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I texted her throughout my shift, but she sounded slightly off. I had only received three memes within one shift. Usually, she sent me at least a dozen and then would make jokes when I told her I didn’t get some of them.
I tried her phone a few times. She told me she was caught up with something and would call me back. That had been hours ago.
I know I sounded like a lovesick puppy.
“Earth to my best friend who refuses to give me the time of day.” Xander waved his hand in front of my face. “Did you even hear what I said?”
“You asked why I’m so happy.”
He frowned. “I did. But I also said something after.”
“Oh, I wasn’t paying attention.”
“Of course, you weren’t,” he grumbled like a baby. “I was asking if you know if Amelia had spoken to Selena.”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. Why do you want to know about Selena? Don’t you have her number?”
He scratched the back of his head, his face taking on a very light pink tint.
My face pulled into a shit-eating grin. “Don’t tell me she’s ghosting you.”
He pushed my shoulder, almost making me fall into my locker. “Do I look like the kind of man who would get ghosted?”
He had gotten ghosted. What was even funnier was his sheer denial of it. Never had I seen this man sweat over a woman, yet here was this 5’6” woman making him stressed.
The man moved through women faster than he moved through underwear.
“Stop smiling, dammit.” He slammed his locker shut and hooked his bag over his shoulder.
I threw my head back and laughed. I closed my locker and followed behind him while he sulked in silence.
“I just don’t get it.”
The poor guy looked lovesick. “One moment, I was ramming her on the kitchen counter, and the next, she cut me off like it meant nothing—oh my God, I sound like a chick. What the hell is wrong with me?”
We broke through the door and waved goodbye to our colleagues as they took over the next shift for us.
“Easy, you’re whipped. Utterly and stupidly whipped.” I patted his back. “There is no shame in it. I think that I—”
All the joy wholly drained from my system when I saw a familiar figure standing by my truck with his hands in his pockets and cigarette to his lips.
“Wait, is that…” Xander’s voice trailed off.
“My little brother.”
What was he doing here in Illinois?
Jacob lifted his head and saw me.
It was like I was looking at the younger version of my father. He was our old man every bit, just like I was every bit our mother.
He lifted his hand before throwing away his cigarette and approaching us. I had no idea why he was up here, but for some reason, I suspected that it had to do with the woman who had found a home in my heart.
“What are you doing here, Jake?” That was the first thing I said to him.
This was the first time I was seeing my brother in the flesh for maybe five or six years, and that was the first thing I said to him.
“No, ‘hey brother, I missed you’?” he joked, but he sighed when he saw I wasn’t smiling. “That’s one of the reasons that I came to see you.”
