“Let me help you,” I said, standing next to him and watching his every move. I couldn’t help it. I loved being in the kitchen, I was good at cooking, and it was hard for me to give up control.
The two of us cooked in comfortable silence, and I couldn’t help remembering the day Taylor and I had made pancakes at his house. He had no idea what he was doing, and all he did was get in the way and mess everything up. We even got in a food fight, throwing flour and batter all over each other until we were both lying on the floor with a mess all around us. I thought his mother would kill us when she saw the kitchen. That made me realize how different the two brothers were. Thiago was meticulous, a perfectionist, but I missed Taylor’s spark, which came across no matter who he was with. I had to understand something, though. I couldn’t have both of them, I couldn’t mix them together in a test tube and create the perfect guy. The perfect guy didn’t exist, and the sooner I admitted to myself that Taylor was gone for good, the better.
Thiago set the table while I made coffee. Then we sat down for breakfast.
“How are we going to handle things at school today?” he asked.
“Handle what?” I asked, wiping my mouth with a paper towel.
“We both need to go, but we shouldn’t be seen arriving together. I think we should wait for everything to settle and for my brother to get used to the idea of…”
“Of us?” I asked.
Thiago reached up and pinched my earlobe. “You know nobody can know about us, right?”
I nodded.
It wouldn’t be a good look, to say the least. They’d probably fire him if they found out.
“We’ll see each other here, when we can, okay?” he said. That reassuring look on his face made all my doubts melt away.
I wished I could hide out there forever, but I had class.
Even today, I still ask myself what would have happened if we had decided to skip that day and stay there.
Things happen for a reason, I’m sure of that. Life takes twists and turns like a roller coaster, and you never know when the ride will end. Or maybe you never get off.
We tidied up quickly, showered together in the tiny bathroom, stole a few more kisses and enough caresses to keep our bodies burning inside for the rest of the day, before we had to call it quits. It was time to go.
Outside, it was snowy, and it was hard to get the motorcycle started.
By seven thirty, Thiago was dropping me off at home. I looked over at his mother’s house and prayed Taylor couldn’t see us.
“Kiss me,” he said, putting a hand on the back of my neck and drawing me in.
One more kiss and a few sweet words, and then we parted ways.
If I had known what lay in store for us that day, there are a thousand other things I would have said. I would have drawn that moment out for the rest of my life.
