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It’s Star.
Figures. She’s an early riser.
I click it open with a sigh and read it.
She wants to go back to Manhattan, along with Gabby, to finish what we started. We’d begin in Soho, where there were still dozens of galleries squeezed in between trendy restaurants and luxury boutiques and then make our way to Noho. From there, we’d meander down the Bowery, stop at the poet’s café I’d just gone to with Marku last night, and finish off with pierogies from one of the Ukrainian restaurants in the East Village.
I fire back an emphaticyes.
She sends me a shocked emoji face followed byI didn’t expect an answer for hours.
Ha ha, yeah, I get it. She’s making fun of me for being awake, but I don’t care. I may not be able to tell them about my marriage, but I’m not above talking to them about losing my virginity. The irony is that a normalmafiegirl would have the opposite reaction. I shrug. I was never one of those.
I figured you’d be tutoring Lucian today, I tease back, knowing how much she resents any time she has to spend on him.
An hour later, I turn the corner onto Queens Boulevard to find Star, Gabby, and… Soren? I should’ve guessed he’d be here. He’s been unusually protective of his sister lately. “What the hell is he doing here?”
Gabby huffs and shoots him a dirty look. “Someone grabbed my phone and read mypersonaltexts when I refused to tell him where I was going because I knew he wouldn’t leave me alone.” She throws up her hands. “Now here weallare.”
“Twins shouldn’t have secrets,” he replies with a bland smile.
“Says the twin with the most secrets,” Gabby shouts back. “I want to do one thing on my own.” She holds up her index finger. “One thing. Butnooo, Mr. Annoying Busybody here won’t let me go into the city alone. He even threatened to call Anton, as if that was some kind of threat.”
She sweeps her hand out dramatically and warns him, “Go ahead. Call him. See if he comes running. You’re under some delusion that he knows I exist, but I can assure you with absolute certainty that he doesn’t.” The corners of Gabby’s mouth turn down into a theatrical frown.
He taps his finger on his chin. “And yet I’m here without having to call him. How is that?”
She clenches her fists and lets out a little shriek. “Oh my God, just because he’s your new best friend doesn’t mean he knows I’m your sister.”
“Mm-hmm,” Soren replies as he leisurely crosses his arms over his chest like he can’t wait to hear her reasoning. “We’re twins. How would anyone not know that we’re at least siblings?”
“We don’t look that much alike,” she counters with a flutter of her hand. “But I refuse to allow you to embarrass me any further. I may not have a lot of it, but even I have a touch of Lupu pride. I’m not about to let you call him and completely humiliate me when you realizehe doesn’t even know who you’re talking about!”
Tears of frustration gather in Gabby’s eyes and I rush over to her, tuck her into my side, and whip around to attack Soren. “For fuck’s sake, Soren, why do you have to be such an ass? Can’t you leave her alone already? Isn’t it enough that you’re always torturing her?”
He pushes off the wall of the apartment building at the corner, his brows scrunched together in a severe expression. “I take issue with that accusation. I am notalwaystorturing her. I’m looking out for her.” His deep furrow turns smooth. “She’s my little sister.”
Gabby tears out of my embrace, charges up to him with two of her fingers sticking up in a V, and screams, “Two minutes! I’m two minutes younger than you. That does not make you my older brother. We’re twins. That’s literally the definition of twins. Born at thesametime.”
“But you pushed out two minutes later so it’s technically not the same time, is it? It’s later. Two minutes later,” he replies, waggling two fingers in her face. “Little sis.”
Now, I’m starting to get heated. He’s Gabby’s brother and generally a good enough guy, but he’s acting like a little bitch right now.
Gabby balls her hands into fists and raises them at his face. His eyelids drop to half-mast, totally unfazed by the sight of her fury. With a sound of distress, she shrieks, “Get me away from him, I swear, get me away before I do something I’ll regret.”
Star and I pounce on her, dragging her back as she fights us to get to him while he pulls out his phone and makes a show of scrolling through it indifferently.
We drag her out of his reach, talking in hushed voices for her to calm down, when he saunters over to us and drawls, “Can we get going already? This is going to take all day, as it is.”
“So don’t come with us,” Gabby spits at him.
He rolls his eyes. “As if I’d let anything happen to you.”
With that, he turns around and walks a good distance ahead of us. Linking arms on either side of her, we console her as she grumbles about Soren ruining her life.
“Look, he’s keeping his distance,” Star remarks.
“Only because he’s too good for us. He probably thinks we’re talking about stupid girl stuff like makeup and boys. The idiot has no idea what we’re capable of.”
