Jupiter: Emerson?
Emerson: Jupiter?
Jupiter: Please tell me you’re not dating a player.
Emerson: I can’t do that
Jupiter: Which one?
Emerson: Drew Crawley
Jupiter: Emerson, have you lost…
“Who are you texting at this hour?” Drew’s gruff voice broke the silence.
I turned to him, his eyes still closed. “My brother. He saw me at the game last night.”
“Good, now you can tell him you have a boyfriend. Me. And once you do that, you can snuggle back down into this bed because it’s too early to wake up.”
His soft stubble grazed the crook of my neck as he left a trail of kisses, causing me to let out a loud giggle.
“It’s gone nine.”
“Yes, exactly. Too fucking early.”
I dropped my phone off the bed and let him pull the covers over us, his arms wrapped around me as he drifted back off to sleep.
Jupiter could wait.
Istuck my EarPods in as I walked out of my apartment dialing Jupiter’s number, slipping my phone into my pocket as the ringing started up in my ears. Drew had left for a PTsession and massage, and I’d come back to my place to pick up some clean clothes ahead of the class I was teaching later this afternoon. I figured my walk to the studio was as good a time as any to call my brother back and get this conversation over with.
“Emerson.”
“Jupiter,” I mimicked.
Didn’t matter how old we were, we would always revert back to the bratty teenagers we’d been.
“Why aren’t you calling me on video?”
“I’m walking.”
“I’m videoing you. I’d like to see your face.”
My phone started beeping, telling me he’d switched us to video, and I reached into my pocket to accept it.
“Fuck’s sake, you’re annoying. If my phone gets stolen then you’re buying me a new one.”
His tanned face grinned out at me through the screen, sweat dripping off his brow which he was wiping with the shirt he’d clearly removed. Always the exhibitionist.
My mouth curled up in revulsion.
“Gross. I didn’t need to see that.”
“Just good old fashion hard work, Em,” he winked, walking through from his gym, past his pool and into his house. In the background I could see the Pacific Ocean glistening in the California sun from the clifftops in Malibu where he lived.
The weather was starting to get properly cold in New York, and I missed the warmth of the west coast.
“Yeah, yeah.”
