"What the hell are you doing?" He raised his voice loud enough that a guard looked their way.

"Don't swear at me."

"Are you kidding?"

"I'm sorry I even told you."

Tito leaned back in his chair. "You're shacking up with the guy who prosecuted me."

"It isn't like that, Tito."

"Well, why don't you tell me what it is like, then, little sister?"

"By four minutes," she said, and he shrugged.

"Little sister," he said again, and she had to smile.

"I'm not sleeping with him," she said, but felt guilty as she said it. Sure, technically, she wasn't sleeping with him, but...

"Maybe not yet. But you're falling for him. I can tell."

Tito always had been able to read her mind, finish her sentences. It was pretty much the only thing that hadn't changed. Heaven knows she didn't want to be falling for Ritchie.

He shook his head. "What I don't get is how you got mixed up with that guy in the first place."

"I told you. I met him at Saint Theresa's. He volunteers there."

"What's some fancy lawyer doing passing out food to homeless people?"

"He's...different than you'd think. Joey got in trouble, and I needed help. By the time I found out he was the same guy who prosecuted you, he was already doing so much for Joey. Tito, he was a tough prosecutor but he has a good heart."

Tito laughed. "Yeah, right. My lawyer told me he wouldn't even discuss a plea deal. Wouldn't even discuss it. You be careful. He's playing the big hero now, but he's one cold bastard, and he'll turn on you just like that."

"He's changed. He even told me he'd do things differently now."

"People don't change."

She looked at him. "I hope that's not true."

"This guy's just telling you what you want to hear. I don't like you and Joey living in his house. I don't like you owing him anything."

"You act like I had a choice."

"Didn't you?"

"They would have taken Joey away from me," she said quietly. "Put him in a juvenile detention center. Maybe foster care. I couldn't let that happen."

"Damn. It's my fault. Maria –"

"He just got into the wrong crowd, Tito."

"And Assistant State Attorney Ritchie Perez is the guy to pull him out of that crowd, I suppose."

"Yes, he is." She leaned forward. "Besides, like I told you, Ritchie isn't with the State Attorney's office anymore. He has a private law firm, with his two partners, doing injury cases, and class action lawsuits. He doesn't prosecute people now – he helps people who've been hurt.

"Tito, Joey's playing sports now. He's in a really good school, a private school, away from all those bad influences – "

"How exactly are you paying for all that, Maria?"

"Ritchie's paying for it."

"Why?" He leaned closer. "Because that's what I don't get. He sure as hell isn't doing it to apologize for putting me in here." He drummed his fingers on the tabletop. "So, what's in it for Perez?"

"Well, he wants to help Joey."

"Nobody does anything for free, Maria. If there's one thing I've learned in here, it's that." He narrowed his eyes speculatively. "So don't tell me this guy doesn't expect something from you."

"The money doesn't mean anything to him, Tito."

"Guys like that think they can buy whatever they want."

She stiffened. "I'm not for sale."

"It would be a hell of a lot of trouble for the guy to go to, anyway, just to get laid." Tito jerked his shoulder. "I don't like it."

"Look, I didn't come here to fight with you, Tito. I wanted to talk you about something."

He just looked at her, and she continued.

"Joey's been saying maybe I could bring him to see you, maybe over the Thanksgiving holiday –" She watched his face close down.

"You know how I feel about that."

"Yeah, when he was little, I agreed with you, but Joey's thirteen now. He wants to know his brother."

"The answer's no, Maria. I don't want him coming here."

"He wants to know his brother."

"Drop it, Maria."

"Ok. Ok. Another six months and we'll all be a family again. He'll have plenty of time to get to know you then." It was what had kept her going.

"Look, Maria. We have to talk about that."

"Oh no. Tito, please tell me you aren't in trouble." Tito's original ten-year sentence had been shortened as much as it could be under Florida law. Although parole wasn't an option, he'd earned reduced time for good behavior – "gain time," they called it – and would end up only serving eight and a half years. Unless something went wrong.

