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“Sir? Is there something I could help you with?”
The voice broke me out of my staring, and I turned to see the woman that had approached me. She was dressed in a simple brown and cream skirt suit with the store’s logo on her coat’s breast pocket. She was looking at me with a professional smile, and I assumed she was an attendant at the store.
“Um…” I murmured.
Why did I come here?
I came to the store with an objective. Not one I particularly enjoyed, but this was the last thing I expected to see. My eyes slid back over to Brooklyn, and I could feel my throat go dry and my heart squeeze tight.
She still looks so beautiful…but she’s dressed this way for someone else, isn’t she?
I flattened my lips and turned to look at the attendant. “I came to book an appointment, would that be possible?”
“Of course, sir. Please, let me—”
“You’re already busy here,” I interrupted, nearly turning around to look at Brooklyn again. “You appear to be busy, if I could find someone else to attend to me…”
“Let me call someone,” she said immediately, then turned to walk off.
Without the distraction in the way, I could only turn back to Brooklyn. She’d stepped off the platform, and standing beside her, to my surprise, was Nora. The two of them had been best friends throughout college, and it seemed like that hadn't changed. If Nora was by her side and she was in New York, then it really must be true.
Brooklyn was getting married.
“Abe,” Nora said, her tone and expression cold, tilting her chin up at me.
I smiled blankly and said, “Nora.”
“What are you doing here, huh?” she sneered, looking me up and down in derision. “You didn’t answer the question. Are you also getting married?”
I pursed my lips, for a moment, tempted to say that I was just to see if she would lose the haughty look on her face.
Nora and I hadn't exactly been close. I actually met her before I even met Brooklyn when we were all in college. She dated a close friend of mine, but they didn’t last long, and after they broke up, I got to meet Brooklyn. We weren’t close at first, because all she could see was the friend of the bastard that broke her friend’s heart, but Nora moved on and things between Brooklyn and I went smoother. Nora never liked me since then, though.
I decided to just tell the truth.
“I’m actually here to set up an appointment for my sister,” I explained, my expression darkening as my mood turned gloomy. “She’s absolutely insistent on getting married, and absolutely insistent on getting this store, only she doesn’t have the time to come herself.”
“And you do, Mr. CEO?” Nora retorted.
I sighed. “Well, I am the boss, so I can find free time when it suits me.”
Though usually I was busy, this was my sister. She tended to be extreme when she wanted things, and I was starting to think lately that maybe I indulged her too much.
“Isn’t she a little young to be getting married?” Brooklyn exclaimed.
I turned to look at her and noticed her stunned expression. I had been avoiding looking at her directly because I knew once I saw her face I wouldn’t want to look away. Her clear blue eyes were locked on mine, and I couldn’t help getting lost in them.
“Um…” I murmured, dazed. “Maria…is insistent on getting married, to the point that even our parents agree. She’s too young, but she won’t listen to anyone including me.”
I still couldn’t believe my little sister could do something so stupid. She’d only recently turned twenty-one, and she’d even paused school for the time being to get married. Whether or not she would continue after marriage, I had my doubts. All she ever did was complain about school and how she would find a husband to look after her. It wasn’t like I would let her go to the streets if she wasn’t working, the family company was doing way better than that.
My parents didn’t agree with it, either, but Maria wasn’t the kind of person to let others force her to do what she didn’t want. I knew, their biggest fear was of Maria doing something stupid and getting herself hurt. Even if I thought it was spoiling her, there wasn’t much choice.
I’m not happy about her marrying so young. Brooklyn and I had at least graduated college while we were still dating and talking about our future, and even then, we’d still been young.
Too damn young.
I was a year older than Brooklyn, so I graduated ahead of her. I was twenty-two, and she’d been twenty-one, and because of our youth we thought we could face the world together, but we were both too naïve. I didn’t want my sister to end up in the situation that I did where she had no other option but to get hurt.
