This feels just like that, except now he’s lying to my face.
Holmes darts a quick look to Honoré, and they just sorta awkwardly stand there, as if waiting for me to let them get back to whatever it was they were talking about.
I shove down the annoyed buzz in my chest. “Actually, I’m just gonna grab something and run a few errands.”
The elevator doors open and my heavily tattooed—and probably murderous—cousin Silas walks in. He’s accompanied by Cupcake, his enormous, incredibly sweet Cane Corso. He stops when he sees me and looks quizzically between me and H and H.
“Hey, Mav. Didn’t know you’d be here.”
I flex my hands, starting to feel like an unwelcome house guest.
“Yeah, super weird for me to just, you know, show up where I live.”
He opens his mouth and shuts it again. Sy doesn’t do too well with snark.
“Ignore me,” I said, waving off his confused look. “I’ll be out of your hair in a few seconds.”
The three of them smile and nod and… I don’t know what to make of that.
More of the shit I’m not privy to, clearly.
The elevator opens again, and my cousin Rami walks in backward with his boyfriend Truett pushing him into the foyer, and they’re attached at the lips. I grab Rahm before he tumbles down the steps into the living room, and I’m pretty sure that’s the only reason they see me at all.
Rami shares the same confused look with H and H that Sy did. “I didn’t realize you’d be here.”
“Guess I’m a surprise for everyone,” I say through gritted teeth.
Frankly, it wouldn’t surprise me if?—
“I’m here. Sorry I’m late,” my cousin Maya says, coming in from the stairs. She practically squeaks to a halt. “Mav! I haven’t seen you in a while,” she says, sounding artificially chipper.“And hey, what was that thing with you getting arrested for jaywalking?”
Rami laughs, joining in. “Seriously, Mav. What do you have against sidewalks?”
He grins in anticipation of my answer.
Yeah, no.
“Actually, I was doing a favor for Ru,” I explain, unable—unwilling—to keep the edge out of my voice. I glare at Holmes. “Also, I’m not in the mood for whatever this is.”
I’m definitely not telling them about the purple belt, or that Boone cuffed me again yesterday before we came all over each other.
My brother’s eyes widen. I never get like this, but in a family full of geniuses and overachievers, I’d latched onto my twin to navigate all the shit that constantly flew over my head. He’d always been the one I could go to when Dad and Father were being too strict about the boys I was interested in. The one I went to the night Boone broke my fifteen-year-old heart.
And he’s been lying to me.For years.
Holmes holds up his hands. “It’s really important that you know we’re not intentionally shutting you out of stuff that’s important to the family.”
Bullshit.
“Whatever. I’ll be out of y’all’s hair in just a sec, and y’all can continue your little meeting without me.”
Before they can come up with a response, I turn back toward the hallway, quickly disappearing into my room.
A lot of people would call this messy, but it’s more intentional than you might assume. I forget about stuff I can’t see, so I’ve learned to organize things into pretty stacks, aesthetic groupings, and color-coordinated baskets with a combination of floor-to-ceiling cube systems that make my brain purr. Theresult has always felt a little like Hong Kong—crowded, colorful, but with a place for everything.
I step to the far corner of my room and tap my lips as I regard the filing system for my unfinished craft projects, kept separate with an old rack made of long wooden dowels.
The whale shark I started last week is cute, but it’s gonna require going through piles of recycled blue jeans and saris, and I’m not in the mood.
