Her eyes came to me and she said, “Nina, congratulations, I see you’ve made it a week.”
I opened my mouth but Max got there before me.
On a sigh, he ordered, “Kami, tone it down.”
Kami’s eyes went to her brother and she asked in a way that stated she thought I shredded them then doused them with gasoline and set them afire, “Did Nina give you the papers?”
“Yep.”
“You talk to Trev?”
“Nope.”
“Max,” she hissed and in doing so got his full attention. Or I could say his full, scary attention. So scary I couldn’t help myself and partially shrunk away from him.
“Not gonna tell you again, Kami, that ain’t happenin’.”
“So, it’s up to me to take care of Mom all the time.”
“She’s not invalid.”
“She’s a pain in the ass.”
“So don’t give into her shit.”
“Easy for you to say, and do, not bein’ here hardly ever.”
“Maybe we can talk about this later when I’m not spendin’ time with Brody, who I rarely see.”
Kami didn’t feel like being generous and therefore asked, “You rarely see Mom and me either, Brody more important than family?”
“Yeah, Kami, if Brody walked up to my table at a nice restaurant, said shit to my woman and got in my face, he wouldn’t be too important. Seein’ as he don’t treat me like dirt then he is.”
Kami’s face got red, I took a hasty sip of my martini thinking I’d need it and my eyes slid to Mindy who looked pale, her eyes were wide but she still appeared to be trying hard not to laugh.
Kami appeared to have found a new direction for her ugliness because her eyes came to me and I was glad I took that sip of martini.
Then she looked back to Max and asked, “You gonna jerk her around like you did Shauna?”
Mindy gasped. Brody sucked in an audible breath and straightened. Max just straightened.
“Kami, careful, now you’re pissin’ me off,” Max stated in a tone that underlined his words unmistakably.
“She know?” Kami asked, either not processing or ignoring Max’s threat. “She know what you did to Shauna?”
“She knows we were together, she knows now we’re not,” Max returned. “You wanna carry on this conversation, we’ll do it outside.”
“You don’t want her to know,” Kami shot back and Max slid out of the booth but Kami’s eyes came to me. “Led her on, took her ring shoppin’ then scraped her off, givin’ her no reason whatsoever. Just ended it,” and she lifted up her hand and gave a loud snap with her fingers.
“Where’d you hear that shit?” Brody asked, his tone scathing.
“Shauna told me,” Kami answered.
“Shauna lied,” Max stated, his hand on Kami’s arm. “We’re finishin’ this elsewhere.”
She pulled her arm out of his hold and took a step back, accusing, “Shauna and I have been friends since forever and you treat her like that?”
Well that explained the attitude about Max and his supposed player status. Shauna had fed Kami lies and Kami, being what I knew of Kami, lapped it up.
My eyes went to Mindy and she bugged hers out at me in a “See!” look.
“Kami –” Max began but she kept talking.
“That’d be like me messin’ with Brody’s head.”
“Like that’d happen,” Brody muttered, visibly shivering in revulsion at the thought and it was my turn to fight back a laugh and I did so by taking another healthy sip of my martini.
Kami gave him a glare then turned to Max and dealt her death blow. “Or like when you fucked things up with me and Curt.”
My head snapped around at this interesting news and I stared at Kami.
“Uh-oh,” Mindy muttered.
“Kami, for fuck’s sake,” Max bit out.
“Christ, Kami, that was twenty years ago,” Brody put in.
“Not quite,” Kami snapped.
“You wanna do this here, great,” Max stated and crossed his arms on his chest. “Curt fucked things up with you and him, not me. He always wanted Bitsy, Kami, even when he was with you. He got his chance, he took it. Truth hurts but there it is. Curt’s dead, Bitsy’s broken and it’s time for you to get the fuck over it.”
“Bitsy’s not broken, she may be stuck in that chair but she’ll be rollin’ in Curtis’s money for the rest of her life.”
This utterly nasty comment was when I felt it necessary to intervene, why, I didn’t know, it was insane. But I did it.
“You’re a cow,” I declared and her eyes narrowed on me.
“What’d you call me?”
“A cow. We use that expression in England when we’re talking about a bitter, whinging woman.”
“What’s ‘whinging’?” Mindy asked on a whisper and I didn’t take my eyes off Kami as I answered.
“Moaning, complaining, nagging, bitching. That’s whinging.”
Kami leaned forward and hissed, “The nerve.”
“No, nerve is described in England as ‘cheek’, otherwise known as audacity or impudence, demonstrated by you walking up to our table and being a cow.”
“Nina,” Max muttered but he didn’t sound angry anymore, he sounded the opposite.
It was Max’s sister and if he didn’t want me to have a verbal altercation with her that was his call. I’d said my piece anyway.
So I sat back, drained my glass and declared, “I need another martini.”
“You gave up Shauna so you could end up with the likes of that?” Kami asked, gesturing with her hand at me.
Kami’s comment about Bitsy had been my final straw. Her insult to me was Max’s.
“I gave up Shauna because she was fuckin’ Curt at the same time she was fuckin’ me, hedgin’ her bets and tryin’ to talk Curt into leavin’ Bitsy so she could land him if she didn’t manage to land me. And I gave her up because, once she thought she was in, she was mostly a bitch and thought she could lead me around by my dick. She couldn’t, she didn’t like that, so she got even bitchier. When I finally scraped her off, she latched onto Harry who she could lead around by his dick at the same time spendin’ his money and fuckin’ around on him. Now, you got your explanation, you got your scene, go sit the fuck down and, I swear to Christ Kami, you don’t leave the drama behind next time I see you, I won’t fuckin’ see you. Yeah?”
My goodness. Max, I realized, was mostly patient in his Mountain Man way but when he was done being patient, he didn’t take any shit either.
“High and mighty, always were,” Kami shot back, still raring to go.
Max shook his head. He was done and I knew this because he slid in beside me and looked at Brody, remarking, “Remind me to thank you for this great fuckin’ idea. Steaks at The Rooster. Fuckin’ brilliant.”
“Don’t blame me,” Brody muttered, grinning.
“Waitress!” I called, lifting up my martini glass when I caught her eye and then circling it around the table indicating she should bring a fresh round for all.
“I love your top, Neens, I forgot to say,” Mindy told me.
“Oh yes, darling, and yours is lovely. I forgot to say that too,” I replied.
“And that thing in your hair,” Mindy continued. “It’s fab.”
“Thanks,” I smiled at her.
Kami emitted an annoyed, unladylike snort and stomped away.
When her lingering malevolent presence wafted away on her heels, Max’s arm came around me and he suggested, “Maybe we should put Kami in a room with your Dad, see who’s the last one standing.”
I looked at Max and proclaimed, “Dad would kick her ass.”
Max grinned and stated, “Babe, Kami ain’t no slouch.”
“I can see, still, Dad hadn’t given me the good stuff this morning. Probably jetlagged.”