Re: [Jack & Clem: family reunion]
Jack had used the excuse of leaning forward to kiss his cousin politely, to fish his hand around the floor near her feet where he was sure he'd left the coffee mug that was either half-full of cold coffee (which he could use to sober up further and thus lose the headache) or half-full of whiskey (which he could use to inch further away from sober and thus lose the headache).
He had struggled with the concept of a higher power when it came to twelve steps. He had thought, instead, of the moment when the air had seemed to split before him like tissue paper and the way that the light had ebbed into the creature that had been there until it was certain there would never be light again. That had clinched it. That, and the fact he had to sober up before he turned up at an NA meeting.
There was Clementine. Below the belt before he'd had a chance to catch his breath. Idly, Jack wondered if the man had run because his wife hadn't taken a shine to him, or she had. "A little to the left, if you want to hit my ribs with the knife you've got in there." He slugged from the mug, retrieved from her knees, and winced.
"Why did he leave?" His throat had closed around the shock of bitter, cold coffee and Jack grimaced on the swallow. "And why do you care?" Clem didn't give a damn unless there was something in it for her. Adoration, or simply she hadn't finished with her own dramatic exit, and was annoyed at the loss of an audience. He couldn't tell: he'd been too hungover at the ceremony to discern whether his cousin actually liked, let alone loved the man she'd married and too drunk at the party after to do more than dance with her and slope off with one of the bridesmaids for an abjectly unsatisfying quickie.
"You'll need to give me my lines. I've not played kin for a while. I don't remember the script." And he ignored without any further effort any and all attempt to probe his own emotional state with her long fingernails. Clem would forget eventually, under unadulterated attention paid to her own emotional state.