"What brings you south of the river? Did you want to go through the workshop schedule for the next couple of months?" David asked.
"Yes, that would be good, but that's not why I came. I was wondering if we could talk more about Mário's brother."
Before Christmas, David had asked Isaac for help finding Vítor, Mário's younger brother who'd run away when he was only twenty-one. The event had been a family secret until Mário had confessed to David that the reason he'd reacted so badly to the idea of David being gay was because he was afraid of losing him like he'd lost his brother.
The relationship between uncle and nephew had been very rocky for a long time, but fortunately they'd been working on it since the summer and seemed to be in a good place.
Since then, Café Lima had gone from being the place where David worked to the place we all hung out and felt welcomed by both Teresa and Mário.
With Isaac in Manhattan, there was a lot of work I'd needed to pick up, so while searching for Vítor was on my radar, it hadn't been a priority. Now, with Fred going silent and the workload stabilizing, I needed something new to focus on. Especially since my head was flickering between thinking about my brother and the hot older man I'd kissed in the bar a week ago.
"I'm sorry it's taken so long," I said, taking a seat at a small table on the other side of the kitchen so I wasn't in their way.
"Don't worry, I'm in the center all the time, remember? I know how busy you are, especially now without Isaac there. So, what do you need to know about Vítor?"
"Start at the beginning. What happened before he disappeared?"
"On his twenty-first birthday, he went to a gay bar in Lisbon. I don't know which one. He was seen kissing a guy by someone who knew his dad." David looked at me then, his expression one of anger.
"Never mind that in order to see Vítor there, this person had to be in a gay bar, too. I don't know if they lied about where they saw the kiss happen or what. I just know that this person told Vítor's father who then beat him up so badly he ended up in the hospital."
"Jesus." I'd heard this story so many times before, and each time it made me want to be sick. For all the stuff my stepfather had done to me, he'd never hit me. Although now I wondered if he had whether I'd have tried to protect my brother from a violent man rather than assuming his abuse was solely directed at me.
"What happened in the hospital?" I asked.
"I don't know. Uncle Mário wanted to visit Vítor, but their father was against it. At the time they were quite interdependent and Aunt Teresa was pregnant."
That stopped me in my tracks. "Teresa had a baby?"
"It was a high-risk pregnancy. Sadly, she lost the baby shortly after." There was a little sadness in David's voice as he shared his aunt and uncle's story.
"They didn't try for babies again?"
"They did, but it never happened."
"Okay, so Vítor was in hospital and Mário couldn't visit. When did he run?"
"I think Vítor had quite severe injuries but nothing life threatening. He was in hospital a few days and then one day, he was gone. Uncle Mário was devastated. He started looking for his brother, severed ties with his dad, and rented a little property just for the three of them, but then Aunt Teresa lost the baby."
In a short time, the young couple had cut ties with their family and lost their brother and their child. The story hit me harder than I had expected. I'd already been feeling on edge when I'd decided to come to the café.
"Excuse me for a moment." I looked for the door I knew led out the back of the building. My hands shook as I struggled to open the door. The sunlight outside was too bright, but it didn't matter because my eyes were closed and all I could see was the image inside my head that was causing my panic. The image of the last time I'd seen my brother, not knowing it would be the last.
"Tiago! Are you okay?"
A pair of small arms came around me and a calm voice told me to take in a breath and hold it, then let it out. I kept doing it until the buzzing went and I could breathe better. That's when I realized Teresa was standing in front of me. Her hands went from rubbing circles on my back to wiping my tear-covered face.
"I'm so sorry," was all I could say. "I'm so sorry."
"What are you sorry for, my dear?" Her voice was calm and soothing, much like my mother's had once been. I shook my head to stop myself from talking because if I let out all the pain in my heart, I was absolutely certain I would crumble into a million pieces.
"Come on, dear. Let's go inside."
I got up and followed Teresa to the table where she'd placed the coffee and custard tart I'd asked for earlier.
"I'm sorry about that. I guess I wasn't expecting Vítor's story to hit me so hard," I confessed.
"You will find your brother, my dear," Teresa said, squeezing my hands reassuringly. There was a part of me that doubted it. Sadly, that part was getting louder with each month that passed and I didn't find Afonso.
