“Let’s go,” I say, and pull him a block into the nearest bar.
Elias puts a new pep in my step, a confidence that’s remained elusive my entire life, ever since I hit puberty and had full headgear, and I march right up to the bartender to get us drinks.
“That’s a delicious beer,” a deep male voice that does not belong to Elias says to my right.
I look over, and it’s a really attractive man, tall and lanky, light hair, blue eyes. I smile. He glances down at my mouth. “I know,” I tell him with an Elias grin, popping a Dimple I definitely don’t have. “It’s for my lifelong sex friend. It’s his favorite.”
I look back towards Elias, who has saved us seats in a tiny booth in the back. He’s not tense with jealousy, but loose with the confidence that comes from knowing that I belong to him. His giant body is completely at ease, a curl of his hair falling over one of his eyes, and it looks like he’s struggling to contain a smile. He’s cleaned up nicely for that nice restaurant we just went to, devastating in a crisp button down, cuffs folded up, tailored pants.
The bartender drops our beers on the bar. I wink at the hot man to my right, who raises his glass at me with a gracious smirk. I stride back to the hotter man, my lifelong sex friend, who pulls me into his lap.
“That was sexy, man-eater,” he says into my ear, wrapping his arms around me after taking a sip of his beer.
“What, getting hit on by another guy? Do you have some sort of cuckold kink?”
He genuinely thinks about it for a second. “No, I don’t think I could handle that,” he says finally. “No, your little Hot Girl March was sexy. With your chin up and tits out.”
“I have a good teacher,” I tell him. “I channeled Big Elias Energy.”
He nips at my ear. “I’m impressed, Young Padawan.”
I sip my beer.
“Speaking of being a good teacher. Your parents, Mia—fuck. That sucked.”
I sigh, wiggling off his lap and into the booth next to him. It’s so squished and his body takes up so much space that my legs are still draped over his. “Yeah. They’ve always been dismissive.” I think for a moment. “But I think it got worse once we all went to college. I feel like your parents were always there to shut them down when they were getting to be too much, but once we all left… And I mean, Leo has always been like this to a certain extent.”
He digests this.
“It’s never been as bad as my parents, obviously.” I feel comfortable telling him this now. “They’ve just never thought I was very important, I guess. Leo’s been their golden child forever. It’s real-life heir and the spare. I’ve lived in his shadow forever,” I laugh without humor. “But honestly, it’s like this all the time, for everything. I’m constantly being passed over. Like a sad little wallflower. Always in second.”
Elias frowns. “But not at work. And not to me.”
“No,” I agree.
He grips my chin, forcing me to look at him. His normally light green eyes look like a deep emerald in the dim of the bar. “So what did you mean about Leo?”
“I guess he hasn’t been as actively dismissive as my parents, but he’s just always kind of passively… accepted it. Ignored that it was happening.”
He mulls this over, running his tongue over his teeth.
I peel at the cracking wood of the table we’re seated at. “That’s why it meant so much to me earlier. What you did. Work is the only place I feel seen. It’s the only thing I feel really, really good at, and it meant a lot to have you see that, too. And defend it to my parents.”
He exhales, his big chest expanding and contracting. “I’m sorry, Mia. I never realized it was that bad. I’m sorry for not standing up for you.”
I make sure he’s looking at me now. “You’ve always stood up for me, Elias.”And I realize it now, because I love you, I say with my fingers, tracing over the sharp lines of his jaw. “My entire life. Always.”
His beautiful green eyes search my face.
“I remember this time when we were kids. Really little. When the three of us were in the tree house, and I fell out.”
He cringes. “Shit. I’ll never forget the sound of your arm snapping.”
“I was lying on the ground looking up with the wind knocked out of me. You were looking down, and your face? You looked terrified. But a different type of terrified than Leo. Leo looked scared because he thought he would get in trouble. You looked scared that I was actually hurt.”
Elias squeezes me.
“You took charge so quickly. Even at like, what, seven, eight years old? You sent Leo to go get our parents. You sat there with me, wiping my tears, telling me I was going to be okay. And when our parents finally got there…” I scoff. “Surprise, surprise, my parents got pissed at me for being clumsy. But you… You stood between us, literally put your body in between us and said it wasn’t my fault. That I was only five.” My body fills with the warmth that comes with love. It’s on the tip of my tongue to say it.
