens before I reach it, and a woman steps out. She’s naked. Butt. Ass. Naked.
“Who are you?” she asks.
“You stole my line. Who the hell are you?”
She crosses her arms over her chest and her boobs barely bounce with the movement. “I’m the one Weston spent the night with. I’m the one he wants. Not you.” She wrinkles her nose as she studies me.
“Listen, fake tits. You can have him. I don’t want him.”
“Why are you in his house early in the morning if you don’t want him? And my tits aren’t fake.”
“Sure, they’re not.” I motion toward the hallway. “Could you get out of my way? I need to use the bathroom. I don’t want to be late to work.”
She widens her stance to block my entry. “Tell me who you are first.”
“Just move before I make you.”
“You’re going to make me move? You?” She snorts.
“Last chance.”
She barks out a laugh. “You’re hilarious.”
I sweep out my left foot and catch both her legs before she has a chance to respond. She falls to the ground.
“Bitch!” she screams before jumping to her feet and rushing me. She pulls on my hair, but I use the flat of my hand to chop her forearm. She releases my hair with a moan.
“That’s going to bruise, bitch.”
And now I’m done. I wrap my hand around her throat and shove until her back hits the wall with a thunk.
“Do not call me bitch.” To emphasize the point, I squeeze her neck. She scratches at my forearm, but I don’t let up.
“BITCH!” she screams at the top of her lungs.
Weston’s door flies open, and he rushes into the hallway. He screeches to a halt when he notices me. He smirks.
“I guess you remember those self-defense moves I taught you, Sis.”
“Sis? This bitch is your sister?” Fake tits asks.
Weston sighs. “I think it’s time for you to leave.”
“You’re choosing her over me?”
“Why are you surprised? Did they use your brain matter to fill your breasts?” I release her and she crumples to the ground.
Weston helps her to stand before leading her to the front door. “I’m naked. Can’t I get my clothes first?”
“You weren’t wearing any.”
I bark out a laugh. Leave it to my brother to pick up a naked woman and bring her back home. I let him handle his ‘visitor’ and go get ready for my day.
When I enter the kitchen sometime later, Weston is sitting at the dining room table.
“This isn’t going to work,” we say in unison.
“Jinx!”
I giggle as I sit across from him. “I know why I think this isn’t going to work. But why do you think it isn’t?”
“I can’t have you attacking every woman I bring home.”
“I don’t know why not. It saves you the trouble of kicking them out.”
He chuckles. “Sorry, Sis. No dice. Will you stay with Mom and Dad?”
“Um. No. I’m sure I can stay with one of my girlfriends.”
“I thought you were staying with me because none of them would take you in.”
I throw a napkin at him. “I’m not a lost puppy.”
“Nah. More like a junkyard dog the way you took Sabrina out.” He feigns wringing her neck. “Don’t call me bitch.”
“Bitch is rude.”
He sips on his coffee. “If none of your girlfriends can handle a junkyard dog, you can always stay with Flynn.”
“Flynn? Why would I stay with Flynn?”
My body warms and all my nerves come to life at the idea of staying with Flynn. I could accidentally walk in on him in his bedroom. Does he sleep naked? I’d enjoy finding out.
“He’s got a huge house. You could probably stay in one wing and never run into him.”
“It’s fine. I’ll stay with one of my girlfriends.”
He shrugs. “If you’re sure.”
Trust me. I’m sure. No way am I staying with Flynn and having him remind me of how much he doesn’t want me. I get the picture already.
Too bad my body wants to tear the picture up and burn it to the ground.