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“Where’s my niece?” I ask while cracking the eggs in the bowl with the dry ingredients.
“With James.” She shrugs while cutting fresh strawberries.
“Everything okay?”
She nods.
“Alright . . .”
“He drives mecrazysometimes! I know he’s busy with work and all but sometimes I need a minute of his time too.” She stops cutting and looks up, and that’s when I see the waterworks. “I can’t stop tearing up, fuck!” She’s still looking up, trying to keep the tears from falling, when I put the pancake bowl aside and hug my sister.
It bothers me to see her like this.
“And then there’s you too . . .”
She accepts my long hug before she slices the red fruit once more while I pour the pancake batter in an oiled pan.
“What about me?”
“Oh, you know, other than the fact that you’re keeping things from me... you used to tell me everything. Before...”
I stare at the bubbles on my pancake so that I can pretend it’s more interesting then where this conversation is going.
In all fairness, she’s right.
Gia had always been privy to my most intimate and secretive details. But the accident changed things. More so than simply Harv and me. It changed my relationship with her because she can’t bear feeling left out or not being in the loop about my life.
“Gia,” I croak, flipping the pancake over. “It’s not about you. I just want to keep some things to myself.”
“I know,” she says, piling up the strawberries on a white plate. “I don’t want to be annoying; I miss you, that’s it.”
I nod. Because I know.
I know the accident affected her, too, because I’m not the same girl I used to be. The light in my eyes dimmed afterward, never to be found again.
Some days when I’m with Damon, I feel it flicking back on again, only to be turned off as soon as I remind myself of what’s at stake. Like my relationship with Harvey, for instance, and his family, and my job.
Regardless, I’m glad we get to enjoy another Sunday brunch together before she’s surrounded by two kids.
“How’s everything with your boss?” She changes subject and suddenly I’m on edge. We’re headed into dangerous territory, and I don’t like it. I want to backpedal.
“Good.” I pour more batter into the pan.
“Is he hot in real life?”
“Gia,” I warn her, not wanting to think about his good looks.
“What? I’m a pregnant married woman with a kid. Let me live voraciously through you!” She smiles, and I can’t deny her.
“He is. Happy?”
The smell of melted chocolate fills the room as Gia melts it into a pot right next to me. I don’t like that’s she standing so close to me while we’re talking about such a sensitive topic. I’m afraid she’ll see right through the lies I’ve been spewing.
I really needed a full day to recuperate from my weekend with him. To make sense of all these bottled-up emotions.
“Did you sleep in the same room?”
I turn my head to stare at her—she apparently has the same death wish as I have according to Damon. “Obviously not!”
