Page 37 of Silver Sweet

Which is fine. I’m used to Charlie ignoring me. What I’m not used to is his consistent presence this week.

“What are you doing here?” I ask him.

He flips a page, and his eyes remain on the book. “I live here.”

“Yeah, but you’ve been herefournights in a row. That has to be some sort of Charlie Cobalt world record.” I lean my guitar against the wall and sit on the arm of the couch, facing him while he’s on a midnight-blue chair. “Don’t you have places to be? People to aggrieve?”

He looks up at me at this. Getting his attention is a full-on art form. I grin.

“What areyoudoing here?” he shoots back. “Don’t you have a new bandmate to piss off until they quit?”

“Straight to the heart, Charlie Keating.” I’m not at all wounded. Charlie’s digs don’t really hurt me since I’m well-equipped to launch them back. It makes Charlie one of my favorite people to be around. Bantering with him is like a master class in verbal warfare. “And I’m so glad you asked about my new bandmate.” I slide down to the couch cushion.

“I didn’t ask.”

“He’s arguing with me over the font of the band name. Can you believe that?”

Charlie folds his paperback over his thumb. “Yeah, I can. Now, why don’t you go tell Eliot?”

“He’s at auditions.” Eliot had been cast in a huge production ofThe Mousetrap, but its run on Broadway ended, so now he’s trying to book a new role in another play.

Charlie checks his watch. “Unless he’s fucking the casting director, he’s not at auditions this late.”

I check the time on my phone.

It’s already midnight?

My brain has been so mentally wrapped around Phoenix that the time snuck past me. “Then he’s with Rachel…or Regina…No, I think her name is Rachel.” I nod a couple times, going with my first guess.

Charlie looks like he wishes he didn’t entertain the subject. “So go talk to Ben.”

“He’s either doing college stuff or doing his girlfriend. I’m trying not to bother him.”

“So you decided to bother me instead.”

“It’s your lucky night.” I kick my legs up on the coffee table. “You have me all to yourself.”

Charlie exhales a sharp breath through his nose. He puts two fingers to his temple. “You aren’t going to annoy Ben so badly that he books a one-way ticket back to Alaska.”

Am I afraid of that? My eyes burn, and I push a tense hand through my hair. “I didn’t say I was scared of that happening.”

“You didn’t have to.” Charlie stares through me like I’m cling wrap. I do think my presence can suffocate like cellophane, and maybe I just naturally run people away. Maybe I’m too much to handle.

I cross my arms and shift against the uncomfortable couch cushion. I think about my former bandmates who quit on me. Then RJ who never sticks around.

I can’t add Ben to this list.

Charlie abuses this precious moment of me pondering his statement by kicking my bare feet off the glass coffee table.

So I swipe his worn paperback. “You dog-ear the page. So nihilistic.”

Charlie isn’t fun to purposefully mix up words around. Our dad would’ve corrected me and said, “You meanannihilatory.Nihilistic is the belief that nothing has meaning.” I would’ve waved a hand and said,And both pertain to Charlie.

Charlie just glares like I’m crunching aluminum in his ear. Then he steals his book back. He’s readingPerfume: The Story of a Murdererby Patrick Süskind.

“Petit frérot,” he sneers.Little brother.He’s trying to aggravate me. For the record, it’s not working. “You need to clean that.” His eyes drop to the smudges on the glass table.

I just now realize I left two footprints behind.