The Boss Project by Vi Keeland

When he was done, he gave a little smack to my right cheek. “All done.”

I stood and adjusted my shorts. “Thank you.”

“No problem. I think I need a drink after this welcome. You want one?”

I nodded. “Yeah. I’m just going to wash up first.”

After Merrick left the bathroom, I took a few minutes to compose myself before finding him in the living room. He’d opened a bottle of wine and was sitting on the couch. When I walked over, he slipped a throw pillow from behind his back and tossed it toward the other end. “You might want more than one of these to sit on.”

“Thanks.” I picked up the much-needed glass of wine and sat down. “It might be the first time I’m glad I have a little extra junk in the trunk. I don’t really feel it now.”

“I wasn’t going to say anything, but since you brought it up… You do have a pretty full ass for a little thing.”

“I get it from my mom. I hated it when I was younger. But the Kardashians have made it fashionable, so I’ve learned to appreciate it.”

Merrick brought his wine to his lips. “I’d say I appreciate it too, but I’m afraid I might get whacked in the head again.”

“I really am sorry for that. You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine. Can’t do too much damage with a plastic toilet bowl brush. Next time, maybe try for something a little sturdier.”

“It was all I could find. And you should be glad about that.”

Merrick smiled. “True.” He sipped his wine and pointed his eyes to the coffee table. I’d left out a piece of orange sea glass when I took a shower. “Kind of ironic that you got a piece of your lucky charm stuck in your ass, don’t you think?”

I took the sea glass from the table and rubbed it between my fingers. “Don’t blame the sea glass for trouble you caused.”

“What’s the story with those anyway? How did they become your good luck charms?”

“About a year before my mom left my dad for good, he had done a number on her and we took off for a week—my mom, my sister, and me. Mom took us to this beach in Virginia that we’d never been to. It was sunny and beautiful, and one day I spent hours on the beach collecting sea glass. I remember my mom telling me she wasn’t going to go back to my dad this time.” I closed my eyes and could still feel the happiness in my chest from that day, could still smell the salt air. “I remember feeling so free and happy. I guess the sea glass just kind of stuck with me as a reminder that it was possible to feel that way. My mom did end up going back to my dad, but I never forgot the feeling I had on that trip. Still to this day, I go to the beach when I’m feeling down or need to clear my head.”

“That must be hard in New York City. Not sure I’ve ever seen sea glass on the beach. Maybe some broken beer bottles, but not anything to collect.”

I smiled. “Then you haven’t been to Glass Bottle Beach in Dead Horse Bay, Brooklyn, have you?”

“Dead Horse Bay? No, I haven’t. That’s not the most enticing name…”

I laughed. “Definitely not. But it’s covered in sea glass. The bay got its name because a lot of horse bones have been found there. It’s near the Marine Parkway Bridge, and when they built that, they used garbage to build the land up around a small island they were trying to protect. Unfortunately, they didn’t cover the trash with enough sand, so it started rising to the surface in the fifties. Every day more and more seventy-year-old trash washes up, and a ton of it is now sea glass. You have to walk with thick-soled shoes, but it’s a collector’s paradise. I go there often to comb the beach. It helps me clear my head.”

Merrick’s eyes looked back and forth between mine. “You’re definitely a unique person, Evie.”

I sipped my wine. “You’re hard to read. I can’t tell if that’s an insult or a compliment.”

He smiled. “It’s a compliment.”

“Should I write down the date? I get the feeling they’re given out pretty sparingly.”

“Well, as long as I’m feeling generous, I need to thank you for rushing down here to take care of my grandmother.”

“Oh, you’re welcome. But no thanks needed. I’d do anything for Kitty. She’s an amazing woman. Stubborn, but amazing.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t text you back to let you know I was coming. I fell asleep on the flight from China, and when I woke up, we were getting ready to land. I read your message and had to turn off my phone for a while. Once we were on the ground, I turned it on to text you back, but it only had one-percent battery left. I’d plugged it in to charge on my flight, but apparently the port wasn’t working at my seat. Then I was able to get on a connecting flight to come down here, but I had to rush to make it, and there was nowhere to charge my phone on that flight.”

I nodded. “I did worry a little when I didn’t hear from you, but I figured something like that must’ve happened.”

“What the hell was my grandmother doing roller skating anyway?”

“If you’d like another whack to your head, you should ask her just like that.”

He laughed and drank his wine. “True.”

“As much as having one ankle broken and the other twisted is bad, it might’ve been a blessing it happened. Apparently, she’s been having bleeding and uterus pain for a while and hadn’t gone to a doctor or told anyone. They only found out because she was anemic at the hospital and the doctor asked questions. This afternoon, she let me go online to the hospital’s patient portal and read the ER summary and lab results. The attending wrote that the gynecologist consult believes she might need a hysterectomy. So we really need to talk her into going back to the doctor, and I don’t think she should be alone until her blood count is in a normal range. It was so low I’m surprised she didn’t pass out at some point before the roller-skating incident.”