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Honestly, I always got the sense that Greid kind of hated me. Which made me equally depressed and irritated. So I just pretended I didn’t care, even though I didn’t fully understand why there was a weird uneasiness between us. We were brothers. Yeah, we were different, but we were all different. Laki and I were nothing alike anymore, but they were my best friend.

“Greid doesn’t have a gaggle of eligible bachelors hanging out in his house,” Sorin said dryly, turning his head to look out of the window as we left the city behind.

“What about online dating? You on Urgr, bro?” I asked, referring to the dating app for demiurgus.

Sorin shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “I got it a few weeks after Kalek and I split up, but it felt weird. Like a… petty knee-jerk reaction.”

“It’s not petty,” I said immediately, hands clenching on the steering wheel. God, I still wanted to go beat the shit out of that douchebag for hurting my brother. “At least you fucking waited until you were actually single to fuck other people.”

Sorin shook his head. “I haven’t slept with anyone.”

“Well there’s no rush, bro. And besides,” I added with a grin, reaching over to smack his leg. “You got other things to think about now, huh? Like getting your business up and running.”

He huffed, looking over at me. “Yeah. If you’re sure you—”

“I’m sure. We’re doing this.” I thought for a second. “Maybe you could name your signature pastry after me.”

Sorin laughed. “You don’t even eat pastries.”

“It would be symbolic. Or, hey, maybe you could create some healthy pastry that works as, like, a pre-workout snack. With protein powder instead of flour or something.”

“Protein powder and flour are not the same, Nuni.”

“They’re both powders. How different can they be? Just add an egg or whatever and they’ll react the same, right?”

“You’re gonna have to trust the baker on this one,” Sorin said dryly.

“Fine. Anyway, I’ve got my guy scouting locations. He’ll be in touch next week with a list of potential sites.”

“God.” Sorin pressed a hand to his stomach. “It’s kind of terrifying. But exciting.”

I grinned over at him. “It’ll be awesome, bro.”

“But what if I fail?” he rushed out nervously. “What if it’s a total failure and I go bankrupt and will never be able to pay you back?”

“I don’t give a shit if you never pay me back,” I told him. “And it won’t be a failure. You know what you’re doing. You’re the best. You’re a var Rorik. Just channel Mom and don’t let anyone get in your way.”

He huffed. “Or I could channel you. You’re just as driven as Mom. Probably more so.”

I waved a hand. “Only because she taught me how to be.”

And… well, I’d kind of taught myself. When Dad had left and things had been really hard, I hadn’t let myself get distracted or stop caring. I hadn’t let the others, either. I’d pushed all of us to keep going, to do our best. To show our worthless dad that we didn’t need him, that we were better off without him. Not that he’d stuck around to witness it. None of us had seen him for decades.

“It’ll be awesome, bro,” I repeated to Sorin. “Now we just have to convince Laki to expand their business so I can start recommending them for big developments.”

Sorin huffed. “I don’t think Laki would suit the corporate landscape.”

Maybe not. They lived in a tiny house on the outskirts of town that was filled with plants and weird knickknacks they’d picked up on their travels. They spent their weekends doing things like hiking or cooking or getting high while watching nature documentaries. They rarely came into the city except to visit me or Greid or Suni or Tuvin. Our sister Suni worked as an art dealer, while our brother Tuvin was a chef.

I had a strong urge to call them and let them know about this new development with Anita. They’d asked me about her a couple weeks ago, but after I’d only given short answers saying nothing else was going to happen, they’d dropped the subject.

It hadn’t really sunk in that Anita and I were going to… keep fucking, I guessed? I didn’t know why I was so excited about it. It was just sex. I’d had plenty of sex in my life, with plenty of different women. I’d be lying if I said that the idea of finding out more about what sex was like with a human wasn’t intriguing, but it wasn’t… just that.

It was her, for some reason. Even though we didn’t know each other all that well, and she was still kind of annoying and competitive, which brought out the same in me.

I was just… drawn to her. She fascinated me. And made me ridiculously horny.

That was all it was, I stubbornly decided. I was just stupidly attracted to her. Her quiet voice and dark eyes and no-nonsense attitude and sensible shoes made me really fucking horny.