Page 43 of The Intimacy of Control

chapter sixteen

River smacked around the sucker in his mouth, pushing it into his cheek. I hated the sound of it clanging against his teeth, but if I told him that, he’d only do it louder. “So you’re falling for the guy, and he’s totally unavailable. You really are hopeless.”

I stood upright, pushing my glasses onto my head, and scrunched my nose at him. “And you really are an asswipe. If Mami and Papi hadn’t tried so hard to have you, I promise I would’ve given them more hell just to stay an only child.”

“The feelings mutual.”

“You weren’t even born. How would that have worked?”

“I’d have figured it out. I’m the smart brother, don’t you know?”

Andros sauntered through, standing by one of the boxes I’d opened. “Riv, are you ever going to let him work?”

River pulled the sucker out of his mouth with a loud, nasty pop. “Nope. What’s the fun in that? Oh, hey, have you seen this mystery lover boy bitch face over here is obsessed over?”

I gave him a middle finger. “Can you stop antagonizing everything and everyone in my life?”

“Oh, I’ve seen him.” Andros completely ignored me. Asshole. “I get it. He’s hot. And older.”

River raised an eyebrow, glancing between Andros and me. “How much older?”

I groaned, pointing to the door. “Get out. I don’t wanna have this conversation, and I don’t want Andros to have it with you either. I have a store to run.”

“That’s my cue to go.” Andros threw his hands up. “Have fun, boss man. Camila is about to come in and take over for me.”

“Look what you’ve done, Riv. You’ve run off my employee.”

“How is that my fault?” He bit down on his sucker obnoxiously, pulling it out of his mouth half-bitten. “I think that was all you, broseph.”

He was going to break me. Truly break me. “Don’t call me broseph. Please, for the love of Saint Monica herself, don’t call me that.”

“Oh, wow. You’re bringing in the saint of patience. I must really be getting on your nerves.”

“You are.”

“Good. I’m doing my job right. But seriously, how much older is he?”

Exasperated, I sighed and squatted to the ground, shuffling through the box. “Why do you want to know so badly?”

His words were muffled around the candy. “Because I wanna know about you and what you’re getting into. If you’re going to have a new boyfriend, I want to know who he is. If you’re gonna get your heart broken, I wanna know who he is. Common decency, or something like that. I don’t know.”

I let myself fall onto the floor as I started searching for my glasses. I could never keep them in one place. “He turns forty at the end of the month.”

River coughed. Loudly. “Forty! Forty? Holy fucking shit. Forty? Like four zero? Nah, no fucking way, bro.”

“Don’t start.” I grimaced. “Where are my fucking glasses?”

“On your head, dumbass.”

I reached up, finding them tucked in my hair. “Oh. Thanks.”

“He’s over a decade older than you. What the hell could you have in common?”

“Shut up. I like him. We have a lot in common.” At least, I thought so. We got along really well both under the sheets and out of them. “His age isn’t a factor for me.”

“It should be.”

“Well, it isn’t. End of story. You don’t get a say in who I do or don’t date.”