A little flirting has never hurt anyone, and he should know that. He flirts with the entire female population without meaning to.
Arden is chuckling at my antics, leaning against me to hide her face so that my brother doesn’t see how amusing she finds me. Carter never glances back, but when I peer out of the window as we pull from the curb, Boston does.
And when our eyes meet, he smiles.
When we get home, Arden orders a shit ton of chicken nuggets, and we down bottles of water before Carter finally enters his condo in one piece. Both of us relax, knowing he’s out of trouble and safe. It’s one of the many stressors that come with loving my brother. The worry. You never know what you’re going toget with him, and sometimes, it’s a call to let you know that he’s been arrested. Again.
He saunters into the kitchen, takes one look at the island full of nuggets, and breathes a little laugh.
Arden smiles innocently, sliding one of the boxes toward him like a bribe. He says nothing, just scoops one up, dips it in her ketchup, and glances at me as he tosses it into his mouth.
“We going to talk about it?”
Nope.
I take a sip of water and dip a nugget into my packet of plum sauce. “Talk about what?”
He lets out a breath, pulling a stool around to the other side of the island. He falls onto it and leans forward, crossing his arms on top of the counter. When I finally meet his eyes again, biting into my chicken, my brother looks wholly unimpressed and thoroughly exhausted after only enduring a few short hours in my presence.
“What happened, Ari?”
Arden stays quiet, drenching her nugget in a disgusting amount of ketchup.
“Can we just…not discuss it tonight?” I ask quietly, bringing my knee to my chest.
“Nope,” he counters, snatching a fry off Arden’s plate and popping it into his mouth. “Are you in trouble?”
“No,” I confirm, and I’m not. Not in the way he thinks, anyway. I know what he expects in these situations. It’s always about the shitty guys I date. Never about my job or school. My career is the one thing I don’t fuck with. “But I did get fired.”
He nods slowly, because he already knows that. My mother is a stinky, squeaking rat. “What happened?”
“It’s nothing,” I mutter, but that oneisa lie. Itwassomething. It was awful, and it hurt, but I know my brother and I know how angry he gets. I don’t want to keep bringing stress intohis life. I don’t want to be the reason he keeps getting in trouble. He worries about me enough. “I’ll survive.”
“What are you going to do?” he asks.
“I’m going to visit my brother,” I tell him, wrapping my arms around my knee. I meet his eyes, the colour of them identical to my own. “Is that okay with you?”
He swallows and leans back, crossing his arms in front of his chest. He stares at me, considering what I’ve offered him. It’s not much. That’s what’s pissing him off. I’m holding back. I’m lying.
Those eyes,myeyes, stare right into my head and through to my heart. He reads me easily and I hate it. All of these pretty facades I put on, the energy I exude to protect the worst parts of myself, he can see the construction tape and hot glue I used to put them there.
“You can stay as long as you want,” he says. “You know that.”
“Don’t you need to discuss it with your live-in girlfriend before you make such a bold statement?”
Arden opens her mouth, but Carter speaks before she gets a chance. “I don’t need to. I know the woman I fell in love with. You okay with it, Red?”
He glances at her, but her dark eyes are locked on me.
“As long as you want,” she says, reciting his declaration from moments ago. “You know that.”
Carter smiles, reaching over to slap his hand onto her thigh and shake her gently. She agrees, in case I don’t believe her, but of course I do. My brother would never choose a girlfriend who would leave me out to dry. I have to be important to her, too. That’s always been a thing with him.
I rest my chin on my knee. I’m grateful for them. For him, because he’s always been the other half of my soul. Since the moment I was born, he’s been the only person on this planet who has taken the time to understand me. He sees me for who I am,not who I pretend to be. And her? For loving him as much as he deserves to be loved.
I don’t know how long I’ll be here, but I know I have no interest in going back home right now. I’m the laughing stock in my field. At my firm. I went through all that schooling, worked from the worst positions to the best, only to become a joke in a matter of months. Nothing has ever hurt my pride worse. Nothing has ever shaken me the way this has.
I lost everything before I ever really got to enjoy it.
