“I may have been a repressed child, but even I know a margarita normally comes with salt.”
Ben shrugged, grinning. “You’ll like the sugar better.”
He knew Alexei had a sweet tooth. The only thing the guy ever seemed genuinely excited to eat on trail was his stash of gummy bears.
Alexei scowled. Or attempted to scowl. The corner of his very serious mouth twitched.
“Well,” he muttered, fiddling with a napkin, “who wants a big swallow ofsaltin their beverage?”
Ben laughed.
“I wouldn’t have taken you as a Cheesecake Factory fan,” he said.
“There was one in the suburbs outside of Portland. Kind of far from Vancouver, but we went there for special occasions sometimes. Like my sixteenth birthday, or when I graduated high school.” Alexei shrugged. “Cheesecake is awesome.”
Ben was dying to know what Alexei Lebedev ordered at the Cheesecake Factory, but was interrupted from inquiring by the arrival of Alexei’s blended peach margarita.
Ben couldn’t help himself. He propped his chin on his palm, staring as Alexei took his first sip.
“Stop that,” Alexei admonished, reaching for the complimentary chips and salsa the waitress had dropped off with the margarita.
“Well?”
“I like it. Okay?”
Ben reached over and grabbed the heavy glass.
“Hey!”
Ben took a loud slurp.
“Oh,come on,” he practically shouted. He dragged his tongue along the side of the glass to lick up a bit of sugar. “That is fucking fantastic.”
Before Alexei could retort back, Ben’s phone beeped on the table. He glanced at it before flipping it over.
“Julie?” Alexei asked.
“Tiago,” Ben answered. Tiago always texted him the randomest shit. Right now it was:remember how you used to be so bad at minecraftlol
Alexei twisted the margarita glass between his fingers.
“You don’t talk about Tiago as much.”
Ben’s eyebrows rose. He supposed this was true. It wasn’t that he and Tiago weren’t close; he just talked with Carolina—and worried about Carolina—so much more these days.
“Tell me something about him,” Alexei said. It was a funny echo of the times Ben had pushed Alexei to tell him something about Alina. And something about it—Alexei, forcing Ben to share this time, not as a method of distracting Ben from the trail, but just because Alexei wanted to know—made Ben’s heart give another small flutter. Whether in appreciation or in warning, Ben wasn’t quite sure.
“Tiago was always super into sports,” he eventually said. “He and Julie bonded over it, because Julie was a basketball star, too. They’d shoot hoops at our house, watch UT games together.” Ben took a long sip of his beer. “He’s a sports journalist now,” he added. “And…he’s really good?”
He didn’t mean for this to come out as a question. And yet.
Alexei smiled. “You sound surprised.”
“No, it’s just—” Ben scratched at the back of his neck. Something embarrassing prickled there. “I always knew he knew sports, but he was always such a goofball. I never knew he couldwrite. But I read all of his columns, and they’re…”Ben shifted on his chair. “Like, I don’t even pay much attention to sports, but he makes you feel like whatever it was, whether it was a high school volleyball game or the Titans going to the Super Bowl, was important. It’s impressive.”
Itwasimpressive. Ben was proud as hell of Tiago.
It really was totally, completely fine that Ben’s class clown of a brother turned out to be way smarter and more successful than Ben likely ever would be.
