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“What? That’s not what I meant—”
“Oye, mi gente!” Junior’s voice boomed in the bakery. “Where my people at?”
At the sound of her brother’s voice, Sylvie’s body tensed. There was only one reason he would rear his obnoxious head.
“Patience,” her godmother advised. “He’s your brother.”
Sylvie narrowed her eyes. “Why do people say that? It doesn’t make him any less of a dick. I’m not genetically programed to like him. He’s literally the worst.”
“Sylvia! Don’t say that,” her godmother chastised.
Junior, his head shaved to conceal his premature balding, appeared in the open doorway. He had their father’s small stature but none of his charm. “Don’t say what?”
Regina stood to kiss him, but Sylvie had no intention of moving. The best she could do was endure his unwanted kiss on the cheek for her godmother’s sake. He wouldn’t have bothered with the charade if Regina wasn’t there anyway.
“What do you want?” Sylvie asked directly.
He pressed his hand to his round chest as if she’d wounded him. “Can’t I just come by and check on things?”
Sylvie clenched her jaw. She was the one who put everything into the business. All her little brother did was manage to be born male. In their family that meant he got everything he wanted without having to do anything to earn it. There were no expectations. No demands.
“You’re not getting any money,” Sylvie said flatly as she stared into his light brown eyes.
He didn’t drop his intentionally obnoxious smirk. “I’m entitled to it just as much as you are.”
Rage took over Sylvie’s body in an instant. “What exactly have you done to deserve anything, apart from being born into this family?” She started bouncing her knee. “You want money? Go out front and help. I’ll cut you a check at the end of the day.”
Junior’s lip twitched but he maintained his irritating expression. “This still belongs to Mami and Papi. You can’t control what’s not yours.”
“Take it up with them if you have a problem, but you’re not getting a penny from me,” she said as she stood.
At just over five feet tall, Sylvie knew she was short, but she didn’t let that stop her. She lifted her chin and puffed out her chest in challenge.
“Papito, why don’t you come with me, honey. I’ll make you a little something to eat before you go,” Regina said before she led Junior out the door.
Sylvie glared at him until he was gone. Her hands were still shaking when she opened the drawer to collect the invoices from that morning’s deliveries. Forcing herself to focus, Sylvie set to work.
“I wish you could be a little kinder to him,” her godmother said when she returned.
Sylvie swiveled around in her chair to face the door. “Kinder? His entire life he’s been treated like the boy king. He can stand to be treated like a regular person. The world doesn’t revolve around his spoiled ass.”
Regina sighed. “We all have our own paths to walk. He’s your brother.”
Sylvie’s skin heated as her stomach tensed. “We certainly have walked different paths. Have you forgotten that I had to buy my own place to be allowed to move out as an unmarried woman, but he got a condo for his twenty-first birthday?” She sneered. The decade old slight still stung. “You think he lays awake at night thinking about the dough to filling ratio in the coconut pastelitos?” she asked, exasperated by being the only person in her family to see Junior for the useless, entitled mooch that he was.
“Oh, mi amor,” her godmother neared her and cupped her face. “If that’s what you’re doing with your nights, you might want to get back on those dating apps.”
“I don’t have time to date, Madrina. You know that.” She took a breath, exhausted after her brother zapped her energy. “I’m in a long-term, committed relationship with the business, and considering I got us to The Whitney, I’d say it’s going pretty well.”
Regina leaned her thick body against the desk. “No one writes on their tombstone that they wished they had worked more, honey. You’re too young to let your life pass you by. I don’t want you to end up alone.”
Faced with her genuine concern, Sylvie tried to relax. “I don’t plan to be alone forever, but it’s not like it’s easy to date when my day starts at three in the morning. Sometimes I’m so busy I don’t have time to eat unless it’s while I’m driving from one location to another. How am I supposed to fit someone in there? Who is going to understand that my work has to come first for now? At least until its under my complete control.”
“What if you taught your brother—”
“Absolutely not,” she snapped. “I can handle it by myself. I’m not going to let him ruin everything I’ve already accomplished.”
When Regina went back to the front of the house, Sylvie reached for her cellphone. She wasn’t going to let her irritation at her brother distract her.
