Overcoming Fear (Growing Pains #2) (26 page)

On the way to the bar, Cassie asked, “So,
how’s it going with my brother?”

Krista was immediately on her guard. “Am I
talking to friend or foe?”

“Friend. Confidante. Advice center should
you need it. I really want him to be happy, and you make him happy.
He...has a hard time with attachments...”

“He is his own worst enemy. He told me
why.”

She sighed, apparently feeling like a load
was taken off. Krista didn’t plan to warn her about sighing around
Jasmine. The fun was in the surprise.

“Yeah, our parents. I have a similar
problem, but not nearly as bad because of Sean. He’s the oldest,
which means, according to my parents, he was the first to ruin
their lives. I came along four years later, so their lives were
already destroyed by that point. I was only reminded what I kept
them from when I was in trouble—mostly by my mother. Sean was
reminded constantly, by both. Their marriage was his fault, as was
their divorce. As were most of the fights. He had it pretty
hard.”

Cassie shrugged, her eyes faraway, “But
despite that, or maybe because of it, he always looked after me. He
helped me with my homework, he played with me—he even caught a bus
once, at ten years old, to watch my first dance recital because my
parents weren’t planning to go. He got in trouble for it, too. He
was my guiding light growing up.”

Krista nodded, but she didn’t know what to
say. Cassie didn’t have to tell her any of this. It was extremely
personal. But helpful, too, in a way. Krista had no idea he’d had
to deal with that. His whole life. Probably still. She also had no
idea what it was like. It was a kind of emotional abuse she hadn’t
even learned about through movies.

“I didn’t mean to ruin your day,” Cassie
said with a sad smile. “Just thought it would help you. He means
well, but sometimes he has a problem with self-worth. As you can
imagine.”

“I
can’t
imagine, actually. I knew
nothing of that growing up. My parents are still married. They
tried for me for three years. Nearly gave up. I was the gleam in
their eye, so to speak. I was their miracle. Spoiled rotten, too,
until my sister came two and a half years later. Then we were both
spoiled rotten. She and I are rivals in everything, but I’m bigger,
so I beat her up.” Krista snickered. “She’s a clever little bitch,
though. She plays some pretty outstanding, though mean, practical
jokes.”

Cassie laughed, “I would have liked to have
had a sister. Or a normal family. Or someone to mess around with. I
couldn’t really mess around with Sean. When I tried to be mean, or
punch him, or if I threw a tantrum, he just waited patiently until
I stopped and then lectured me on why that was bad behavior. I
wouldn’t trade him for the world, but one fight might be nice.”

“You guys are really close.”

“Yes, we are. Much to the irritation of my
boyfriends.”

“You would think they’d be thankful it was
your brother and not your first love or something.”

“Men,” Cassie rolled her eyes, watching a
man at the back of the train with the largest pants they’d ever
seen. The man wasn’t obese, either. He was young and in shape. The
pants were decorated on the pockets with rhinestones and colored
thread, held up by an overworked belt. He was a fashion statement
that mumbled.

“Say no more,” Krista laughed. “But yeah, we
nearly had a meltdown last night. We made it through.”

“I like how you say ‘we,’
even though I’m sure you were
his
guiding light.”

“Not so much guiding as bitchy. I threw a
lot of emotional crap at him to even be friends. Now it’s his turn
to be unhinged.”

“You have such an honest, refreshing way of
communicating. I can see he’s in good hands.”

“I wouldn’t know about him being in good
hands--I’m as screwed up as anyone you’ll probably meet. But as far
as honest, you’ll get a whole lot of that with Kate and Jasmine. It
kind of rubs off.”

Cassie looked at her searchingly. She could
tell Cassie was really rooting for her to succeed with Sean. It
made her realize just how dire Sean’s issues really were. Krista
never backed away from a challenge, and nothing ever seemed easy,
but she wondered if she was in over her head with this one. She was
no psychiatrist.

They got to the restaurant and met up with
Jasmine and Kate, who remembered Cassie a lot better than Krista
did, though they were obviously wondering how she ended up hanging
out with all of them.