"I'm still getting out in May."

"Then what's the problem."

He averted his eyes. "I just – I think what I need is a fresh start."

"It will be a fresh start for all of us. You can go to school part time, have a career. It's not too late. I'll be there for you."

"I don't want you to be there for me. And I don't want Joey hanging around his ex-con brother."

"No, Tito –"

"Look, especially now. You and Joey are living with this rich lawyer –you think he wants anything to do with some loser he sent up eight years ago?"

"You are not a loser. Tito, you're twenty-six years old. Stop talking like you're life is over. It was one mistake."

"Are you for real? Grow up, Maria. Nobody's going to hire me. You really think I'm going to fill out some community college application and go back to school?"

"I'll help you get back on your feet. Maybe I can get you a job with Vivienne at the gallery."

"I don't want her charity. I don't want your help, Maria."

"Tito – "

"Don't you get it? Every time I look at you, I remember how I threw my life away."

She felt her eyes fill up and blinked back the burning sensation.

"Aw, shit. Don't cry. Look. Maria. I just want to go someplace new. This guy I know in here has an uncle in Texas. Has an autobody shop. The guy owes me a favor, said his uncle could hook me up with a job."

"Don't, Tito."

"The best thing for you and Joey is if I just head out that way when I get out. I've messed up your life enough already. I wasn't even there for you when Mom died."

"It doesn't matter, Tito. None of that matters. I just want you back home again. It'll all work out. Just give it a chance."

'Yeah, well, I gotta go. Thanks for coming by, sis."

He stood up, then hesitated, still looking at her. "Look, forget what I said about Perez. If Joey hanging around this guy keeps him from ending up in a place like this, then I'm all for it. And as long as Perez is treating you right, you do what you want. I got no business telling you how to live your life."

He crossed two fingers in a sign of solidarity they used to do as kids that she'd almost forgotten, then headed back toward the corridors that would take him to his cell.

She stared after him a moment and tried to see her brother the way he used to be. Was she just kidding herself that they could erase eight years, start over, and put the past behind them?

As she left the correctional facility, the familiar sense of institutionalized hopelessness bore down on her. After all the years, and all the visits, you would think she'd be used to it. But Maria felt the same ache in her chest, the shortness of breath that never let up until she had driven through the gate and turned onto the highway.

Reluctantly, she admitted to herself that Tito was right about not bringing Joey here. This was no way for him to see the brother who by now was mostly a distant memory. One that she kept alive with the stories she told him about her and Tito growing up together, the photos they had of a much younger Joey perched on Tito's shoulders, laughing. Memories she shared of the too short period before her stepfather died, when all of them had been a family.

But that was the past and this was now.

It had honestly never occurred to her that, when Tito finally got out, he would want to go anywhere but home. She was starting to realize that she hadn't just lost her brother for eight and a half years – she might have lost him forever.

And there was one man who was responsible for that. The man she was currently living with, had started to care about, and had almost had sex with. It was like she'd been two people lately – Tito's sister, who lived every day with the pain Richie Perez had caused her family...and Joey's sister, who couldn't help but admire the way Richie had stepped up and turned her little brother's life around.

The two sides of Maria would collide when Tito was released in May, and the answer wasn't for Tito to leave prison and just quietly disappear. It might not be possible for both Tito and Ritchie to be part of her life. If that turned out to be the case, she knew where her loyalties lay. She'd let Tito down once before, when she'd been so wrapped up in her grief over the loss of their stepdad that she'd closed her eyes to anything but her art. She hadn't seen the path her twin brother was heading down until it was too late. She wouldn't let him down again.

* * *

https://youtu.be/kOZ8bRAO7YQ

When she walked in the door, her thoughts were still on Tito. Which is probably why finding Joey and Ritchie in the family room shouting and laughing over the latest edition of Grand Theft Auto hit her in exactly the wrong way.

"Aren't you supposed to be doing homework?"

