Page 18 of Where You Are
Me:I don’t know if that’s a good idea. You haven’t told them anything have you?
The idea of my brother knowing I’ve been… spending time with his best friend for some reason is like a bucket of cold water on the whole thing. My hackles have barely had a chance to rise when my phone rings. I swipe the screen and bring it up to my ear and have no chance for a greeting before Matt is already protesting.
“Don’t tell me you’re one of those people that’s hooked on the wholedon’t date the brother’s best friendcliché?”
“Not… necessarily,” I say, getting all twitchy. “But it’s a little weird… and awkward, don’t you think?”
“No, we’re all grown-ass adults, including your brother. We like each other, we want to see where it goes. He can understand that. Besides, what’s he going to do, kick my ass?”
“Hey, he could,” I say facetiously, trying to keep this lighthearted and the pressure off.
“Seriously, I don’t get why it has to be such a faux pas just because you’re his sister,” he says, not biting, and I blow out a flustered breath. How can I explain this?
“Because it’s tricky” I say, honestly. “It’s just that whether you think so or not, it can put a friendship on the line, and it would be making him get involved whether he wants to or not, and then if it doesn’t work out, he’s not going to know how to act around either of us,” I get on a roll, spewing out all the reasons that make our situation a delicate one. “Plus, I don’t want to deal with all the ribbing and the questions when we don’t even know what this is yet. Can’t we just wait to tell him until there’s actually something to tell? Then we don’t have to make anyone feel like they’re in a weird position if it doesn’t go anywhere.”
This time I hear him blow out a frustrated breath and I can tell he’s giving in, albeit very reluctantly. I get what he’s saying about us all just being people. I just got back from a long time away though, and when someone makes plans to settle down, the odds don’t usually lie with the first person you go out with. If it doesn’t end up being the end game, I don’t want Jack to have to feel awkward in the same room with us in the future.
“Fine… alright. But let’s get to the dating then. Tomorrow night.”
“Okay,” I agree cheerfully, trying to lighten the mood some more. “So where do we go where the bass player of Turn it Up doesn’t get mobbed?”
He chuckles and I can practically hear him rolling his eyes. “Darlin’, the masses don’t care about me nearly as much as they do Jack. Besides, I’ve got it covered.” And with a click of his tongue, I can tell he’s winking.
* * *
It’s a good thing I’ve already seenA Star is Born, because neither I nor Matt have really paid any attention to it. At the expansive park in Midtown, they offer Movies in the Park on Saturday nights in the summer, and I can’t think of a more perfect way to spend our first date. I love the romance of being in the park at night, outside in the balmy night air with the glow of the jumbo screen that is set up on the other side of the pond in its center. Food trucks are lined up in the adjacent parking lot, and Matt insisted on grabbing milkshakes before we found our primo spot under a tree near the outlining fence. Being behind all the other movie goers, we’re free to make out every other scene which we completely take advantage of, sprawled out on a black and white tartan blanket Matt brought along. It’s crazy to think that we’ve spent a night sleeping next to each other, yet this is the most we’ve ever kissed and touched each other. Breathing in his scent of sage and leather, with his cold, vanilla-flavored tongue in my mouth and his hand gliding so far up my thigh it’s in danger of raising the black cotton tank sundress I’m wearing, is making certain parts of me wake right up. As his lips move with mine, his hand grips my thigh with a hint of possession that sends a flood of excitement between my legs. Add all that to the way his breathing has deepened and the occasional moan he releases into my mouth, I’m beginning to care less and less about public indecency.
We’re finally forced to cool our jets when the movie we didn’t watch concludes, and the park lights come on to help the viewers see their way out easier. We sit back, in no hurry to join the gridlock exiting the park, or for our time together to end.
“So, tell me about another favorite place you visited,” he says, picking up his shake to drain the last of the melted contents. This has become a thing. Every time we get together, he asks me to tell him about a different place I’ve been like he’s tuning in for a new episode. While I don’t feel the need to make sure everyone knows about every excursion I took, it’s kind of nice how he asks.
“Well,” I start, as I take a breath and look down at the pattern of the blanket a moment. “Of all the places I wanted to go, Egypt was at the top of my list,” I tell him, looking up to find his eyes holding mine in fascination.
“Well, I bet that’d be incredible,” he agrees with a gentle nod. “What put it at the top?”
“My mom always wanted to travel,” I reveal to him, unsure if how much he knew about mine and Jack’s mother, “and that was one of the places she wanted to see the most. In fact, it was the first place on her list she ever told me about.”
“Wow,” he exclaims in a low rasp. “I know you lost your mom when you guys were little. It’s amazing you remembered that about her.”
“She was my… everything,” I shrug, dropping my hands in my lap. “I don’t think I forgot a single thing about her.”
“So you went to see the pyramids for her,” Matt states without question, because he understands, and the fact that he does blows my mind.
“I went everywhere on her list for her,” I confide.
“Oh my God,” he breathes out heavily, before scrubbing his hands down his face.
“What?” I pull my head back, slightly confused.
“I just… how are you so incredible?”
I lift a shoulder.
“I don’t think I’m that incredible,” I answer, not trying to be self-deprecating. “I’m just me.”
“You’re notjustanything,” he says firmly before bringing us back on track. “So tell me all about Egypt.”
I happily oblige and tell him about the wonders of the pyramids, the Sphinx, and the temples I got to see; how they seem so larger-than-life and no photograph or video footage could ever do them any justice. They seem like something out of a dream, or a fairytale.