Chapter 13
 

"What do you mean ‘your date’?.  I just told you that Rollie took those pictures months ago.  I seriously doubted that he took a picture of her.  Let me see…"  Joshua was a bit upset at his cousin for being so nonchalant over the whole issue.   Rollie was good all night: no moping, no signs of depression and they even got some work done.  But once the pictures got opened up…   "Kieran, give me the photo.   I am sure that—" and he stopped.

"What?  Why did you stop?  Yeah, her.  That is my date.  Where did Rollie get the picture?  If he dated her, then I dunno, it would be a little weird.  I mean me dating his ex-girlfriend.  Right?  It would not be a great ‘thank-you’ to him after all he has done for us these last couple of months."

"Kieran, this is very important.  Are you *positive* that this girl, this *one* in the picture, is your date?   Please, take a really good look at her?" Joshua begged the other man.  He began to pace the room while Kieran studied the photo.  While pacing, Kieran kept hearing the soft muttering, ‘Please, please no,  don’t let it be.’  After carefully examining the photo, he got Joshua’s attention by tapping him on the shoulder.  "Well?  Could you be wrong about her?"

"No.  Sorry, it’s her.  Joshua, why are you so upset that I went out with one of Rollie’s ex-girlfriends?  It usually isn’t that big of thing.  I mean NYC is a big place and I don’t think he would mind."

"It’s *her*.  Kieran, don’t you get it?!  *HER*!! "  Noticing that it was not registering on him, Joshua continued, "Her as in the one that Rollie has been mourning for the last six months, the one that he has known since she was a kid, the one whose father left him this building, the one who supposedly died!!  That HER!  Get it now?"  The usually mild temper and easy going Joshua was now at full boil like a volcano ready to blow.  He had let his voice raise on each of his statements till he to got to the last one and then he let it all out.   Kieran had never seen his cousin like this and it scared him.

"Josh, are you… I mean there could be a possibility that you maybe misunderstood Rollie.  Maybe he didn’t say Angie or Angela.  I mean he has said that name to us often in the last couple of days that maybe you just automatically assumed it was that name."

Giving Kieran a dirty look, he crossed the room to the kitchen area where Kieran had taken the pictures to gaze over them.  "No!  I didn’t ‘misunderstand’ him nor did I ‘assume’ it to be that name.  He said that this was her; he said that was Angie.  He even said she was gorgeous and the reason he has the picture was he surprised her.  Do you know that this was taken two days before she died?  According to him, this is supposedly the last one of her."   He came around the table to grab the photo and nearly shoved it in Kieran’s face.  "How do you think he is going to react to this?  I mean, he just got over, ok so he is not over it, but dealing with this a hell of lot better than he was.  Kieran, what are we supposed to do?  How are we going to help him?  I sure don’t want to tell him."

"What *I* am going to do is, call her and ask her out again.  That is the plan."  Kieran  then moved past Joshua to the refrigerator to get something to drink.

"That is not a plan!!"  Then he took the closest dishtowel and smacked Kieran with it.  "That is terrible!!  How can you be so mean to him?!  There are times I don’t even think we are at all related."  There was a look of pure disgust on his face.

Grabbing the towel and giving Joshua a whack with it, Kieran threw his cousin a look of equal disgust.  "I don’t believe you.  You can stand there and think that I would hurt my own cousin?!  Ok, I don’t know him the way I know you or for as long, but, God Josh, he is my cousin.  You don’t have a right to get all righteous with me; I know what family means.  What *I* am going to do is ask her out again, I have her number, and then when I see her, I am going to ask her about him.  I want to see how she reacts to this.  I really hope it is someone who looks like her.  You know, they say that everyone has a twin somewhere on Earth.  It could be her, the twin."

Looking ashamed and rubbing the spot on his arm where Kieran hit him, which was *way* harder than the shot he gave, Joshua asked him, "Do you really think that?"

"No, I don’t.  But I hope that it is some farfetched reason like that.  I don’t want to be the one to tell him that this girl, who he has been mourning, is still alive and hiding from him.  Look, I don’t want to talk about it anymore.  I’m going to bed.  Night."

"Night.   Um, Kieran, I’m sorry.  I know that you wouldn’t do anything on purpose to hurt Rollie or me.  It’s just…how do we deal with this?  I can’t lie to him, you know that."  He was watching Kieran make his way up to top level of the loft; the only area that Rollie had set aside for personal use. He had it expanded once the cousins arrived and now they had the new half. Kieran stopped just near the VR Chamber and sat down on the step.  Joshua moved back to the table to sit and continued, "I mean if we know that this Angie is alive, then we have to tell him. Right?"

"Wrong.  If she is alive and not with him, there is a reason.  I want to find out the reason before we tell him anything.  He deserves the reason as well as the fact that she is out there…more like here in Manhattan.  I mean" he said while getting up and heading to his living area, "don’t you think it is weird that she is not with him but is in the same area?  I think something is up."

"Kieran, um…I am glad that you are doing this for Rollie and I am sure once this is all done and taken care, so will he.  But, is part of this eh, um, well a bit personal?  I mean you did date her." Joshua said while fidgeting with the towel.

"Joshua, of course, it is personal.  I’m not an idiot.  But she is."  Turning back around to see the reaction from his cousin, Kieran started to fume. "Don’t give me that look!  God, think about it, will you?!  Rollie is in FX right? He lives in this part of the city and is Australian.  Well, so am I. In fact, I am all of the above.  I told all her of those things.  Granted, I didn’t tell her what company I worked for, but God Almighty!!!, how many Australian FX people are there in NYC?!  My guess?  Three and two of them are in this room!!  Damn right it is personal…she did it to me on purpose.  Why, I don’t know.  But I will find out."

Joshua was taken back by Kieran’s little tirade.  Kieran LOVED women, not just sexually but everything about them.  They in turn seemed to love him equally. Kieran was a lover not a fighter; he got into scraps back in Australia and quibbled with him and Rollie but never fought with the ladies.  What unnerved him the most was that Joshua never heard Kieran’s voice hold so much venom for a woman.  He feared for this woman’s life, whoever she was.  "Kieran, what are you going to do if she won’t tell you anything?"  He knew the answer but had to ask anyway.

"I’ll beat it out of her" and proceeded to his bedroom.