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“Sorry to break it to you, Yuyu, but this is way more thana little something.”
“He likes to spoil me,” she gushes, seemingly not realizing my sarcastic tone.
Whatever. They can be all mushy and weird together—not that I want to imagine my brother like that. Years later and it’s still impossible to reconcile the ruthless authoritarian that Cisco is as the head of the family with the doting husband he is to Yuyu.
It’s as if there are two completely different people residing in the same body. Of course, something similar could be said of me, too, since my soft spot only applies to Raf. But no matter how ruthless I am, I know my brother can be more so.
The truth is that he scares me. Now, and before. And what terrifies me the most is that I still don’t know the extent of his involvement in my life until now. Because some coincidences… let’s just say they are too coincident to be coincidences.
thirty-four
Noelle
We all takeour seats as we get ready for take-off, and Raf places his hand on top of mine, giving me a smile.
“It’s going to be okay,” he whispers.
I nod, taking a deep breath.
“It’s just a few hours,” I mumble—mostly trying to convince myself.
The plane takes off, and I do my best to keep my composure even though my legs are trembling. It’s only when we stabilize in the air that my fear subsides a little. I guess I might have to get used to a lifetime of plane phobia after that crash.
Cisco and Yuyu try to engage us in conversation, but neither Raf nor I seem to be in the mood to pretend that everything is fine. We can be civil, sure. But beyond that, doubtful.
I sneak a glance at them every now and then, still surprised to see Cisco acting like a human being and not like an automaton.
“When did you get the SOS?” I suddenly ask.
“We were alerted soon after the plane crashed, but it took us some time to find the crash site,” Yuyu replies.
“Quite a bit of time,” I reply dryly.
“What Noelle means to say is that we’re grateful you came for us. We can’t wait to get home, isn’t that right?” Raf turns to me, giving me a look that saysdon’t start a fight.
Oh, well… Decisions, decisions. On the one hand, I’d love to question my brother more and see his mask slip, but on the other, I don’t want Raf to be put out with me.
“Exactly. I’m tired, and hungry and I can’t wait to sleep on an actual mattress,” I add, a little bit too sweetly—which, of course, lets everyone know that I only mean one half.
“There’s food in the back,” Yuyu suddenly gets us, bringing a bag full of food and placing it in front of us. “We knew you were going to be hungry so we got a little bit of everything.”
“Thanks,” I mutter, taking the bag and exploring some of the options. Since I amtoohungry, I’m not too picky, grabbing a sandwich and digging in. Raf does the same.
Yuyu regards us expectantly, almost as if she’s waiting for either of us to start a conversation. She looks so eager that I feel a little uncomfortable. So instead of rebuffing her directly and incurring Cisco’s wrath, I focus on Raf instead.
“I wanted to propose something,” I clear my voice. “How would you feel about moving out of the city?”
“Huh?” Raf raises his brows at me.
“I know we just moved into the new place but... I’m not very keen on the city. I just want us to be together, away from all the noise and conflict. We can keep that apartment for business and we can move to the house in New Port, or we could buy another upstate. I have a trust fund put aside so you don’t have to worry about the money.”
My words surprise him, but he doesn’t seem adverse to the idea.
“We’ll go house hunting after we rest,” he replies.
“Just like that?”
He nods, smiling.