Krista had already decided she wasn’t going
to tell them about Sean and last night just yet, which she told
Cassie. If they weren’t working with her, it would’ve been
different, but she didn’t want gossip, and Kate was liable to let
something slip, especially with Marcus on the scene. That guy could
ferret out information better than anyone.

Dinner was delicious, as expected. It was a
tapas place that never really changed their menu, but never really
had to. The place was always busy, even on weekdays.

After they left, they just sort of picked a
bar at random and kept going from there. Some bars were better than
others, and some had more potent drinks than others, but all were
fun in their own way. In one bar, which by rights was a dive bar,
Cassie started on margaritas.

“Ooooh
, Cassie be careful with this bar and margaritas,” Krista
warned. “They don’t mess around here.”

“It’s only $7, though. For a pint glass
full! How potent can it be and still make money?”

“Honey,” Jasmine said, stepping up, “we are
in the Mission in a dive bar that has been here forever. Rent is
cheap, their upkeep looks nonexistent, and they have a big
clientele. They can afford to over pour. And they do.
Seriously.”

“But they make it from scratch. The
bartender told me he makes a mean margarita,” she persisted.

“Uh-oh, the bartender likes her. We are
fucked,” Kate said from behind them. She shoved her way through the
wall of women, got to the bar, and ordered four margaritas. The
middle-aged, though still emo/punk, bartender smiled and got to
work.

“We might as well all sink with the ship,
huh?” Kate said, putting money on the bar.

Krista shook her head, careful not to sigh.
Sean would find four puddles of women when he finally got
there.

Sure enough, not only did
the bartender always have a heavy hand, he made these drinks
especially
strong. They
shouldn’t have gone up for the second, but they were also extremely
delicious. After two, they were all tossed.

“Let’s move on,” Krista yelled over the
music.

“Where?” Jasmine yelled back.

“Elbow Room. We need to dance off some of
this alcohol!”

Kate nodded, unceremoniously yanked Cassie
to her feet, and away they went. It wasn’t until they were
stumbling down the street that Krista heard her phone.

“Oh
crap!
” Krista said, remembering that
she was supposed to be watching the time. She had no idea how long
they lingered over those margaritas, just that it wasn’t long
enough.

Everyone stopped and looked.

“Go ahead, I’ll be there in a minute.”
Krista gave Cassie a longish look that thankfully Jaz and Kate were
too drunk to catch.

“Is that that Paul guy again?” Cassie
asked.

Thank God for her good memory and quick
thinking under fire.

“Yeah,” Krista rolled her eyes. “He won’t
let it rest.”

Kate groaned and pulled Cassie along behind
her. “You know where we’ll be.”

“No shots!” Krista yelled after them. When
Kate started to get drunk, she jumped on the shot train and the
night went black quicker than a power outage.

Krista had missed the call, so she called
Sean back, seeing that it was half past ten.

“Hello?” he sounded irritated.

“Sorry
! I’m sorry! We had these super strong margaritas and I lost
track of time.”

“You sound like you had a truck load of
margaritas.”

“Two actually. Well, beer
before that, but the bartender liked Cassie, and we were at
Kilowatz
, and you know
Kilowatz, so Kate said we’d all have one. So we did. Then the
bartender bought us all a round, so we drank that. Then we tipped
him a good tip and left. But don’t worry, I didn’t tell him where
we were going next. Cassie is in the protective folds of
womanhood.”

There was silence.

“Hello?” Krista asked, checking to see if
her phone was still on. It was. And connected.

“Are you mad?” she asked quietly—as quietly
as a drunk person could talk, anyway.

“Mad, no. Worried, yes. Should I walk into
this drunken woman fest?”

“Yes, please. I want to see you. I didn’t
tell Jaz and Kate about us, so you have to play it cool. And I
know, no sex. I’ll try to remember. If you have any friends,
though, you might bring them.”

“I’m not enough for you?”

“You’re funnier in person, which isn’t
saying much.”

He laughed, “Okay. Where will you be?”

