Rekindled

Let Her Cry

I stood in front of the mirror, pulling up the collar of my dress shirt. I slid the solid black silk tie around my neck and made my first attempt at tying it into a double Windsor. I made the first loop and looked up to make the knot when my sister walked in, laughing.

"Good lord, Jimmy. You look like you've never done this before." I looked at her from the mirror and noticed a bead of sweat sliding down my temple. God, was the furnace on too high? It was like a sauna in here. "I feel like I've never done this before, Gloria. I'm shaking. I'm sweating like a whore in church. I haven't eaten all day because I was scared I'd either A, not fit in my tuxedo or B, I would throw up." Gloria offered me a beer, which with a quick look over my shoulder, I saw that she had helped herself to grabbing out of my beer stash. I shook my head and she shrugged, plopping down on my bed, kicking her legs up and relishing in watching me make a fool of myself as I violently undid my tie and made a haphazard second attempt.

"You're telling me in all those years you and Lynn were together in LA, you never once went out on the town dressed to the nines?" Gloria asked as she took a swig out of the bottle. I glared at her from the mirror once more before signing. "No, she was more of a pizza and beer on the couch kind of girl. That and we never had any money. Two struggling kids in LA, you remember that." I studied the length of my tie before pulling one side over the other and trying the knot one more time. "I do remember that. I just figured with all your fame and fortune now, you've become accustomed to it."

"Accustomed to bright lights, tuxedos, and people shouting your name on the red carpet? No, not really G." I turned around and faced her for the first time in ten minutes and sighed. "I'm still your goofy little brother from Brooklyn, no matter how household my name gets. I still get nervous." Gloria smiled up at me as she set her beer on my night stand. "Clearly." She said with a grin. She motioned me towards her. "Come here, kid. Your long side is too long. You're gonna end up looking like a bum." I looked down and sure enough, I had a tail sticking out from under my belt line. I sighed and hung my head before walking towards my big sister. "Yes, please. I could use all the help I can get." 

Gloria stood up and undid my tie and clicked her tongue at me. "You should really be wearing a bow tie to a red carpet event but at least you'll be matching Kinsley pretty well. There's no accounting for taste though. How did you manage to con her into going with you in the first place?" I looked up at my sister and smirked while she made quick work of my tie. She smoothed out the silk material and grinned back at me. "Is that why I helped her with her dress?" I nodded and but my lip, trying to hide my smile. "Oh, shit. I know that look. What have you gotten yourself into, kid?" I looked down and thought about the events that happened this week that led me here, to this moment.

****
"Don't you have better things to do then lounge around my apartment at 2 am?" I asked a sprawled out Kinsley. She was laying on the floor of my living room, her feet resting on my legs as I laid sideways in my chair. She was trying her best to balance a Miller Lite bottle on her forehead while I picked away on my guitar. "Mmm. Not really, no." Her tone more playful these last few days than usual. I couldn't help but quietly hope that our makeshift date was the reasoning behind this fantastic mood swing.

"Okay." I said with a laugh as I finished the chord. I smiled slyly down at her legs as I scooted my body closer to hers. She didn't seem to mind, only moving to readjust so the back of her calves were resting over my stomach and not my protruding hip bone. She repositioned the bottle on her forehead and took a deep breath in, pausing for a moment before slowly taking her arms away from the glass. "Ha ha!" She exclaimed proudly as she broke out into a huge grin. "Would you look at that?! I did it!" I looked down and her and couldn't help but smile at how ridiculous she looked with a beer bottle balancing on her forehead, eyes crossing as she focused on it. "And it only took me four tries!" She proudly admitted. "And two beers." I reminded her. "Well, thats offensive!" Kinsley gasped as the bottle slid off her forehead onto my wood floor. "Oop. Three beers." Kinsley groaned as she took the towel off her stomach and struggled to clean the puddle of beer without actually physically getting up. I couldnt stop the smile from forming on my face as I watched her stubbornness come to life. She was ridiculous yes, but always beautiful.  "This one barely had anything in it, and I cleaned all of it up every time," I raised my eyebrow at her as she scrubbed the floor with the towel. "Including this one, so quit pouting and shut it."