I ate a small amount at a time, too busy watching him ingest handful after handful. It was amazing. It was seriously amazing watching him eat so much so quickly. “Are you planning on eating it all, fatty?”
He gasped in the middle of grabbing more. “You think I’m fat?”
“Yes,” I lied, eyeing the flat slope of his stomach like I hadn’t seen him shirtless nearly every night. If I were ever honest with myself, I would admit I could draw his six-pack from memory. “Do you only run?” I couldn’t remember ever seeing him work out. On the other hand, he was usually always eating.
He mumbled something between a mouthful of popcorn that sounded like “I lift weights too.”
“When?”
“Usually during the opening band,” he explained. “We have dumbbells and a bench in the back of the trailer.” The timing made perfect sense. I rarely saw any of the guys after doors in the venue opened.
“You?”
“Just cardio.” I held up my arm and slapped the bottom of my upper arm. “See? No muscle.”
He licked his salty lips, looking at me intently. “Where do you live?” he asked out of the blue.
“In Dallas. You?”
“San Francisco.”
“That’s cool,” I thought for a second. “Aren’t we stopping there next week?”
The quick, enthusiastic nod he gave me in response made me smile. Excitement radiated through his pores. “Yeah. You can meet my friends.”
“Okay.” I smiled and nodded, remembering a prior conversation. “What about your family? They don’t live there?”
“Not anymore. My mom lives in Australia now; my dad is back in Russia—”
“Are you Russian?” I finally asked. I mean, I’d been wondering where he got his name from and I’m surprised I held off asking for so long.
Sacha nodded. “My parents are. My two older sisters were born there but the rest of us were born here.”
I set my elbow on the armrest and looked at his face. “Huh. That’s really neat. What’s your last name?”
“Malykhin.”
“Spell it.”
He did.
“And your sisters?” I asked.
“They’re everywhere. One is in Africa, one is in the UK, one in Alaska, and another in Hong Kong.” He raised his eyebrows. “I don’t get to see them much anymore unless I go visit or we meet up somewhere for the holidays.”
“Do you miss them?” I was well aware of the fact I had no right to ask, but I did anyway.
Surprisingly, he answered without even thinking about it. One single shoulder going up in a fraction of a shrug. “A lot, but I’ll get to see my mom soon.”
“That’s nice.” I nudged his elbow with mine. “If you ever want a brother, feel free to borrow Eli. You can keep him too.”
His lips fluttered with a raspberry before he laughed. “That’s very generous of you.”
“Just saying. If you’re craving being terrorized, made fun of and farted on, he’s yours.”
Sacha slid me a look out of the corner of his eye. “I already get two of those three.”
He did? I tried to think about the way he was with the TCC guys but they all seemed to get along really well, if a little distantly, and they were more mature than GO’s morons were. “From who?”