"All done," Joey said, eyes still glued to the screen as a character dragged an old woman out of a car, jumped in, ran over three pedestrians and crashed through a fire hydrant.

"So did you eat yet?"

Ritchie grunted and jerked his head toward an open pizza box with a few slices remaining. His hands were gripping a controller, his eyes glued to the screen.

The car T-boned a taxi then swerved to the right, careening around a corner where a man with a briefcase leapt out of the way just in time..

"Dude, your wanted level is off the charts. You better get outta there!" Joey reached over, grabbed a slice of pizza, and crammed a huge corner of it into his mouth

Maria watched Ritchie's car take off while cop cars with wailing sirens joined the pursuit from all corners of the gaming world. She shook her head and walked back out to the kitchen, leaving the shrieks of pure male adrenalin behind.

"Dude! That's so freakin' awesome!" Joey shouted, as Maria opened the fridge and considered her options, deciding on a container of Greek yogurt and a bottle of Mexican beer. She wandered out onto the terrace and sat at the round table, sipping her beer and watching a storm gather on the horizon. Distant lightning lit up the sky and reflected off the dark water, creating an eerie glow.

She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn't notice when the shouts died down and the light dimmed, until Ritchie sat down across the table from her, setting his own beer down on the glass surface with a quiet thunk.

"That's your idea of dinner?"

"Said the man who ate half a large pizza for dinner."

"Actually, we put away two large pizzas. The kid has an appetite."

"Sounds like he has an appetite for violence, and you don't mind feeding that either."

"Whoa, where'd that come from?"

"Grand Theft Auto? Seriously?"

"GTA's a classic. What's gotten under your skin?"

"I don't know, maybe driving to a prison to spend some time with my brother, who is exactly where I never, ever  want Joey to end up, and I come here and find the two of you in the middle of a video game crime spree." She looked over at him, and he was laughing. Laughing.

"It's a game, Maria. A game. Besides, this is GTA IV, the one with the morality choices. And Joey knows the difference between a game and real life."

"How do you not get why this upsets me?" Then, to her horror, she broke into tears.

He was at her side in seconds, pulling her out of the chair and just holding her.

She pushed her hands against her chest. "Let me go."

"Huh uh. Why don't you start by telling me what's really got you so upset. Because I don't think it's Joey playing a video game."

"He doesn't want to live with me. He doesn't want to be anywhere near me."

"You know that's not true. Joey's crazy about you."

"No, not Joey. Tito."

He tilted her chin up, brushed his knuckles against her cheek, and waited.

"He'll be out in May. That's six months from now. He used to be excited about getting out of prison, getting his life back together. But now he seems to have just given up."

Ritchie nodded.

"I thought everything would be okay as soon as he was released. We could finally put our lives back together. Be a family again. But Tito doesn't want that." She heard the bitterness in her own voice and tried to choke it back, took a few deep breaths.

"Tito doesn't want to put his old life back together. He wants to get as far away from Joey and me as possible. He thinks he's some kind of a bad influence. That having an ex-con as a brother is just going to hold Joey back."

"He has a point."

"I can't believe you'd say that." Annoyance turned to cold fury. This man ruined Tito's life, and he wasn't the least bit sorry. She twisted out of his embrace.

"Don't talk about him like he's some common criminal."

"He's an ex-con, Maria. And you should give him credit for not wanting to drag you and Joey down with him."

"I can't believe you are for real."

"Much as you might want to, Maria, you can't change the past. You can't make the last eight years disappear."

"I lost my brother eight years ago. I'll be damned if I lose him again."

She gathered up her empty yogurt cup and her half-empty bottle of beer, and marched back into the house, leaving Ritchie alone to stare out over the water. 

https://youtu.be/DTtb9rt1tnk

Author's Note:

What do you think of Tito? 

Is Tito right to want to be out of Maria and Joey's lives?  How do you think that makes Maria feel?

Do you think Ritchie is right or wrong with his opinion about what should happen when Tito is released?

Can life get any more complicated for Maria?

Music:  Avril Lavigne - Complicated