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Crap.
Since calling him the day of the Mom drama, I hadn’t done a proper job of calling back. I had sent him pretty absent-sounding texts about being fine and promised to call at some point, but I hadn’t—not because I was in any way upset at him though.
Just because I had your best friend on my mind.
“I’m so sorry. I totally didn’t mean to ignore you like that,” I said right away, but I could hear that Adam wasn’t serious when he spoke again, because there was a smile in his voice.
“It’s fine, I deserve it. Besides, I just got confirmation from your roommate that you’re not even home. So I can at least take comfort in the fact that you weren’t shutting me out on purpose.”
“Yeah,” I said for some reason, but then I realized I didn’t understand what he’d just said. “Wait—what? You just talked to Mia?”
“Yeah. At your apartment. I’m in New York.”
Eyes wide, I paused. Then I propped myself up on my elbow. “What?”
“Surprise!” Adam laughed. “I just got here a few hours ago. I decided to come a little early.”
I blinked, stunned. And confused. Mostly because his early arrival was making me feel vaguely stressed for some reason, but I couldn’t figure out why.
“Wait. That’s amazing that you came early, but I’m at Long Beach right now for Freya’s goodbye party and… why did you come early again?”
“Because! I wanted to spend more time with you,” Adam said jovially, but then his voice got serious in a way that was rare for him. “I’ve just… look, Holland, I’ve felt like shit since everything that happened with Mom. I know I’ve been kind of an absentee brother for… awhile now, but I’ve been feeling worse about it lately, especially since you moved out on your own and I didn’t have time to talk to you enough or visit you,” he said so earnestly my heart hurt a little. “And after the whole drama with Mom this week, it just made me realize how much you’ve had to deal with on your own. Your whole life, really. It isn’t fair but it’s never been. And I just want to finally pick up the slack, you know?”
I was sitting all the way up now, my sunglasses pushed up to my head as I stared ahead at the ocean. It was more of an acknowledgment of the past than I’d ever heard from Adam, and a part of me was rejoicing. Spilling over with gratitude for what my brother had just said.
But there was still this vague stress gnawing at me—one I couldn’t figure out until he started talking again.
“Anyway, long story short,” he laughed, reaching his limit of being serious. “I need to get my shit together. I know I like to say that to you, but I think it’s been projection this whole time,” he joked. “I mean I didn’t even know your roommate or boss’s name until this morning. Iain knows more about your new life, for Christ’s sake.”
I was still stunned, but at the mention of Iain’s name, I figured it out.
Why Adam’s early visit was stressing me out.
“Speaking of Iain, it’s his birthday today,” Adam said. “So you, me and a bunch of the guys are going to party our asses off tonight. I already reserved a table at The Terrace. You know that famous bar with the infinity pools at the top of The Victorian Hotel?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose and frowned. “Wait. Hold on, Adam. What are you talking about? Who are the guys?”
“Oh, just some of our law school friends. It all fell together so perfectly somehow,” Adam said just as I heard him say “yeah, right here’s good” to presumably a cab driver. I was about to ask him what fell together perfectly, but then he went on himself. “Basically, I’ve been busting my ass since the whole Mom drama happened so I could hopefully come to New York early. And then I realized I was getting in on Iain’s actual birthday, so I called his assistant to pry out some info on his meetings for the weekend,” Adam explained, making me already shake my head and think no on repeat. “And crazy thing—Erica said he actually took off most of the weekend. She’s not on call or anything, so I took it as a sign. Rounded up six of the guys, told them we had to go big this year since Iain’s finally free of Keira. I made the reservations and boom. Party central tonight.”
The happy grin was audible in his voice as I exhaled long and hard.
Goddammit Adam.
“And I really want you to come to everything tonight,” Adam said sincerely. “I mean have fun at your boss’s thing, but when you come back, hit me up so I can tell you where to meet us, because we should definitely both be celebrating Iain since he’s made both our lives significantly better since basically day one,” he laughed, giving a quick thanks to his driver before getting out of his car and shutting the door. I could hear his suitcase wheels on bumpy cobblestone as he started walking and suddenly I knew where he was. “So you in for tonight?” he asked.
My eyes were still closed, my hand over my face.
“Yeah. I’m in,” I said, swallowing hard before I asked, “Where are you right now?”
“Well, you’re off at the beach so I figured I’d go surprise Iain,” Adam said. Then he gave a laugh. “Which means if your coworkers are drinking right now, you should join them—so you can be on our level by the time you get back into the city.”
And then I heard his suitcase wheels rolling on marble as he got into the lobby of Iain’s building, giving his name to the desk before telling me he had to go and to call later.
So we hung up, and once we did, I found myself already reaching for my tote bag because I no longer felt like I wanted to leave, I felt like I needed to.
But just then Freya’s assistant came back with the plastic cups for the toast. There was a round of cheers and already tears as Freya’s face started to crumble with emotion.
And just like that, I knew I was stuck here for a little longer, smiling for my boss but quietly cursing out Adam, because I loved my brother. I loved him with all my heart.
