I didn't want to be reminded of their third-place finish. “Aren’t they yours too?”

“Not as much as they're yours.”

I nodded, wondering if Abraham was giving me the Cubs so he could keep Cal.

“You have hope for this year, don’t you?” Abraham pressed. “If you lose hope, I lose hope.”

“I’m an idiot,” I confessed, offering Abe a cigarette before lighting one for myself. “I have hope for every year and every year I think I should abandon it.”

“It's been twenty-four years since they won, perhaps they're due for something good,” he reasoned, taking a drag.

“Maybe.” It had been twenty-four years since my birth, maybe I was due for something good, too.

As if he had read my mind, Abraham said, “Calvin has been asking if you’ve been by.”

“Who?” I asked, a hapless cover that was entirely unnecessary.

“The redhead,” he indulged. “Green eyes, thick thighs. I’m sure you know him, he told me you two had become fast friends.”

“Did he?”

“He did.”

I ran my tongue over the inside of my cheek, looking for blood from my biting. “I don’t recall.”

“He’ll be sad if you tell him that. He’ll pretend he’s not, but he will be,” Abraham informed. I hated that he was telling me about Calvin as if I didn’t know him, though I’d just told him I didn’t. “He’s up in The Studio now, reading, writing, or doing whatever it is he does when he’s done with me. You should peek in and say hello.”

I’d never peeked in before. I didn’t think it was my style to do so, but I was tempted. I wondered why Abe was so concerned about Cal’s friendships and I asked him.

“Because he is,” Abraham answered easily. “He’s a loner but he doesn’t like to be lonely, a beautiful contradiction if you think about it.”

“How could he be lonely if he lives in your apartment full of artists?”

Abraham shrugged. “How should I know? Maybe he squeezed the saps of any interest he saw in them and finds you more intriguing.”

“Until he doesn’t,” I laughed wryly at Cal’s fickleness to cover my fear.

“Perhaps,” Abe replied. “Will you be back next month, or should I expect your cockamamie cousin?”

“What did Maks do to you?”

Abe grinned warmly at me. “Nothing more than not being you and that is egregious enough.”

I stifled my smile. “I’ll be here.”

“I would love for you to visit before then. I’ll set you up with a heavy pour, just as I always do.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t cut into your profits,” I suggested, standing up from my seat to shake his hand. “If business is suffering shouldn’t you hold back?”