As Alicia and I entered, she spotted some girlfriends and veered off towards them. Navarro was seated at the end of the bar in his usual spot where he could keep an eye on everyone who came in.
He raised his glass to the bartender and then signaled him for two drinks. I said hello to some friends as I made my way to Navarro, but didn't get into much conversation. I needed to talk, but not with just anyone. Becca came to mind, but I couldn't talk to her about her. That was the downside of falling for your best friend.
The bartender set two glasses of the bar's most expensive scotch in front of Navarro. As I took the stool beside him, he slid one of the glasses in front of me.
"We're drinking tonight," Navarro said.
"Good, I think I need one. What happened to you?"
"My dad died."
He tilted the glass at his lips as he took a drink. One of the reasons Navarro and I were so tight was because we had similar backgrounds. Neither of us really knew our dads and everything we had came from a lot of hard work.
I grew up watching my older brother struggle to take care of us until everything took off for him. Navarro and his four brothers had their mom.
"How are you feeling about it?" I asked.
"Angry," he said as he took another drink. "I mean, why should I give a fuck that he died? He never wanted anything to do with us and now that he's dead, his wife thinks we should pay our last respects."
"Are you going?"
"Damned if I know. All my life I've worried about being a fuck-up like him. I know you go through the same thing. It's messed up, right?" He shook his head, annoyed. "I won't deny it though, I'm curious. He's got all this family, brothers and sisters who are my aunts and uncles that I've never met. I'm sure there are cousins too. I don't even know if they know about us."
"How are your brothers taking it?" I asked.
"I haven't told them yet. I'm trying to get them all together to head back to Jersey. Mom bought the shore house we used to go to in the summer, and I think maybe it's time we all came home."
"How about your mom? How's she taking it?"
"That's one of the reasons I think we need to go out there. She says she's fine, but I know her. She's probably in her head. She needs us right now."
"You remember him, right? I think I was around two when my dad skipped, so I don't remember him at all," I said.
"Yeah, you're like Ryker. He doesn't remember him and then there's Kellen, who's never met him. I was six when he stopped coming home and I barely remember him. He traveled for work so he'd only come home on the weekends, but most of the time he was out anyway. Mom won't talk about him at all, but I suspect he had another family."
"That's just crazy."
"Yeah, I know, but I'm convinced somewhere out there are other Navarros that I should know about. It's the only reason I might go to this service."
"When is it?"
"Don't know. She's just planning it. She wants to do some celebration of life thing, but she said she wants his whole family there. I don't know why. I mean, he didn't give a damn when he was alive, why should anyone care now?"
"I think people start thinking when people die."
"Yeah, I've heard it before, the whole life is too short crap. I'm sorry, but if it takes someone dying for you to realize life is too short, then you screwed up somewhere." He took another drink from his glass and set it on the bar with a bang. "Anyway, what the hell is going on with you? Why are you here, and who's she? I thought you and Becca were a thing now."
"You thought wrong. I really don't want to talk about it right now though. And the girl, she's just the sister of some guy I know. Long story, but I'm not interested."
"That's good, because it looks like she's hooking up with Frosted Tips."
"You're kidding me," I said as I looked for Alicia.
Sure enough, she was smiling and batting her lashes at Frosted Tips. Frosted Tips's real name was Barry, and he made his money by hacking into people's websites and then securing those sites for them. One day he showed up at the bar with some strange blond pieces at the tips of his hair. We did what any friend would do, we gave him a nickname and never let him live it down.
"At least his hair looks better now," I said.
"Do you think you should warn her about Barry?"