Chapter 34 - Carrie’s Sister

Chapter 34: Chapter 34 - Carrie’s Sister

Carrie pushed open the door to the apartment and dropped her bag on the floor.

It was a small two-bedroom walk-up on the fourth floor of a building with a broken buzzer and a landlord who never answered his phone. The radiator banged all winter. The kitchen faucet dripped no matter how hard you turned it. The window in the living room looked straight into the brick wall of the building next door.

But it was home. It had been home for three years since her last TV gig.

She kicked off her work shoes, pressed her back against the door and closed her eyes.

Thirty thousand dollars.

She kept seeing the number on that card machine. Kept seeing his face, completely unmarked, smiling at her like he knew every secret she’d ever had. Kept hearing his voice, low and calm.

Do not be late.

"Jesus, Car. You look like you just got mugged."

Carrie’s eyes flew open. She jumped so hard her elbow cracked against the doorframe.

"Ow! God, Aileen!"

Her sister was sprawled across the couch in the living room, one leg hooked over the armrest, a bag of chips balanced on her stomach and her phone held above her face.

Aileen Morton was a slimmer, sharper version of Carrie. Same grey eyes. Same freckles across the bridge of her nose. Same stubborn chin. But where Carrie had long red curls and curves she spent half her life trying to squeeze into uniforms, Aileen was all angles.

She’d cut her red hair into a short pixie and bleached it platinum blonde last month, and her red roots were already starting to show. She wore baggy cargo pants, a faded band T-shirt with the sleeves cut off, and a pair of beat-up high-tops she refused to throw away. A tattoo of a hummingbird surrounded by musical notes curled around her right forearm.

She looked like she was about to front a Rock band. Which, if you asked her, was exactly the plan.

Aileen lowered her phone and looked at her sister properly. Her eyebrows knitted together.

"What’s going on with you? You’re all twitchy."

"Nothing." Carrie rubbed her elbow and walked past her into the kitchen. She opened the fridge and stared into it without seeing anything. "Nothing’s going on."

"That’s a lie. You’ve got the face."

"I don’t have a face."

"You have the face, Car. The one you had when Mom got sick." Aileen sat up. The bag of chips slid onto the floor. "What happened?"

Carrie slammed the fridge door shut harder than she meant to.

"I said it’s nothing, okay?" She turned around. "I just wish I didn’t have to keep cleaning up your messes all the time."

The words came out sharp. Sharper than she’d intended.

The room went quiet.

Aileen didn’t say anything. She just sat there on the couch, looking at her sister, gauging her expression the way she used to when they were kids and Carrie was the one who decided whether they’d be in trouble.

Then she looked down at her hands.

"I’m sorry, sis," she said quietly.

Two words. That was all it took.

Carrie’s anger melted like snow on a hot sidewalk. Her shoulders dropped. She let out a long, shaky breath and pressed her palms against her eyes.

"No. God. I’m sorry." She walked over and sat down on the couch beside her sister. "I didn’t mean that. I shouldn’t have said it. I’m just..." She shook her head. "It’s hard not to, after what happened last night."

Aileen leaned her head on Carrie’s shoulder. "I know."

They sat like that for a minute.

"Did you go see him?" Aileen asked softly. "The guy from last night? At the hospital?"

Carrie let out a short, slightly hysterical laugh.

"I didn’t have to," she said. "He came to see me."

Aileen sat up straight. "What?"

So Carrie told her everything. Danny barging into the waiters’ station. Evie teasing her about a secret admirer. Walking out with the menu and her best smile and seeing him sitting there in that booth by the window.

"Not a mark on him," Carrie said. "Not one bruise. Aileen, you didn’t see him last night. Angus kicked him so many times I thought he was going to die. His face was... it was broken. And today it was just fine. Like nothing ever happened."

Aileen’s mouth hung open. "That’s impossible. How did he survive? How did he heal that fast?"

"I don’t know." Carrie shook her head. "I really don’t know. But that’s not even the weirdest part."

"What could possibly be weirder than that?"

Carrie pulled out her phone, opened her banking app and turned the screen toward her sister.

Aileen squinted at it. Then she took the phone out of Carrie’s hand and brought it right up to her face.

"Is that..." Her voice went high and thin. "Carrie. Is that twenty thousand dollars?"

"He tipped me." Carrie laughed again, because she didn’t know what else to do. "Thirty thousand total. Twenty for me and ten for the cook. On a lunch I told him was on the house."

Aileen stared at the screen. Then at her sister. Then back at the screen.

"The guy you robbed," she said slowly. "The guy who got his ass kicked in an alley because of us. That guy came to your job and tipped you twenty grand."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I don’t know!"

Aileen set the phone down on the coffee table like it was a bomb.

For a long moment, neither of them said anything.

Then Aileen’s face went serious.

"Have you told Angus?"

Carrie looked away.

"No."

"Are you going to?"

"No," Carrie said firmly. "I’m not."

She’d thought about it on the subway ride home. Twenty thousand dollars. Two-thirds of what they owed. If she handed it to Angus, it would almost be over.

Except it wouldn’t. She knew Angus. The second he found out she had twenty grand, he’d take every cent of it, find some reason to say it wasn’t enough, and keep her doing those nights in the alley for another year. Maybe two. Maybe forever.

No. Angus wasn’t getting anywhere near that money.

Her phone buzzed on the coffee table.

Both sisters looked down at the screen at the same time.

ANGUS.

Aileen’s face went pale.

Carrie stared at the name for a second. Then she let out a humorless laugh.

"Speak of the devil."