“Kilowatz. No wait, we just
left there.
ELBOW ROOM
, Elbow Room. They are already there. You might just come in.
Time is
flying
,
yo. I told them not to get the margaritas from that place! They
wouldn’t listen. Your sister is sure stubborn.”

Sean was laughing again. “Okay. I look
forward to seeing you.”

“Who doesn’t? Ciao!”

She stumbled her way to Elbow Room, got let
in with no charge--probably due to boob oozing everywhere—and found
the girls on the dance floor. She immediately joined in.

After an amount of time that a drunk person
is incapable of measuring, Kate grabbed her arm and dragged her to
the bar. She yelled, “--who is here!!”

“WHAT?” Krista screamed. She couldn’t hear a
blessed thing.

“Here, drink this,” Jasmine said, handing
Krista a shot.

“No way! No WAY! I said no shots!” Krista
yelled at the whole bar.

Cassie elbowed Kate out of the way, grabbed
the shot, and attempted to grab Krista’s nose. Apparently she was
trying to plug it so she could pour the shot down Krista’s throat.
She was so determined, and it was so absurd, that Krista laughed
and tried to bat her hands away. Cassie, not to be deterred,
managed to get Krista’s nose and was moving in with the shot when
she felt a hard body against her back.

Thinking it was some clown, Krista got
sidetracked trying to move away and Cassie got the shot to her
lips. It was horrible tequila.

Krista swallowed and sputtered, her stomach
instantly churning. “You bitch!” she yelled, coughing.

Cassie pointed and laughed before putting
the empty shot glass on the bar and heading back to the dance
floor.

Krista felt two hands slide around her waist
and knew immediately it was Sean. She leaned back against him, then
remembered Jaz and Kate. She straightened up quickly and turned
around to face him.

He was smiling down at
her.
Laughing
down at her more like.

“Having fun?” he asked.

“Your sister literally just poured a shot
down my throat. You saw it! I know you did! Could you not have
warned me about her?”

“The fun is in the surprise.”

“I was just thinking that earlier
tonight!”

His hair was in disarray, his polo shirt was
rumpled, and his jeans just wouldn’t quit. And while he was hot,
and definitely sexy, Krista just wanted to be near him. A check
told her Jaz and Kate were dancing with Cassie. Knowing they
wouldn’t notice her gone for at least ten more minutes, she moved
in closer.

“Hey baby,” he said as he slid his arms
around her back.

“Hi. I’m glad you came.” Then, because
slightly leaning wasn’t close enough, she slipped her arms around
his middle and angled her head to be kissed. She didn’t care who
saw, and if he tried to play it cool, she had already planned to
give him a titty-twister, and then embarrass him somehow.

Thankfully, he had no such thing in mind. He
bent his head to meet her lips, and let their kiss linger, then
blossom until they were flat-out making out. It was Krista who
finally pushed him off—she was a little too drunk to close her eyes
while upright for that long.

“Wow,” she said breathlessly. Then, because
she could, she grabbed his crotch.

“JE
-sus,” Sean said, jumping back before he could stop himself.
He had a lopsided grin as he said, “Yes, you doing that at work
might have been awkward. But I would have acclimated like a
champ.”

Krista laughed and leaned in again. He put
an arm around her shoulders and led her closer to the bar. “I need
to get a beer. You want anything?”

“Beer. No wait. No, nothing. Okay,
beer.”

Krista noticed for the first time that he
was in a group. “Oh hey, you brought the actors.”

Sean yelled over the din for a bunch of
beers--apparently he was buying for the cast--and turned back.
“Yeah, they were relieved I was finally heading somewhere decent
rather than the Sunset.”

“Did you tell them it was because your
girlfriend rocked, not because you did?”

Horror flashed across Krista’s face. “Shit,
I didn’t mean to say that! Truly! I don’t think of you that way,
honest!”

Sean was looking at her intently. “I did
actually tell them it was because I was meeting my girlfriend, yes.
But we are moving really fast. We should slow down.”

“Yes Captain. And no sex. I remember.”

Sean just nodded, his eyes never
wavering.

“Please note, if you get drunk, and
I...well, I am drunk...then we should sleep in separate beds,
because I will accost you.”