Arianna scoffs and shakes her head. “Like forties, Cass.”
“I’m just asking,” Cassi replies, raising her hands in defense. “Was he the best lay you’ve ever had?”
Arianna smirks. “He was fucking pierced.”
Cassi’s scream could make dogs howl—not that she cares.
“Oh my God! I have so many questions. How did it feel for you? For him? Please tell me you burned every moment into your head to relish forever.”
Ari laughs. “It was a really fucking good night. I’m not sure how he’ll top it next week.”
Cassi’s smile freezes, the corners drooping ever so slightly. “Next week? He… asked you out?”
Ari shrugs. “Kinda. He asked me to meet him back there. Not sure if that constitutes a date or not.”
Cassi stares at her for a moment, like a million thoughts are running through her head. “Well, he might have been saying it in the heat of the moment. You know how men are. I don’t want you to get your hopes up.”
Ouch. Even I feel the little dig Cassi just threw. Whether she meant to or not, it’s out there, and based on Arianna’s face, she feels it.
“Did we get late checkout?” I ask, trying to steer the conversation in a new direction.
“Yeah,” Arianna says, her tone lacking its former enthusiasm.
“What about you, Nay? Another invite or anything?” Cassi asks.
I shake my head, and she nods like she’s relieved, which is insanely messed up. I mean, she doesn’t know that I was left feeling humiliated, embarrassed and… sad.
Still. They should be happy. Cassi got a phone number; Ari got a date. I just got trauma because though I’m trying to block it out, the fact of the matter is I sucked my brother’s dick.
After Cassi’s moment of… attitude let’s call it, we all decided to head out. I live only a few blocks away so it’s not bad even with midday traffic. That’s the unfortunate thing about Seattle. One o’clock on a Saturday? Traffic. Four in the morning on a Thursday? Traffic. I’ve never seen a city street empty, and I’ve lived here my whole life.
As soon as I stroll into the house, I smell something good cooking. Every weekend, we have a family dinner where we can all catch up. Even though Anthony, my oldest brother, lives in Olympia and Nick is constantly traveling for work, they both somehow never miss a dinner. I think they know how much it means to Mom.
“I’m home,” I call as I drop my overnight bag by the door.
“In here, sweetheart,” my mom says from the kitchen.
I weave my way through our little historic house. It’s tight, a three-bedroom, two-bath, 1,100-square-feet home with on-street parking, but it’s got a ton of charm to it. It was the home my mom grew up in, and when her parents passed away when she was twenty-two, her and my sperm donor moved in. I say sperm donor because dad just seems like an inappropriate titlefor a man who fled the state when he found out his wife was pregnant with his third child.
My mom worked her butt off to provide for us kids on her own, especially after she took Kolter in. Granted, Anthony had already moved out by the time Kolter started living with us; still, holidays and weekends were very cramped. I always kinda loved it, though.
“What are we having?” I ask as I step into the kitchen and press a kiss to Mom’s cheek.
She smiles and gestures towards the pastry dough she’s placing on top of ramekins. “Mini pot pies.”
My stomach practically grumbles in celebration and I grin approvingly.
“When will the boys be here?”
She looks down at her phone briefly. “Probably an hour or two—you know Anthony likes to head home early.”
I nod. We should honestly start calling it family lunch with how early we do it every week, but hey, who really cares what time of day you eat delicious food, right?
“I’m going to take a quick shower and then I’ll help you set the table,” I say.
“Sounds good. Wait, did you guys have fun last night?”
I study my mom’s warm smile. I don’t keep anything from her, so she knows where we went last night. She also knows the status of my sex life—or lack thereof—and that inquisitive smile is very clearly a probe to see if anything monumental happened. As much as I’d love to get this… thing off my chest, I think it would mortify her even more than me, so for once, I keep it all to myself.