“You make everything difficult.”
“Because I won’t transfer my savings?”
“Because you don’t respect me.”
“How is respect defined here?”
“Stop interrogating every sentence.”
“I need to know what you mean.”
“It’s family money.”
“Then the family gets a say.”
“I am your family.”
I glanced around.
“And apparently Melissa and Brooke are the Senate.”
Melissa looked down.
Brooke crossed her arms.
Lauren abruptly pushed her chair beneath the table.
“Fine.”
She walked out.
I expected her to go to the bedroom and cool off.
Instead, thirty seconds later, I heard a closet door slam upstairs.
Then a drawer.
Then something hit the floor.
I looked toward the staircase.
“What is she doing?”
Melissa shrugged.
Brooke said nothing.
Then Lauren’s voice came from upstairs.
“Eric!”
I stood.
“What?”
“Come outside.”
That was new.
I walked through the front door.
Melissa and Brooke followed several steps behind.
I had reached the middle of the front lawn when something blue dropped from above.
My work shirt landed in the grass.
I stared at it.
Then another shirt came through the open second-floor bedroom window.
Then a pair of jeans.
For a moment, none of us moved.
I slowly looked up.
Lauren stood at the window holding an armful of my clothes.
“You have got to be kidding me.”
She threw the pile.
T-shirts scattered across the lawn.