"Come on, Tim, why?"
"Because I don't feel like it."
"You don't feel like eating and having a beer?"
Tim looked up at his brother as he wiped down the bar. There were only a few people in tonight and despite how much he hated that tiny little trailer, Tim couldn't wait to get back to it. It had a beer waiting for him and he couldn't wait to drink his thoughts away. It was his new favourite pass-time.
"Billy, I work tomorrow night, just like I'm supposed to be working right now, not fighting with you about how I'm NOT going to be coming over to your house for family dinner tomorrow night."
"Why? I thought we were doing good. I'd hoped you'd forgiven me, at least a little."
Tim sighed. He had forgiven Billy. He just hadn't forgiven himself. "Look, Billy, I'm tired and I don't want to argue with you. I'm not angry at you, I'm just not up for family dinner. The last one didn't go that great."
Billy smiled. "What are you talking about? It was fine."
Tim narrowed his eyes at his brother who was obviously losing his mind with twins on the way. "Billy, there was almost a cat-fight, I basically got called a man-whore, I fought with my… with Andie, she stole my truck and is now gone. Sorry if I'm not ready for a repeat."
"Timmy," Billy said, mimicking Tim's posture and facial expression, "Cat fights are hot, you are a man-whore, or at least you were, and just because Andie isn't here doesn't mean we can't have a family dinner."
Tim opened his mouth but shut it again when he realized that anything he said was only going to make what was going on in his head lately perfectly clear and the last thing he wanted was everyone knowing what was going on in his head. Then they would know how much of an idiot he had been.
Instead of answering, Tim just walked away and continued cleaning. He turned when he heard Billy say, "Holy shit". It seemed Billy had turned to leave and come face to chin with Damon. Tim, being slightly taller than Billy, had been surprised at Damon's height but wasn't as dwarfed by Damon as Billy was. Damon had, if possible, gotten a little taller.
Damon just looked down at Billy before Billy finally picked up his jaw and walked around Damon, leaving the bar.
Tim watched his brother leave, as did Damon, before Damon turned back and met Tim's eyes. After the conversation Tim and Damon had before Andie left, Tim couldn't meet Damon's eyes for too long. He looked down at his hands that were holding the dish towel. "What are you doing here, Damon? I thought you guys had cleared out for good last month."
Damon didn't say anything and when Tim looked up he was surprised to see Damon smiling. Damon never smiled. He smirked, sure. But this was a flat out smile.
Tim grew even more uncomfortable than he had been. And that irritated him. "What are you smiling at?"
Damon stopped smiling and shrugged. He explained himself but as soon as he spoke Tim knew the mistake he had made. "I'm just thinking that you're lucky I'm here and not Damon because he'd probably kick your ass instead of smile."
Pythias' voice wasn't quite as deep as Damon's and his accent was stronger. He also had a lilt to his voice. Where Damon had been serious, a little dark and full of moneyed arrogance, Pythias sounded more like his sister; jovial and laid-back.
Tim nodded his understanding of the mistake and sat the towel on the counter before crossing his arms over his chest. "It's Pythias, right? Damon's twin."
Pythias nodded. "Yeah, Everyone calls me Theo, though. You can too, I guess, despite how much of an ass you've been."
Tim felt the same confusion with Theo as he did with Andie. They didn't act how he expected. Despite how Theo obviously wasn't impressed with how Tim and Andie had parted ways, he still laughed after he said it. He was calm and relaxed. He sat on one of the stools at the bar and leaned against it like an over-sized six-year-old.
"No offense, Theo, but what are you doing here? Like I said, I didn't expect to see any of you again."
Again Theo smiled and laughed. "Clearly." He looked around at the other patrons before smiling at a couple of older women at a table across the room. The women smiled back before leaning together and whispering like school-girls. Tim used to be able to make women of all ages do that too.
"Don't you have a pregnant girlfriend somewhere who needs you?"
Laughter. "Aurelia knows me well. And Trusts me. Because she knows that I am charming and attractive, but she also knows that I love her without question and at the end of the day she is what matters to me. Mutual trust is important in a relationship. Just like I trust her to be spending the evening with my brother at her check-up right now."
That was surprising. "Damon is with her at her doctor's right now? Doesn't he have feelings for her? Don't you? Shouldn't you be with her, seeing as you're the father, right?"
