Page 36 of Derivation

“I’m fine with water tonight.”

“We were coming out for drinks,” Gabi reminded.

“Right,” Sarai replied and looked up at Jo. “Can I get a rum and Coke, then? I’ll just drink it slowly and eat.”

“No problem.”

“Can I get a whiskey neat?” Gabi asked.

Jo seemed surprised but nodded and said, “I’ll be right back.”

“You drink whiskey?” Sarai asked.

“I’m not a connoisseur or anything, but I drink it from time to time.”

“I don’t even know if I’ve ever had whiskey.”

“My dad liked it,” Gabi explained. “He and I shared a drink of the stuff for the first time the night he died.”

“What happened? You never said.”

“He was in the den when I went to bed. My mom was already asleep. Then, I woke up to my mom’s scream when she found him. They said he’d had a pretty bad heart attack and couldn’t get to the phone to dial emergency services.”

“Oh, my God. I’m so sorry, Gabi.”

“Me too. Mostly, for my mom, because she had to see him like that. She managed to turn me around right before I did and told me to stay in my room until they took him away. I’m glad, in a way, but also sad because he had a closed casket, so the last time I saw him, he had an empty glass in his hand, and that was it.”

“It sounds like she made it so you could preserve that pretty good memory with your dad as the last time you saw him,” Sarai suggested.

“She did. I told him that I loved him. He said it back, and I went to bed. I’m glad that’s the last memory I have of him, but it felt like I never got a chance to say goodbye for a while, even though I know that’s not how it really works. I’m okay now, and I’m grateful to her for doing that for me.”

“I wish I could’ve met him. You spoke so highly of him when you visited.”

“He was the best. My mom wanted me to go straight to college, but he insisted that I could have a little fun and travel first.” Gabi smiled at the memory. “He gave me the money to be able to do it, too.”

“I wish I had done that.”

“A gap year?”

“Yeah. Here, you go straight from high school to college, and it’s a lot. I grew up in upstate New York, but I went to college at NYU. It’s a world of difference, even though it’s not really all that far away. I never got to travel or anything like that.”

“You had a semester in Amsterdam.”

“Yeah, and I never really left the Netherlands. I took a couple of day trips to a few other places there, but I always felt so busy with school and my friends there that I didn’t see anything else. I thought I’d have the time later. I had all those offers, so I thought I’d get a job, work for a while, and be able to afford to take nice vacations. My plan also involved having a girlfriend to go on those vacations with, but then, we started the business, and none of us could afford a vacation, period, let alone a nice one.”

“You wouldn’t go on a trip by yourself, like I did?” she asked.

“I couldn’t have afforded it even if I’d wanted to, but probably not. I’d rather go with someone, you know?”

“I was okay on my own. Some of my trips were made with friends, but most of them, I was by myself, and it was great. It gave me time to really figure out what I wanted to do; on the trip, with my life, whatever,” Gabi shared.

“Here you go,” Jo said and set the drinks down before sliding two menus out from under her arm. “And menus. I’ll be right back to take your order, Sarai.”

Gabi noticed that Jo hadn’t bothered to tell her that she would be back to take her order.

“Hey, random question for you. Jo and you… Did you ever…”

“What?” Sarai laughed. “No. We never.”