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But for some reason, I felt safe and comfortable with him. So, I’d said yes to sushi and then to another date after that, and we’d been together ever since.
“You are definitely a better actor than me.”
I turned to see my younger sister sliding up next to me with an extra glass of red wine. She handed it over without even asking.
She was officially my new favorite sibling.
“Well, thankfully, I don’t think Papa even noticed,” I said, pointing toward the man himself.
He was near the kitchen, his wheelchair parked at the small dining room table. His loud, thunderous laugh filled the tiny space.
“Alex had him fooled when he walked into his party and made that ridiculous face.” I tried to mimic the expression my brother had made that night, rounding my lips into a comically wide O.
Margo laughed, shaking her head. “Oh, no, that was real. He didn’t have a clue.”
“You’re lying,” I said. Now, I was the surprised one.
“I was supposed to keep him away from his apartment that night, but I had to work late, so I asked a friend of his. They took him out, and, well, they pre-partied a bit too hard.”
I covered my laughter. “I knew he was drunk!”
“I was just waiting for him to give a speech, like that episode ofFriends.”
“I would have filmed that and posted it on the internet so fast.” I snickered.
After a bit more chitchat, Margo headed off to find the food table, and I started my rounds, making sure to say hello to everyone and thank them for coming. I was grateful my parents had asked everyone to bring food instead of presents. Nothing was more awkward than unwrapping a gift and finding something hilariously inappropriate, only to look up and see your very traditional mother staring down at you.
After about thirty minutes, I’d managed to grab a plate of food and talk to nearly everyone. After I refilled my wine, I headed over to give a little moral support to Elena, who, by the looks of it, was clearly having an emotional crisis.
“He’s just so…” She struggled to find the words, motioning with her hands, as if the movement would conjure the missing letters from thin air.
“But you guys were so good,” I said as I sat next to her.
We’d taken residence on my beige sofa. I’d just dropped a fortune on it last month, and I was trying not to focus on the dozen or more people scattered all over my apartment, balancing red wine and cocktail sauce.
“I know. But now, we’re?—”
“What?” I asked, trying to understand where she was coming from. “Maybe you’re just overthinking it.”
“No, we’re stagnant, Marin. Like dead in the water.”
“What? Really?”
“It’s just—” She stopped mid-sentence again, but this time, it seemed she’d paused herself on purpose. Her brown eyes met mine, and they were round and wide and reminded me so much of her brother’s.
“What?” I asked before saying, “It’s okay. You can say it.”
“You and Daniel always had this intensity about you, you know?”
My lips pressed together, keeping the emotions at bay. “Yeah, we did.”
She took a slow breath. “I just keep thinking about this one night when the three of us were out. Before I met Chad and I used to tag along as your third wheel.”
“You were never a third wheel.”
“Yeah, I’m sure Daniel loved always having his sister around on dates,” she said with a shadow of a laugh.
“You know he loved spending time with you,” I said. “And besides, had it not been for you, we would have never met.”