The smile finally faded from Theo's face but it wasn't replaced with anger. More like sadness. "I have been made aware of Damon's feelings for Aurelia and we have talked about it. But our brotherly relationship has mutual trust as well. Fences have been mended and we are closer than ever now. We have to be." Tim heard a double meaning there but before he could think of how to ask about it Theo continued. "Both Damon and Aurelia understand why I'm not there. It was Aurelia's idea for me to come and Damon understood that this was something he couldn't do." The smile was back. "At least not without punching you in the face."
Tim was losing patience quickly. "So this brings me back to what are you doing here?"
Despite his smile, Theo sat up straight before speaking. When he spoke, however, it wasn't an explanation, but an accusation. "You're a coward and a bastard and if I didn't have better reasons for not doing so, I would probably have let my brother come and beat the shit out of you tonight."
Tim just looked at him. Yeah, Theo's words pissed him off, but what was he supposed to do? Start a fight at work and lose his job? He had a house to save up for and if he lost his job not only would he be further from that dream but he would be in trouble with his parole officer. "So why didn't you let him come?"
"One thing my sister taught me is that everybody deserves the chance to redeem themselves. If they don't take the chance then that's their problem but you're a lesser person if you don't offer it. I'm here to offer you a chance to redeem yourself. I just have to make sure of a few things first."
Redeem himself. Tim figured it was a little late for that now. Andie had left over a month ago and because his… attachment (shudder)… for her had scared the shit out of him, he hadn't contacted her since. He had picked up his phone and stared at it at least ten times a day but he couldn't bring himself to push the buttons required to bridge that gap. He wasn't ready for what he felt and he certainly wasn't ready to be feeling it with a girl who had brothers to look after. Tim could barely look after himself.
"Look, Theo, your sister didn't get this, probably she's too good a person for a reality like this, but I'm not the kind of guy who can be redeemed."
The smile was back. "The fact that you think that says differently. So does what Damon told me."
Tim rolled his eyes and picked up the towel again. "Oh yeah, and what does Damon have to say?"
Laughter. "Damon says that you're in love with Andie."
Tim was just becoming able to say the word attachment. L… L… The L word was just too much for Tim to even think about right now. "Damon doesn't know me very well."
"That's true." Theo stared at Tim so hard that Tim was afraid his eyes would pop out of his head. Finally, out of nowhere, Theo leaned forward. "Can I get a beer?"
Again Tim was completely thrown by Theo. "Can you get a beer? Of course you can't get a beer. You're seventeen years old."
"Really? Because my ID says I'm twenty two as of five months ago." Theo slid the ID across the bar.
Tim picked it up and looked at it. Tim had fake IDs so he knew the ways to tell what was or wasn't real. But Theo's ID was top-of-the-line. If Tim didn't remember for a fact everything that Andie had told him, he might have been tempted to believe the numbers on the ID. Instead he threw the ID back at Theo. "You're seventeen and you don't turn eighteen for another three months."
Theo smiled wide. "Do you know my sister's name?"
Now this was getting ridiculous. "Listen, Kid, I have to work and whatever game you're playing is getting on my nerves. You want to throw a punch, then do it, but other than that, get out of the bar."
Theo's face went so serious that Tim could have sworn Theo was just shot. "Did she tell you her name; her full name?"
Sighing and rubbing a hand over his face, Tim threw the towel back down and leaned back against the bar. "Andie Marinos."
Theo didn't smile, but he loosened up his posture a bit. "Did she tell you her birthday?"
Tim thought back over his interactions with Andie and shook his head.
Theo nodded and rose from the stool. "I will come back at closing time and we will have a little chat."
That surprised Tim. "Why would we need to… chat? I have nothing to say."
Theo paused on his way to the door to turn around and smile at Tim. This time, however, his smile was deadly serious and more intimidation than amusement. "Oh I think that has been made quite clear from the way you slept with my sister and then disappeared into the night when she needed you most."
He said it loud enough that it carried through the bar and everyone left in it turned to look between Theo and Tim. Tim gritted his teeth and walked around the bar to stand a foot from Theo. "You don't have any idea what happened between me and Andie. And I don't intend to tell you anything about it."
Theo shook his head. "I assure you, I have a pretty good idea what happened. But I never expected you to tell me anything. Like I said, you have been clear on your dislike to say anything. However," Theo lowered his voice and leaned a little closer to Tim. "you might have some questions once we reach the topics of her weddings."
Tim's stomach dropped. "Weddings?" As in multiple? She'd been married multiple times? He really hadn't known her at all.
"Yes, weddings. I'll see you tonight."
With that Theo turned and walked out.
