8. Chapter Seven
Chapter Seven
Scarlett
If Karma had asked me this morning how I thought my afternoon would begin, I never would have guessed I’d be standing in my twin sister’s kitchen, making ice-cream float cocktails while we wait for the microwave to signal our popcorn is ready.
My average afternoon is spent agonising over word choices for lyrics, practicing songs and poking around in the fridge until I eventually decide to go out to one of the few fast-food places in my small town to grab something I don’t need to make for my usually super-late lunch.
I guess I skipped lunch today, but I think the mountain of popcorn and the ice-cream float vodka and coke makes up for it. I’m pretty sure popcorn counts as real food.
“These look deadly,” Sapphire tells me.
“There’s hardly any vodka in them,” I scoff, topping hers up with a little more cola.
“Hmm,” she murmurs, as she checks inside a cupboard and brings out a packet of straws.
Okay so there’s probably a couple shots worth in each.
That’s hardly lethal, but I know my sister doesn’t really drink a lot, so I make sure hers is sweeter tasting with coke and ice-cream filling the tall glass almost to the brim.
I leave a bit more space in my glass. I’ll probably drink it slowly while I let Sapphire fill me in on what’s been happening in her life.
The microwave pings and I smile.
“Our snacks are ready.”
I open the microwave and look around. “Where do you keep the bowls?”
She drops straws into our drinks and goes to the cupboard behind her. “I’ll grab the bowl.”
“Then, I’ll take our drinks to the living room, and you can bring the popcorn through.”
“On it,” she says, smiling.
“Bring the vodka, too. I might top mine up in a little bit.”
She laughs. “Okay, sure.”
I pick up the glasses, and make my way down the hall, past the bedroom to the living room.
The apartment is bright and modern and way beyond anything I could ever afford in the city.
It’s one of the nicer ones I’ve been inside, and it makes me so proud of my sister that this is all hers. She worked so damn hard to get to where she is. Earning this pretty apartment with its hardwood floors and great views of the city is a nice achievement.
She deserves a castle, if you ask me, but I’m sure she’d say she doesn’t need that kind of space.
I set the drinks down on the arms of her blue couch, and she places the big bowl of popcorn in the middle of the cushions. After a second, she places the vodka next to it, wedging it against the bowl to keep it upright.
“You think I could borrow a set of sweats?” I ask, since I didn’t bring anything to sleep in.
She nods. “Sure.”
She heads into her bedroom and comes back a few seconds later with her hands full.
It makes me smile to see she has a whole other set of the exact same clothes.
It reminds me of shopping trips we used to take when we were in high school.
She always picked out multiples of the same outfits.
I usually found one cool thing per trip, and I refused to waste money on anything boring just to have the extra options.
“Same old Sapphire. I’m guessing you still buy clothes in bulk when you go shopping?”
“I just know what I like,” she defends herself, as she sits down on her side of the couch.
“It’s cute,” I tell her, as I set the clothes down on the couch.
Finally, I get to kick off my ankle boots. My feet feel so much better once they’re free.
I take my shirt and jeans off next, dropping them to the floor in a heap.
The sweatpants feel so much comfier when I haul them on that it makes me wonder if she’d even notice if they were gone. Saph probably has a dozen pairs, but I shouldn’t be thinking about stealing them like I used to when we were living under the same roof.
That was different. She could take them back whenever she wanted.
I slip the tank over my head and then tug the hoodie down on top.
Then, I’m all warm and cozy. I let out a sigh.
It almost feels like Christmas morning in the Faris household.
“So comfy. Now, it feels like a girlie sleepover,” I tell her, before I sit down and pick up my drink.
It’s kind of funny that we’re wearing the exact same outfit right now.
Our parents never did the whole dressing us identically thing.
I was almost always in something red, because of my name.
Sapphire was almost always in something blue, because of hers.
Neither of us rebelled against that choice.
Somehow, we each ended up loving the color associated with our names, and we’ve always liked to show that.
I have my red jacket, and my lipstick.
Sapphire has blue sweaters and a blue living room.
Right now, we’re both in grey and white and it’s kind of cute.
“So, what’s the long story?” she asks suddenly.
I blink, forgetting for a second that I promised to tell her what was going on with me.
She leans back, sips at her float, and then sets it back down on the arm of the sofa.
Right. I was going to tell her about the bet. I thought it might cheer her up a bit or whatever.
I let out a sigh at the thought of telling the story.
It’s so dumb.
“Whatever it is …” she starts, clearly ready to assure me it can’t be that bad.
“It’s embarrassing,” I admit.
“It is?” she asks, raising an eyebrow.
“It’s super embarrassing.”
In fact, it’s so cringe-inducing that I don’t even want to tell the story.
One look at Saph’s curious face and I know I have to.
Too late to back out now.
She needs the details.
“What happened?”
“Well, okay. I’m out with the girls and we head to this place that’s like the local drinking hole for cops and whatever, because Karma loves a man in uniform and it’s somehow the first time she’s heard about this place.”
“Something embarrassing happened to you in a cop bar?” she sounds shocked.
“Yeah. I’m not super thrilled because there’s a gig across town we could be at, but whatever. It was Karma’s turn to pick the place. We go in, and I get my usual, and then I see there’s a section with pool tables.”
