She flashes me a bright smile, her short blunt bangs firmly in place, then saunters into the office.
“Hi, Mateo!”
“What are you doing here?”
“You look alarmed.”
“No!”
She smirks. “Florian is giving my parents and me a tour. I’m early.”
“Oh.” I blink.
“Mama loves art. My parents are at the MFA.”
“And you think it’s boring.”
“Maybe I would rather spendtime with my brother’s boyfriend.”
“Cool!”
She gives me an assessing look, and I glance at the air conditioner to make sure I haven’t set it to a cold temperature.
But the thermostat is right where it normally is.
Her eyebrows rise, and I give her an uneasy smile. Annika is smart and not simply book smart.
“It’s really nice to see you,” I say.
She holds my gaze too long, then shakes her head, like I’ve said something amusing.
“I can’t get over the fact that my brother never mentioned you to me,” she says.
“We wanted to keep things quiet.”
“Right. But he didn’t seemthathappy.”
“Starting a new job is stressful. Maybe he talked more about that with you.”
She sighs. “Yes, that is true.” She gives me a sheepish smile. “I am sorry, Mateo. We Germans are direct.”
“It’s fine.” I force my lips into a bright smile. It feels heavy on my lips, and I turn away quickly. “You’re a great sister. Like my sister! Though you probably shouldn’t tell her that I said that. She doesn’t need to know I’m complimenting her when she’s not even in my presence.”
“Why are we talking about your sister, Mateo?”
“Because—” I don’t want to say that it’s because I don’t want to talk about Annika, so instead, I smile again and try to ignore my heart rattling against my ribs.
“My brother didn’t seem so happy the night after he got his memory back,” she says, when it’s clear that I’m not going to answer her in a manner that is more thoughtful than a tired parent of a toddler. “I would have thought getting his memory back would have made him happier.”
I chew on my bottom lip.
So the thing is?—
I don’t like keeping secrets.
They’re icky.
I hated playing that card game where you had to lie topeople about what cards you had. Hated it. I even hated it when people played Hide’n go seek around me and I was asked where people were…
