“There’s no smoking in my house.”

Cairo looks up incredulously as Mimi snatches the lit cigarette out of his lips. The smoke that lingered in front of his face accented the bob and sway of Mimi as she swaggers her way over to the kitchen. He could hear her open the heavy metal fridge doors, with their cold products stocked to the brim, clink and clatter as Mimi finds what she is looking for.

‘Where’s Sam right now?” Cairo asks. The only reason he even came into this building was because he thought his friend had something worth his attention.

Mimi glances at Cairo. The quiet, intricate, and searching stare that examines the inside of a man; the ones he himself consciously forgets. The apprehension, the vulnerability, and the ulterior motives, the side where resentment tries to cover, all of these Mimi tries to gouge with the quick second look she shoots at Cairo.

Mimi remains silent as she pours juice from the plastic container into a pair of glass mason jars. Cairo notes, from his seat, how ugly the color of orange the drink portrayed was. The daughter of the most powerful cop in West Garden, and yet she can only afford artificial beverages that either comes from a plastic package or aluminum can.

Cairo leans back and sinks into the mattress as Mimi comes into the living room with her drinks. She sets one on her side of the table, and another in front of Cairo. Overly cautious, Cairo stares at the drink with suspicion.

“Come on,” Mimi suddenly says, forcing a smile from her lips. “I know you’re still hungover.”

“Mimi,” Cairo dryly interrupts. He was in no mood for games. “What the fuck am I doing here?”

Mimi purses her lips as she takes a sip from her drink.

“Sammy,” she begins.

A pause.

“Sammy slipped out the back window a little after you brought her back.”

Cairo jumps to his feet in shock.

“Damn it Mimi,” Cairo shouts just as he rushes to the door. Before he even took two steps however, Mimi was already blocking his way and staring intently at his reaction.

“Move-”

“Before you go running after her?” Mimi interrupts, “Tell me why you are so hell bent on ‘protecting’ her?”

Cairo opens his mouth to retort but finds himself unable to produce anything coherent.

“Because,” he hesitantly mutters while looking away.

“Because?” Mimi mercilessly presses. She puts her face dangerously close to Cairo’s and glares into his eyes.

Cairo pulls back in disgust, recoiling from Mimi’s intrusive gaze. Hardening himself, Cairo retorts the stare and brushes her aside.

“I don’t have time to deal with this.” Cairo says, “Sam could be off who knows where, doing who knows what.”

“Cairo,” Mimi calls from behind him. Her earlier struggle to resist Cairo from leaving evaporated as soon as he reached for the door handle. Perhaps she realized there was absolutely nothing her own limited abilities could accomplish, and finally resigned to its fate.

“Samantha’s a grown woman. She doesn’t need no man-boy following her around.”

Cairo wheels around in anger.

“Have you seen her?” he yells, “She’s no damn woman. She is still a little princess throwing tantrums whenever things don’t go her way.”

“And you dragging her back her helps how?” Mimi shoots back.

“Did you forget the child she is carrying with her while she’s out and about? You’re her best friend but you can’t even keep her from using in your own house. Hell, you can’t even keep her in your own house, and because of you I have to go find her again.”

“Cairo!” Mimi screams. Her high-pitched shriek, imbedded with frustration and contempt, mares the entire room. “Ricky is a piece of shit. Maybe he was upstanding gangster when we were fighting the Organization, but that was a long time ago. He is nothing but a low life now.”

A stranger witnessing the conversation could hear the imaginary crickets vibrating their mating patterns through the overcast air. That was how silent, how empty, and how horrified Cairo was when Mimi uttered such unforgivable words. She knew how serious the implications were, but her scorn was such that all boundaries were just lines in the sand.

“That’s really hurtful,” Cairo responds uncharacteristically calmly. “Did you forget that we’re all ‘lowlifes’? What would it mean for us if we all started looking down on our own?”

“Than what about Sammy?” Mimi hisses. “What does she mean to you if you’re only protecting her out of respect for Ricky? Isn’t she one of us?”

“She means nothing to me.”

With no hesitation, Cairo slams the door behind him. He had already practiced the answer to those kinds of questions a million times plus more. Cairo had nothing more to say. There was a woman out in the street that is not only a danger to herself, but to everyone in and around her too. He had to find her before something happened to that walking time-bomb. After all, Cairo’s entire plan rested on her well-being.

---

Mimi stares silently at the door. She normally would be pondering the disastrous motives she imagined Cairo to secretively harbor. Yet, today, the wellbeing of those around her were the last things occupying her mind. Methodically, Mimi turns around.

“You heard him, right?” Mimi asks Samantha.

Samantha peeks from around the corner of the wall. She was there during the entire charade, secretly spying on Cairo while Mimi was faking an interrogation. She wanted to… No, Samantha didn’t want anything from Cairo anymore.

Wordlessly, Samantha makes her way to the drink Cairo left untouched. The bubbles still fizzing to the surface of the beverage illustrated how rushed Cairo must've felt to have to leave the house that rapidly. If he had stayed an extra five more minutes, or if Cairo had decided to argue with Mimi, then maybe Samantha might’ve had the audacity to come out of the shadows.

Samantha brings the cup up to her lips. Condensation creeps from her finger and fogs up the glass. Then, it was gone.

With a violent crash, Samantha flings the drink up against the wall, shattering the glass into limitless pieces.

“Fuck you Cairo,” She screams.

Mimi watches silently as her friend collapses onto the floor. She eyes the debris left from the drama as they lay sprawled all over her wooden floors. Guess she has more mess to clean up now.