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“You don’t seem to be your usual jovial self. Something wrong?” Dr. Sonya asked.
I hadn’t expected her to pick up on it. I thought I had been hiding it pretty well. But could I tell her that the boy I’ve been secretly in love with got engaged before I had a chance to tell him how I felt? Could I tell her that I walked in on Mom and Mike and now they’re moving in together leaving me nowhere to live?
“I was just told that I have a brother.”
Dr. Sonya looked at me with as much shock as I felt when I found out.
“Really?”
“Yeah. Turns out I’ve had one for most of my life and my mother never bothered to mention it until now.”
“Did she tell you anything about him?”
I shook my head. “She said he was younger than me and that my father had him before he got deployed to Iraq.”
“Your father was deployed to Iraq?” She asked confused.
“You didn’t know?”
“I didn’t.”
“Yeah, my father was in the Air Force. I’ve honestly been scared to ask if he and my mother were married. She doesn’t like to say much when it comes to him. But after telling me I have a brother, I’m starting to understand why. Do you know anything about any of this?”
“This is all new information to me,” she admitted.
I shrugged. “So I guess I have that going on.”
“I guess you do. By the way, did you want anything or did you just come to check out the place?”
I thought back to the pastry I saw on the table in front of Lou.
“Do you have any croissants?”
“Marcus has made these delightful croissants with chocolate striped over top of them,” she said bugging her eyes with excitement.
“I’ll take one of those. And maybe a coffee.”
“You got it. Sit. Relax. Enjoy the sights,” she said pointing at the view.
“Thanks,” I said choosing a seat and sitting down.
The view from Dr. Sonya’s back porch had to be one of the best in town. Tree-covered hills rippled off into the distance. And on the furthest peek was a cloud of mist from the largest waterfall in a hundred miles.
I was lost in both the view and thought when I heard a voice I hadn’t heard in a while.
“Titus?”
I turned to find Claude, the only kid from my graduating class to go to college immediately after high school.
“Claude! Good to see you. What are you doing here?”
“Here in town or here at Dr. Sonya’s pastry shop?”
I shrugged. “Both. Please, sit.”
Claude made his way to the seat across from me. Memories of Claude washed through my mind. I had always been a little jealous of him. Not only was he one of the best football players on our high school team. But he was always so damn good-looking.
The man had perfect features and the most amazing brown complexion I could imagine. I didn’t know how he felt about being the only black kid in our high school. It might have been the reason he kept to himself. But I had always wished we could be friends.
