Fierce

Chapter 26

"Hey fatty."

"Hey."

"... Lincoln? Is everything okay?" The initial tone of Tanie's voice did a complete 180 and it made Linc wish he could hide his emotions better.

"Yeah. Yes, of course. Why wouldn't it be?"

"Oh my god it's not. What's going on? Is it the business? Are you dying? Is it girl troubles? Oh my god it is. It's Georgiana isn't it? What happened? Did she dump you? Did you dump her? But I thought it was going so well! What happened Lincoln, because I—"

"God you're so smothery. I'm fine."

"You are not! I'm coming over. Why don't you tell me things?" Tanie said in exasperation. 

"Cause you're my little sister," he said, as if that was answer enough. 

"So? I tell you everything! And I want to know how you are! It's not exactly fair: you're always listening to my stuff."

"You're my little sister," he repeated flatly.

"Ugh you're impossible. I'll be over in ten minutes with the chocolate."

"Tanie, really, it's not necessary—" but she'd already hung up.

Damn.

*

Half an hour later (Tanie was never on time), they were sitting on the couch. She'd been forgiven for her lateness though, because she'd completely outdone herself with three different blocks of chocolate. And it was like she knew his fragile male ego was bleeding, because she'd brought along chicken wings and vodka for him too. Sometimes his sister was spectacular.

Lincoln was busy eating his wings, but she interrupted his focussed silence tentatively. "Erm. Do you want to talk about it?" 

"Not even a little," he muttered around masticated chicken. 

"Lincoln," she toyed with her glass. "It's important to talk about your feelings because otherwi—"

"Fine." Honestly. She was like a nosy little puppy-dog with a bone. "I just saw Georgiana."

"Oh?" 

"And we had a chat about her fucking some other dude."

"Oh."

He raised his eyebrow moodily, and went back to gnawing on the chicken. If he was honest, he was enjoying her awkward shock; clearly she wasn't expecting that little joyful tidbit. 

"How was it?" she asked hesitantly. 

"I don't know," he said dully. "Bad, I guess. I got angry... more angry than I intended."

"Did you yell at her?"

"No. I was just... mean." He went back to his chicken. 

"Well. Look, I don't like you when you're mean, but cut yourself a little bit of slack. She hurt you pretty bad." Linc picked up another wing. "What did you say?"

Before he could answer, there was a knock at the door, and Tanie scrambled off the couch to get it. When she swung the door open though, first she was confused, and then she was terrified.

"No no no! You are not touching him! Go away!" she was shrieking by this stage – stress had always made her a little hysterical. She slammed the door and ran into the living room.

There was a muffled shout and the knocking on the door became a little more forceful.

"Tanya what are you screaming about?" came Lincoln's gruff voice from the couch.