Caleb had spent most of wake at the funeral home bent over in his seat with his thumb and forefinger rubbing the bridge of his nose. Many people came up to him and pat his back, but he didn’t want to engage in any conversation. Instead, the only reason he would pop his head up would be to take a swig from the silver flask that had been hidden in the breast pocket of his blazer. 

He had also decided to remain silent during the drive to the cemetery. He couldn’t imagine how weird this all must have been for Lola, but if he tried to talk, he felt like he may get… emotional. And that was the last thing that he wanted her to see.

Jimmy’s body was lowered into the ground, and Caleb stood as still as a statue with his arms behind his back and a pair of ray bans over his eyes to hide any tears that might have formed. [i]”Fuckin’ Jimmy, man,”[/i] he thought as a hand went to his eye to keep a single tear from rolling down his face. He knew Jimmy would tease him for getting worked up like this, but it felt uncontrollable. 

He did, however, feel a sense of relief that it was over was he climbed back into the pick-up truck with Lola, but before driving away, he gripped the steering wheel for a moment and took a deep breath. “Sorry you had to come,” his deep voice spoke softly. “I wish I didn’t have to.” He looked over to her and smiled faintly, still wearing the sunglasses, then ignited the truck’s engine to take them to TJ’s house.

“Okay, so remember, you’re Jimmy’s cousin from his mother’s side. Martha is her name. She hasn’t seen him in years. Maybe just say you guys found each other from Facebook recently or some shit. Whatever works.” 

As they pulled up to red light, he lit a cigarette and sighed deeply as the smoke billowed from his mouth. He was already exhausted from the day’s events, and he felt like he wanted to be distracted from it rather than to go to a reception, where everyone would be talking about Jimmy. He knew his main go-to for alleviation was women. Well, more specifically, sleeping with women.  

His eyes darted to Lola quickly as he had that thought. Why couldn’t have someone hideous have witnessed what he did? It was killing him not being able to work his usual magic on her. Caleb could see it now: placing his tattooed hand on her thigh as she sat in the passenger seat would definitely get the point across. 

[i]”Stop it!”[/i] he thought as he shook his head and diverted his eyes back to the road. 

“We should be there soon,” he mumbled as he flicked the cigarette out of the window.