Tim spent the rest of his shift going through the motions. He'd been working there long enough, and had spent enough time in bars, to know what to do without having to really think about it. When everyone was gone he rushed through his closing routine. He tried to act like he wasn't eager to know what Theo had been talking about, but when he made it outside and locked up the bar, Tim's anxiety had him pacing outside the bar, waiting for Theo to show up.
Thirty minutes later a silver Jaguar flew into the parking lot and pulled up beside Tim. The door popped open and Theo shot Tim a look that clearly said "I knew you'd be waiting".
"Get in." Theo said.
Tim only hesitated a minute before sliding into the expensive car and closing the door. Theo shot out of the parking lot and two corners later Tim was putting on a seat belt for the first time it years.
"You have a kid on the way, you might want to slow down." Tim was actually beginning to feel sick.
"Please." Theo said. "I've been racing cars since I was thirteen years old."
That didn't make Tim feel any better.
Luckily their ride was over a few minutes later. Tim hadn't realized where they were headed, he had been so focused on staying alive and not vomiting in the most expensive car he'd ever been in.
"If you were going to drive me home, why couldn't I drive myself?"
Theo smiled. "I wanted you unsettled."
Tim took off his seat belt and opened his door, feeling the wind rush over his face. "Me or my stomach?" he asked. Theo just laughed to himself. Once Tim was out of the car, his brain began focusing on things again. "How did you know where I live?"
"Research."
Tim rolled his eyes. This whole family was insane. Who in their right mind did research on a person?
He walked over to his trailer and pulled out his cooler. Opening it up he pulled out a beer and sat in his lawn chair. Theo had the gall to take a beer for himself but Tim really didn't feel like arguing. There were too many things running around in his mind.
The most important one being, "So Andie was married before?"
"No." Theo said, sitting down in the chair beside Tim.
Tim froze with his beer half way to his mouth and looked at Theo. "But you…"
"I said weddings." Theo cut Tim off. "I never said marriage. Andie has never been married."
Tim was completely aware of how possessive he suddenly felt. Just like when he had been talking to Billy and had almost said "My girlfriend". The thing that killed Tim was that he'd never had any right to feel possessive with Andie. She had given him that option, more than once, and he had rejected it. And yet he felt possessive to his very soul when someone challenged it.
"She has planned two weddings and had three engagements." Theo said, cranking up Tim's possessive emotions.
Tim took another drink of beer and tried to choke down the acid in his throat before he could bring himself to speak. "Why didn't she get married? What happened?"
Theo smiled. "Look at that! You have a question. Imagine that." Tim shot Theo a glare that clearly said 'Don't fuck with me, kid".
Theo laughed before shrugging and continuing. "The first engagement was when she was seventeen. It lasted about six months. Andie had met Joshua in boarding school. He was two years older than her and she was completely infatuated with him. He proposed to her after his first year of college and she was so happy. They did everything together that summer. She wanted to have the wedding that fall but he said he wanted to finish school first. So they held off planning the wedding."
Tim tried to picture the girl Theo painted as he spoke about how happy the lovebirds had been and through most of it he just felt a great deal of jealousy. But the more Theo described, the less jealous Tim felt. Mainly because the girl he described sounded less and less like the Andie he knew. The care-free exuberance and breakneck forward speed wasn't like Andie at all. Yes, she could be laid back and fun and even a little wild, but she was also polite, reserved and cautious. This young Andie didn't sound like that at all.
"So if they were so happy, what happened?" Tim asked.
"Andie flew to surprise him on her Christmas break. When she arrived she found out why he hadn't been pushing her to have pre-marital sex."
Theo didn't have to say anymore. Tim could picture it far too clearly. He could see the young, impressionable Andie that was so foreign to him showing up to surprise her fiancé with all the good intentions of someone who was in love with the idea of someone, only to find out that they weren't the person she'd hoped.
Theo took a drink of his beer before he continued. "After that she withdrew a lot. Her grades dropped, her interactions with everyone changed. She became suspicious, argumentative and rebelled. It went on for months. She got in a lot of trouble and it really worried our parents. Mom was pregnant with Castor but it was early on and they hadn't told anyone yet. When the engagement was called off they decided to wait a while to tell everyone, give Andie some time to get over it. But as time went on and she just got worse, they decided the news might snap her out of it. They were wrong. I don't know if Andie knows that I know what happened next, but I heard mom and dad talking about it one night."
"Talking about what?"
