11. SAM
CHAPTER 11
SAM
Gran is punishing me.
I didn’t say yes to a place to stay the first time she offered, so she gave my room away. To Diane of all people. Who, despite what my sister says, still hates me. And my grandmother is definitely on Team Diane, because she won’t give me her phone number so I can try to apologize again.
Now, two nights later, I’m kicking myself, but I can’t figure any way out of the mess I’ve created. Rentals in Greene County that allow pets are harder to come by than I expected, at least on my budget. If I were still working at Congento, I could buy a place. But I’d also be living in Connecticut and making the world a worse place.
The first night, I tried sleeping on Ethan’s couch. It was surprisingly comfortable, but hearing my brother and his girlfriend have sex was, unsurprisingly, uncomfortable.
I really didn’t need to know that my big brother whoops like a cowboy when he climaxes.
I could’ve gone my whole life without that knowledge.
The next night from the bed in Alex’s guest room, I unwill ingly learned that Alex, despite being the most taciturn of my siblings, does not shut up during sex. All kinds of dirty words come out of that boy’s mouth. Feeling like Goldilocks in a porn movie, I didn’t fall asleep until the wee hours. And then Gomer and Alex’s dog, Trixie, decided it was playtime the second dawn broke.
All that’s to say, I can’t stop yawning when I pick up Carlos for yet another ride along.
“What? I’m that boring?” he asks.
“Sorry, man,” I say over another yawn. “I’m not getting any sleep. I really need my own fucking place.”
After handing over the address to the farm we’re visiting first, he tells me that his cousin has a garage apartment coming available in a couple weeks. “Can you hold out that long?”
I blink, my eyes bleary. “Maybe. If I start mainlining coffee.”
“Careful there, son. We’ve got a lot of addiction issues in the county.”
Not sure if he’s serious or not, I tell him I’ll take the place. I don’t care what it looks like. Maybe some earplugs will get me through the next two weeks.
At the end of the day, I’m so tired I figure I could sleep anywhere, but when Carlos asks if I’m going to Trivia at Tiddy’s, my ears pick up.
“Trivia?” When Diane, aka Cortland1898, blocked me on Trivia Crush, I lost my taste for the app. “I didn’t know Tiddy’s Bar had trivia. When I was growing up, that place was a dump.”
“I’d say it’s graduated from dump to greasy spoon. Trivia started up this spring. Latonya’s nephew Markus does it. He’s pretty funny; calls himself MT Bottles. ”
“They have food?”
“They make a decent burger. Excellent onion rings.”
My stomach growls at the idea. “Maybe I will.”
“See you in a few, then,” Carlos says.
I stop by the Quick Lick on my way back to Alex’s. In addition to a farm, the Quick family has owned the place since it was the kind of general store that everyone visited on a daily basis. As I walk in, I notice that it’s had an upgrade too, but the offerings are pretty random. kind of like a hybrid crossing of a Circle K, a Duane Reade, and a deli.
When I ask Ginny Quick, a high school classmate who seems to run the family business these days, if they carry earplugs, she shakes her head. “I could order you some,” she says with a feral smile. The only smile she employs, at least in my experience. “Get here in a couple days.”
“That’ll have to do, I guess.”
“I heard you were back in town,” she says, leaning over the counter and putting her cleavage on display right next to the Slim-Jims and York Peppermint Patties. “We should get together.”
“I’m pretty busy, getting settled in at work and all.”
“Where are you working now?”
“I’ve been with the Cooperative Extension since January, but I just got transferred to this area.”
She sighs dramatically. “I have been trying to get my father to bring the CCE in. We are having a heck of a time with the corn rootworm.”
“We have all kinds of resources.” Backing out because it’s impossible to end a conversation with Ginny, I tell her, “Check the website,” before slipping out the door.
Back in my truck, I check the time and decide to just head s traight to Tiddy’s and get dinner for me and Gomer before trivia instead of going back to my brother’s place first. “Maybe if I stay up late enough, I’ll sleep through the night.”
I swear Gomer rolls his eyes at me .