I can’t do anything but shake my head and laugh.
“Cara you can’t ignore Dane,”I tell her with a laugh as we eat our lunch. “He’ll leave the tour, and he’s worked too hard to do that.”
“Why does he think I need to talk to him every day?” she says with an exaggerated roll of her eyes.
I roll my eyes with just as much drama. “Every day, Cara? Really. He only called every day because you weren’t answering.”
“I am a damn adult. He needs to treat me like one," she huffs with a stomp of her foot.
“Well, he’s definitely not going to when you don’t act like one.”
Her head jerks back. “What are you talking about? How do I not act like one?”
“Well, ignoring his phone calls for one. He is your brother and has been raising you for the last several years. Do I always have to remind you what he’s sacrificed for you?”
“No. But I never asked him to do that. Why do I need to feel like I owe him something?”
I grit my teeth at the overwhelming urge to slap her. Dane doesn’t ask anything from her except to answer his phone calls once in a while. I wipe my mouth with my napkin then stand to my feet. I need to leave before I say something I shouldn’t. Or maybe I should but it won’t do any good.
I throw some money down on the table and take off out of the restaurant. “Where are you going?” Cara yells after me.
I don’t answer. I walk out the door and jump into the first taxi available back to her apartment.
My phone rings as we make our way down the streets through the heavy traffic. Cara, of course, but I’m not answering her because all I want to say to her is that she is a fucking ungrateful brat.
Then it rings again. I start to ignore it until I see it’s Dane calling.
“You didn’t call me when you got there. Is she okay?”
“She is perfectly fine, Dane,” I snap.
“Whoa! What happened?”
“Apart from the fact that she is the most ungrateful, spoiled, entitled human being I’ve ever encountered?”
He releases a long sigh. He knows he catered to and babied her too much once she came to live with him. “What did she say?”
“Nothing important. But yeah, there is a guy that she’s been seeing for about the length of time she’s been avoiding our calls.”
“Did you see this guy?”
“No, and I’m not going to. I am going home before I punch her in the face.”
“Tori, please -.”
I cut him off not wanting to hear his pleas for me to stay and investigate the guy. “No, Dane. As she just informed me, she is an adult. Let her make her own choices. It's her life to fuck up.”
“So, you think I’m overbearing too?”
Now it’s my turn to sigh. “No, I really don’t. I think you just want to watch out for your sisters. Just like I watch out for you and Cara. Maybe you’re a little too overprotective but I think it’s exactly how it should be.”
“But you still think I should back off,” he says sadly.
“Not because it’s what’s best, Dane, but because she needs to see how much she needs her big brother. I know I do. I miss your dumb ass like crazy.”
“I miss you too.”
“I’m back at her apartment now,” I tell him. “Maybe you should start making her be responsible for some of her own shit instead of taking care of everything for her.”