And she can already see where this conversation is headed.
I’m a shark, and she knows it.
Her eyes widen. “Oh my God, Scar. Please tell me you didn’t try to hustle a bunch of cops.”
“Hey, it’s not a crime to pretend to be bad at something you’re actually good at.”
It can even be fun, but that’s only when you’re the one doing the hustling.
“But it’s not legal to place a bet on a game in a bar!” Saph blurts.
She’s halfway right.
“Well, kind of,” I mutter, my free hand moving over the frilled edge of one of her blue couch cushions. I get all touchy-feely when I’m reliving less than pleasant memories for some reason.
“What do you mean, kind of?”
I stop fussing with the cushion’s edge and look up at her before I answer, “You’re just not allowed to gamble with cash.”
“O-Kay,” she murmurs, starting to frown.
Might as well get it over with.
“I lost a bet to a group of these losery, stick-in-the-mud guys. So, now I have to …” I pick up my drink and sip at it, mumbling the rest because it feels bad to hear it out loud.
She laughs. “What was the wager of this bet you lost, exactly?”
I put the drink back down. She’s making me say it out loud.
“If I won, they would spend a week cleaning our house.”
She blinks at me. “Cleaning your house?”
I shrug. “We’re busy career women. Who has time to clean?”
“Anyone who doesn’t want to live in a pigsty?”
“I’d hardly call it a pigsty. Anyway, these guys totally hustled me and now I have to clean their house for the week.”
“Just you? Not you and your friends?”
Ugh. She just hit on the suckiest part.
“I’m the one who made the bet. They take nothing to do with it.”
Funny how they were cool with it when the bet was going to work in their favor.
Cleo’s seen my hustle and she respects it. Erin was cool with whatever.
Karma thinks it’s dumb. She’s the one who convinced Cleo and Erin that I was the one who made the bet, so they didn’t have to take on the consequences.
I can believe she did that. I can’t believe they agreed with her.
“You’re not going to honor it, are you?” Saph asks.
She’s shocked for sure, and a little worried about me.
“I kind of have to. They’re our next-door neighbors,” I reveal, letting her off the hook when it comes to worrying about my safety or whatever.
“Um, what?” she asks, blinking at me.
“Captain Bishop and his team from Silver Valley Fire Department live right next door to us,” I tell her. “They’re so boring, Saph. They told us off about the barbeque we had set up when we had that backyard party last year.”
“Wait, was that the barbeque that singed Karma’s bangs …”
Ugh. I knew she’d bring that up.
“When she used it to light her cigarette, yeah. It was, and maybe they had a point about that one, but some of the other stuff they bug us about is just annoying. Like leaving our trash cans out on the street after they’ve been emptied.
And now I have to go spend a week scrubbing their floors and whatever. ”
“Whatever?”
“They’ll be around while I’m there. They made sure they scheduled their vacation time around it.”
As if it couldn’t get any more embarrassing, they intend to be there while I’m on my hands and knees, scrubbing the floor. Probably so they can tell me when I’ve missed a spot.
Their captain is seriously annoying.
He’ll probably be looking over my shoulder the whole time.
“That’s kind of weird,” Saph says.
Weird, yeah, but not completely unexpected.
I haven’t exactly given them any reason to think I can be left alone in their house.
“One or two of them don’t exactly trust me. They probably think I’m going to buy fish and hide them in their vents or something instead of cleaning.”
Sapphire snorts softly. “Is that what you were thinking of doing?”
“No. Maybe. I don’t know. Cleaning is so damn boring, and these guys are so meh, Saph. I thought fire fighters were supposed to be hot.”
Not that I’ve ever been attracted to men in uniform.
That’s way too buttoned down and serious.
“Considering you don’t find a guy hot unless he looks like he spent all night in a mosh pit …” Sapphire starts, screwing up her nose.
“Don’t yuck my yum,” I cut her off.
“I wasn’t! I was just …”
“You were just telling me my neighbors are probably hot and I just can’t see it.”
“Well … Maybe.”
The look on her face makes me laugh.
She’d probably like them.
They’re so nice and wholesome.
A light switches on above my head.
“Maybe you should go clean their house for me,” I suggest, testing the waters.
“What? No. You’re not roping me into that.”
She looks horrified, but part of me is thinking my boring, harmless neighbors might be exactly what she needs to get over the asshole who broke her heart.
“Please? You know I’m allergic to cleaning.” It’s a weak protest, but I need to try.
“You don’t like cleaning. You’re not allergic to it.”
“Same thing.” I sit back and take another long, slow sip of my alcoholic float.
I’m starting to like the idea of getting Sapphire to agree to clean Pack Bishop’s house.
Those guys are real Alphas, so at the very least Sapphire would get the chance to be around men who don’t just act like they know how to take care of an Omega.
I can’t help the smile that comes to my lips as I finish my drink.
“What?” Saph asks, warily.
“Nothing,” I sing as I reach for the bottle of vodka.
I’ll shut up about it for now, but I’m definitely going to find a way to make this happen.
My sister could use a safe rebound guy, and I’m sure she’ll meet the right one in that house.
So, I top her up and I get myself another drink, this time without the ice-cream add-in.
I’ll stick around until I find a way to convince her to come meet my neighbors.
I know when I’m onto a winner.