After a few moments, Bronx speaks again. “My Father has a complicated career.”
“Uh huh.”
“And he has enemies.”
My eyes widen, but I stay silent and listen intently. He’s sharing something so private with me and I want to be respectful of the moment.
“When I was in college–”
“Wait, you went to college?”
Oops, I’m supposed to be quietly respectful.
“Delaware University.”
“Wow, that’s a good school, from what I’ve heard.”
And also explains the t-shirt he had on before.
“You don’t think I look smart?”
He turns around to face me.
“It’s just that you don’t look like a lot of college students I know.”
“I didn’t always have this scar across my neck.”
“I wasn’t talking about your scar.”
“Are you talking about my ink?” he asks, confused. “Lots of jocks have tattoos.”
“There isn’t one thing in particular that makes me say that. I just can’t picture you as a college student, sitting at a desk, listening to lectures, and going to frat parties. Plus, you know my brother. Lev never went to college and wasn’t the type to hang out with college kids either.”
“You’re right about frat parties. I hated them. Those weren’t our scene when we went to DU.”
“Our scene?”
“I went to school with my twin brother.”
“There’s two of you?”
I stare in awe at the fact that there could be another man out there who is as genetically blessed as this one. Some people get all the luck.
“Yeah, his name’s Seven.”
“Love that name.”
“He was born seven seconds after me.”
“What about your name? Were you born in Bronx, New York, or something?”
“There’s no story behind my name. Just something my Mom thought would sound cool.”
“It does sound cool, and I think it’s nice that you both have very different names, since you probably had so many other similarities to deal with as twins.”
I’m stirring the melted chocolate pieces in a small copper pot, getting them ready to pour into the bowl of wet ingredients.
“That’s a way of looking at it. I never really thought about it like that. Is there a story behind your name?”
