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Chapter Twelve
- Suzanne -
“Maybe I should callhim.”
“Maybe you should play hard to get. Some men don’t like easy women.”
“Uh! I’m not easy,” I protested.
“I know you’re not. Not in that way at least. You said you went out with him both Saturday and Sunday night. Maybe that was enough for him.”
My sister’s words hurt. She’d asked me if I wanted to go to my brother’s place in the Adirondacks with her for his birthday and I said no. Normally, I would have been happy to go, but I wanted to see Gabriel again. I know it makes me a horrible sister, but Sebastian was thirty-eight, not eight. He’d understand why I wasn’t there.
“All I’m saying,” Elizabeth went on, “is that if this mystery man of yours...I still don’t know why you won’t tell me his name. That’s very immature of you, Suzanne - is really interested in you, then it’s fine for you to make him sweat it out for a while. Don’t be too eager. It’s a turn-off.”
“And this is why I never discuss these things with you.” I tried to laugh her discouraging words off.
Elizabeth and I hadn’t been close growing up - too many years stood between us. Even into adulthood, our personalities just never clicked. I loved her to death, but when it came to getting relationship advice, my brother Sebastian was usually the one I spoke to. Though he was ten years older than I, we were close when I was growing up. He was the big brother every girl should have - protective, strong, and fun. Sebastian was the one who took me to the park when I was little; he came to all my tea parties. Even when he was the grumpy teenager and I was the pain in his side, he always made time for me. It broke my heart when he went away to college and the distance came between us until a horrible tragedy brought him home for a while.
After our father was killed by an unknown assailant whose identity was still a mystery, Sebastian was attacked in his own apartment by a group of men who we suspected were looking for drugs or money to buy drugs. To my knowledge, they were never caught either. They beat Sebastian so badly he was in the hospital for weeks. I know the experience of losing our father, then facing near death himself, traumatized him. He became a different person after that. Though he was still the loving brother he’d always been, his personality changed. He was... quieter. Darker, if that makes sense. He never spoke about that day, but I knew it haunted him. He buried himself in his work, creating a software startup that immediately took off. After a few years, he was able to sell it for some astronomical amount. I wasn’t sure how much he made from the sale; I just knew he started sending us all money every month. He bought an estate in the Adirondacks and then immediately launched himself into a new venture.
He never talked about his work much. When we asked, he just gave us the usual replies - “things are going good.” “Yeah, I’m busy. Business is booming.” I pressed him for details once and he shut me down, saying he lived for his business and didn’t like to talk about it during his time away. I loved him to death, but the feeling that he was hiding something lurked in the back of my mind. I never pushed him - that’s not what little sisters were for. We kept in touch and lived our lives, but he had changed after he was nearly beaten to death. Silently, I always hoped that the men who did that to him faced the consequences. No one had ever been held accountable for nearly killing him, for taking away his spirit like they had. I believed that someday, whoever they were, would get what they deserved, either in this world or another. Until then, I respected my brother’s privacy, made sure I was always available for him.
Except this weekend...when I really wanted to be in the city so I could see Gabriel again. How pathetic was I?
“If I don’t have definite plans in a day or two, I’ll call you. I’m not sitting around waiting for him, but he did say he’d call later in the week and it’s only Tuesday.”
“Tell him you have plans.”
“I do have plans. With him.”
Elizabeth sighed. “All right. Well, if you change your mind, call me. I could use the company. Darion started his new internship this week, so he won’t be able to go with me. But if I don’t hear from you by Friday morning, I’m leaving without you.”
“That’s fine. And to save you from being the bearer of bad news, I’ll call Sebastian myself.”
And as I anticipated, Sebastian was nowhere near as judgmental as Elizabeth.
“Don’t worry about it, Suzanne. You know how Elizabeth is. She put pressure on you because she doesn’t want to make the trip alone.”
“I guess I can understand that. She’s probably been lonely since Darion moved out. She told me you got him an internship. That’s good for him. He needs some direction in his life after he dropped out of college.”
“It’s nothing fancy, but it will keep him out of trouble.”
“She didn’t mention the name of the company. Where does he work?”
He paused for a few seconds. “Hey, Sis, I have a call coming through. Enjoy yourself this weekend. I have to go.”
And then he hung up. That was probably the longest conversation we’d had in the last few weeks. He was always busy.
Unlike me.
I was sitting around, playing games on my laptop, waiting for a man to call.
We were new. Maybe Gabriel and I were over before we began and I just didn’t know it yet, but I could wait a few days.
Some men are worth waiting for - the men who can release the butterflies in your stomach with just one glance; the men whose smiles make you feel warm all over; the men who seem to know what you’re thinking before you have a chance to say it – men who can look you in the eye and really see you.
Elizabeth may have made me feel like a fool, but in just a few days, Gabriel made me feel more than I’d felt in years. Sebastian wasn’t the only one in the family who held onto unresolved emotions from my father’s death. I built up walls over the years. It was easy to do when you were a natural introvert. No matter how many dates I had, or how many interesting men I met, none of them offered me anything worth waiting for.
