He hates the crappy cable channels
on the hotel television. Two o'clock in the morning on a weeknight, a beer in
one hand and the remote in the other, and he keeps ending up on the channel
playing That 70s Show.
The only good thing about it is
that none of the characters remind him of Veronica.
When Logan answers the door, Gia
is not so much standing as slumping against the frame, in a miniskirt so tight
he almost finds it painful, and he wonders for the space of a moment if there
was ever a time her father didn't lust after little boys alone.
"Hey."
She's more drunk than he is, which
is almost impossible, and her eye makeup is caked on so thick that he can't
even tell when her eyes are open, but he can see the faint lines where she's
jammed her tight fists against her cheeks and dragged her knuckles down. Her
sandals are dangling from a limp hand. She doesn't so much walk in as slide
unevenly past when he stands aside.
"Hey."
Dick would joke that Logan can't keep
his hands off the girls in his life, but one day there will be more than a
vacant, half-approving look when he says it, and for that very reason Logan
hasn't bothered to mention it to the guy who has been his new best friend ever
since Duncan left, bequeathing him sometime rights to a girlfriend who never
stopped loving him and a penthouse suite at the Grand. Gia slumps on the couch
and her halter top slips up another inch, revealing a further swath of damp
ivory.
"What are you doing?"
Gia slurs, and Logan makes some vague gesture at the television set. The
curly-haired guy wearing glasses is exasperated with the pouty brunette, and
Logan fumbles his thumb over one small round mark, a circle of raised and
smooth pale pink flesh on the inside of his elbow, out of sight.
"Nothing."
When she stares him down he gives in, and she tastes like vodka and the first time his father ever hit him.