“I’m glad you did. Tell her she is in my heart.”
Avery hung up and looked out the window at the dark New York streets streaking past. It was after midnight, but the bars were all still open, people chatting outside of doorways and milling on street corners smoking. Avery taught an Advanced Corporate Law seminar at eight a.m. twice a week that ensured she was rarely up this late, but it was comforting to see the city’s nightlife was still thriving. There would always, she thought contentedly, be young people who did not need eight hours of sleep.
—
Lucky dipped into a bodega by the subway entrance to pick up a pack of Marlboros. She’d quit, again, a couple of months before, but tonight was a special occasion, and she figured she deserved a little treat. She was relieved that the store still sold them; everyone vaped now, and with all the taxes, cigarettes were hard to come by. She smiled to herself as the man behind the counter slid the pack to her; she hadn’t been out and about on her own, without chaperones or a gaggle of other recovering addicts, in weeks. She was about to pay, then picked up a bar of milk chocolate at the last moment. Bonnie might want the sugar. A group of college-aged students toppled through the door, heading toward the frosted fridges of beer. Of course, Lucky thought, it was Friday night. She’d forgotten, and that was a good thing.
She stood outside the bodega, turned one cigarette in the pack upside for luck—a habit she’d had for over twenty years now—then lit another, inhaling with a spine-tingling sensation of pleasure. The college students were tumbling back out with their beer, yelling excitedly to one another, when one of them spotted her.
“Wait a minute, aren’t you Lucky Blue?” He slapped his friend. “Oh shit, I thought she died or something!”
Lucky raised her hands like an apostle.
“And yet, I am reborn.”
“Yo, can I get a picture?”
Lucky relented and let two young men sandwich either side of her to take a selfie. She thought about removing it, then let the cigarette dangle from her lips. Fuck it; she was nobody’s role model.
“Yo, my girlfriend’s obsessed with you,” one of them said as he wrapped a beefy arm around her shoulders. “She’s going to freak when she sees this. That video of you falling off the stage at Glastonbury? Wild.”
Lucky squeezed herself out of their embrace as soon as the picture was taken.
“Not my finest hour,” she said. “But I live to serve. Now, gentlemen, if you’ll excuse me.”
She saluted them with one hand, flicked her cigarette away with the other, and disappeared down the subway stairs.
—
Avery was waiting in the hospital lobby when Lucky strutted in. All these years, Avery thought, and she’d still never managed to eradicate that model walk. She stood up and hugged her sister.
“How was this week? Did you pick up your chip?”
Lucky gave her a sharp-toothed grin.
“Sixty days at the Monday meeting.”
Avery patted her back, holding on a little longer.
“Proud of you.” She sniffed Lucky’s hair. “But you’re smoking again.”
“We tackle our addictions in the order they’ll kill us!” recited Lucky cheerily, pivoting away on her heel, and her sister, to her relief, laughed.
“Did you speak to your tour guy about pushing back your dates so you can stay for the full ninety days?” Avery asked.
Lucky let out a groan.
“Can we not talk about that now?”
Avery narrowed her eyes.
“Okay, but your case manager said—”
“Aves, please!” Lucky cut her off. “Let’s just focus on Bonnie and give this a break for, like, one day? Please?”
Avery flared immediately.
“It’s only been two months,” she barked. “And you almost died. Apologies if the fact I’m still concerned about you isn’t convenient.”
Lucky raised her hands and shook her head without a response, pleading with her eyes for Avery to drop it. Avery gave her a long look, then relented. She turned and picked up a large bouquet of hot-pink roses from the chair behind her, pointing them toward the elevators. They set off across the lobby.
“They’re pretty.” Lucky touched a coiled petal with her fingertip, offering peace. “When did you get them?”
“While I was waiting for you. The gift shop’s open all night here. Not exactly Bonnie’s color, but I figured it’s the thought that counts.”
“They’re Nicky’s color,” said Lucky.
Avery smiled sadly.
“That’s true.”
Lucky linked her arm in Avery’s.
“From both of us?” she wheedled, using her best youngest-sister voice.
Avery laughed in spite of herself and leaned closer to her as she pressed the elevator button.
“That goes without saying.”