"Andie, seeing how happy mom and dad were, and feeling like she couldn't find any other way to be happy, went out and slept with some random guy. Eventually the stress, anger and hurt broke Andie down and she let it all out. She went to a psychiatrist for a bit and worked through it. But by the end of school she had decided she didn't want to go to college. I'm not really sure why she decided not to, and I know mom and dad weren't happy about it but they couldn't do much. Andie had made up her mind and they didn't want to do anything to upset her.
"It actually did her good, traveling instead of college. Whatever she had been struggling to find after the break up, she must have found it that summer, because when she came back for Castor's birth, she was different. She was calm. She didn't look around like something was going to hit the fan at any moment. She laughed again."
Tim looked at Theo and realized he was caught up in the memory even as he told it. The look on his face spoke both of the worry he'd had for his sister's well being and the amazement and happiness when she had found some kind of peace. Still as he continued with the story, the Andie he spoke of still wasn't Tim's Andie.
"It was just after Andie's nineteenth birthday that our parent's died. Andie had been babysitting Castor because it was our parent's anniversary. Damon and I were at a soccer tournament and when Andie got the news, I don't know how she did it, but she had the neighbour watch Castor and she drove the three hours to where we were and had us dismissed from the game. We were so pissed off until we stopped complaining and Damon elbowed me in the stomach. The look on Andie's face when she told us… I was upset, I mean how can you not be shattered when your parent's die, but Andie's face… I don't know how she managed to drive us back home, but she did. She held Damon and I while we cried, she arranged the funeral, she looked after Castor. She even managed to finish planning the charity event our mom had been organizing at the time."
Tim recognized the signs better than most would. "She was in denial." He said and Theo nodded. "Did it last long?"
Again, Theo nodded. "Months. She kept going, looking after us all and picking up everything that mom and dad did. She didn't need to work, of course, but they had certain clubs they helped with and Andie did it all."
Tim remembered what his mother had been like at first. Andie had obviously pulled it off better, Tim's mother had been robotic. How strong Andie would have needed to be just to manage to give the boys the love they needed… it was unbelievable.
"It kept going until she met Drake." Theo smiled again and Tim was immediately jealous of Drake. "He was our assistant coach. Once we felt ready to go back to soccer, Andie made sure we got there. She made snacks for every practice and showed up to every game. I guess Drake must have seen what Damon and I hadn't because he started taking an interest in her welfare. She avoided him like the plague at first. After all she was trying to be the perfect parent and Drake had a checkered past."
A checkered past… Tim could hear Damon's words echoing in his head.
"Andie has a habit of attracting people who are broken and looking for someone to fix them."
"Once she let him close enough, he broke whatever bubble she was keeping herself in and she broke down. The pain she was feeling… I can't even imagine that. Damon and I were angry, of course. With her finally dealing with her feelings, she didn't feel capable to doing everything. I think most of it was self doubt but she reached out to the only family we had left… Our aunt and uncle. She had just wanted a bit of help, but uncle insisted that we move in to help take pressure off her. With us looked after Andie had more time to focus on herself. Damon still has a little resentment about her taking off so much and Andie feels bad about it but she had kept strong for us for so long. I get that she needed to heal herself too. She spent a lot of time with Drake and I really think that everything might have worked out for them had Uncle not gotten involved."
Tim would be happy that their uncle got rid of Drake if he didn't know the kind of crap their uncle liked to pull.
"Drake and Andie got engaged and started planning the wedding. They were going to have a short engagement. But then uncle found out. It wasn't like they were keeping it from him but he was at work a lot because they were having problems with one of their clients. When he was home long enough to find out about the upcoming nuptials, he put his foot down. He tried everything to convince her that she was making a horrible mistake but Andie was in love. It was about a week after that when uncle found the motivation he needed to make Drake go away."
Tim really didn't like the sound of that. Tim was beginning to believe that with the right motivation their uncle could enslave the world. Theo looked over at Tim for the first time in a while. "You wanna hand me another beer?"
Tim stared at Theo. Not only had Tim been so distracted that his beer was warm and nearly full, but Theo had stopped in the middle of the suspense to ask for another beer? "What the hell?"
"What?"
"You're not even supposed to be drinking. Continue with the story."
"I will when you hand me another beer."
Grinding his teeth, Tim grabbed Theo another beer. "There. Now tell me what motivated your uncle." Tim said, leaning back in his chair and taking another swig of his sadly warm beer.
Theo sighed at that moment and said, "Uncle found out Andie was pregnant."
Tim spit his piss-warm beer all over himself.
