“Lucky tells me you did just fine. And you don’t need to worry about that kind of stuff in the future. Going on-site is very rare for Lucky, and it’ll be the same for you.”
“He told me that he works at the warehouse most of the time and sometimes from home.”
“Yep. That’s pretty much it. Lucky tends to be a homebody.”
I play with my fork, wanting to talk more about Lucky and his life, but not wanting to seem like a busybody. It’s just that he’s such an interesting person, a genuine mystery, and I do looove me a puzzle. It’s why I’m so good at what I do, maybe. And why this job with the Bourbon Street Boys is really starting to excite me. I could be solving puzzles every day working with them.
“Have you met his goldfish Sunny?” I ask, trying to sound casual, which isn’t easy, considering I’m bringing up a goldfish as a conversation starter.
Dev shakes his head. “Nope. Lucky moved to a new place a while back, and I don’t know if anybody’s been there yet. Maybe Thibault has. Sunny moved in with him sometime after he changed apartments.”
“How come you haven’t been there? Doesn’t he like visitors?”
Dev looks off in the distance. “Lucky is . . . private, I guess you could say.”
I stare at the table, drawing imaginary lines on the surface with my fingertip. “He told me about his sister.” I glance up at Dev to gauge his reaction, and catch him looking very surprised.
“Really? That’s . . . unexpected.”
“Why? I mean, I know it’s really personal stuff, but it just kind of came up in conversation.” I don’t want Dev to think I pry deep secrets out of people the first day I work with them.
“He doesn’t talk about it with anybody. I mean, it happened, and of course we talked about it back then, but nobody talks about it now.”
“He said it’s because it makes people uncomfortable that he doesn’t talk about it. It’s not that he doesn’t want to.”
Dev shrugs. “Well, it is uncomfortable, but that doesn’t mean nobody should be talking about it. I guess I just don’t bring it up because I don’t want to make him feel bad. I figured he’d want to move on from it.”
I nod. “Yeah, I get it.”
“Did he say something to you about that? About us not talking about it?”
I shrug, not wanting to get into the middle of their relationship and cause problems; I’m the newcomer here. But if I can help Lucky out, I’d like to do that. I decide to tread lightly and feel my way as I go. If Dev starts to sound mad or uncomfortable, I’ll change the subject. I’ll talk about pink fairy armadillos. That’ll take his mind off his coworker like nobody’s business. Personally, I find them fascinating, and they’re a favorite of my girls.
I continue, watching Dev as I speak to make sure I’m not making him uncomfortable. “He did mention that nobody seems to want to talk about it, but he writes that off as everybody feeling bad for him and not wanting him to dwell on it, like you said. It’s not like he’s mad at anybody over it.”
“Are you saying he wants to talk about his sister and what happened?”
“I am. I think he does, anyway. I think he’s still in mourning, and it might help him to remember her in a positive way. Like, to have people there to listen to him talk about her, about his memories of her. He blames himself, you know.”
“That much I do know. He’s always taken the blame for everything that happens in his family. Whether he should or not is immaterial. It’s just how he is.”
“There’s a big age difference between Lucky and his sister. Or there was.” I hate talking in the past tense after somebody’s died. It almost feels disrespectful to the life they had. It doesn’t make any difference that I never knew this particular person, either.
“Yeah, they have a split family. His father remarried and got together with somebody much younger, and they started a second family that included his sister. Lucky is close with all of them, but he was especially close with her. But, still, he had to work, you know? We all have to work.”
I reach over and put my hand on his. I know exactly what he’s thinking right now; he’s torturing himself over being a parent and a working man.
“It’s not easy, working and being responsible for family members at the same time. You always feel like you’re neglecting something.”
He hisses and shakes his head in disappointment, staring at our hands on the table, my tiny one in comparison to his huge one. “Tell me about it.”
“How’s Jacob?” I ask, forcing a change in the conversation. We need to turn this mess around or we’re both going to end up so depressed by the end of the dinner, we’ll never want to go out together again. And I really do like hanging out with Dev, so I don’t want that to happen.
“He’s awesome.” Dev is smiling, the sadness over Lucky and his situation pushed to the side for the moment. “He had a great time at your place with your kids. He thinks Sammy is hilarious.”