Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
GATSBY
I t’s around five when I make my way to the roof .
The roof is at the top of Aslan’s building where we live.
He lives in the penthouse. Lysander and I live on the second floor—in different apartments.
We all agreed to create a man cave so we could hang out often.
That seemed like the best place for it.Our sisters and brothers are welcome, but some days it’s just the three of us.
I’ve always shared everything with Aslan and Lysander. Birthdays, toys, rooms. We tell each other everything, and if not, we guess it.
Atlanta and Maia were mine. They know very little about her. It’s hard to explain why I didn’t share much. It just happened.
When I met Maia, she became my world. She wasn’t my first girlfriend. I dated in high school, but none of those relationships mattered.
Not like Aslan’s relationship with Margie or… I don’t know how to describe any of the women I dated before her. My first kiss wasn’t out of this world. Losing my virginity wasn’t earth-shattering. They were just milestones.
From the moment I met Maia, I knew she was special. Our first touch. Our first kiss. The first time we made love. Everything we did together transformed me.
I was protective of her.
The only person I shared a lot about her with was Dad.
Caspian learned about her a few months ago, after we got shitfaced in New York because he was missing a girl.
A one-night stand who spun his world, but they went their separate ways.
His story wasn’t like mine but reminded me a lot of Maia.
Caspian and I got matching tattoos to remember the brightest stars that make the darkest night bearable.
When I moved to Georgia, Dad and I became closer.
He’d check on me every day via email or text.
We spoke every Sunday morning. I told him about Maia from the moment I met her to the last Sunday before everything became a nightmare.
He told me to be careful with her heart and respectful of her parents’ wishes.
He understood them in a way I couldn’t, probably because I was the boyfriend who wanted to be involved in every aspect of her life.
Once I became one of my siblings’ guardians, well, I understood why Mr. and Mrs. Ocampo were so overprotective of her.
I also grasped that we couldn’t be together.
She needed someone different who wasn’t tied to a family and couldn’t give her all her dreams.
“Why are we here?” Aslan asks, heading to the grill. I take my time turning on the firepit and grabbing a few cold beers for us. When I sit on the lounging chair, I let everything out. I finally tell my brothers about Maia Azul Ocampo—my Little Blue.
I end the story with the moment I got the news that our father had died, and I had to forget all about Maia, my bright star. Losing her was almost as painful as losing my dad. It dawns on me that our dad will never come back. Everyone is all grown up, and they’re living their own lives.
What about me?
Aslan and Lysander always joke about my personality and my secret relationships. I’m a robot, a monk. I’m dating an AI or maybe just a plastic doll. I probably have a secret wife and two point six children who hide from my demanding and overbearing family.
I don’t date.
I’m celibate because… I don’t know. First, it was because I had the responsibility of a family.
Then…who has time to fuck around when I have more important things to do.
Work has been my escape since I lost my old life.
I don’t regret taking care of my siblings and my mother. I don’t resent them at all.
I stopped considering my feelings and my love life long ago. But since I learned that Maia wants 59PM, something inside me wants to fight back—fight for her.
It’s as if I’m ready to claim… What is it that I want to claim?
My old life?
I don’t think I can revive the twenty-year-old kid I buried when I left Atlanta.
He’s gone.
Maybe I should get closure. I have to confront Maia, don’t I? Or I can just keep this a one-sided war. The one where she strikes, and I just let her take more land because… why do I keep letting her take what I want?
When I finish my story, I turn to Aslan, who’s grilling some steaks. “So, what do you think?”
“About losing all those companies?” He tsks. “Bid higher. Sometimes you can offer different incentives. It’s not only about the money. Some owners want to make sure their employees will be cared for…honestly, I don’t know what to tell you.”
“I’m not looking for business advice. If I wanted to, I would’ve outbid my opponent.”
He turns around and gives me a quizzical look. “What’s the problem, then?”
“Didn’t you listen? Maia is my competition.”
“Can I point out that you never spoke about her after Dad died?”
Lysander lifts the bottle of beer he’s been nursing since I arrived. “We should celebrate. To knowing that you weren’t always a heartless robot.”
My eyes become a pair of slits. “You’re an idiot.”
He laughs.
“So why didn’t you mention her before?” Aslan asks curiously.
“What was there to say? I became a father to eight people. No one had time for anything else. At least we didn’t.”
“I could argue that it was only five, and we were co-parenting, but I guess Lysander, you, and I have been taking turns parenting each other, and well, then there’s Mom.”
Mom went through a downward spiral that had us worried. She wouldn’t eat or speak. She lost the joy to live when our father died. We thought we were going to lose her too.
“So why are you letting her have the companies?” Aslan asks as he plates the meat.
“I have no fucking idea,” I answer as honestly as I can. “If she wants them, she can have them. Does she set my plans back? Always.”
Aslan sets the tongs on the counter and turns to look at me. “You need to figure out her motives before you continue playing her game. Why don’t you just talk to her? You were close, and you didn’t have an ugly breakup.”
I snort. “Would you want to talk to your ex after she ghosted you for fourteen years?”
“No,” they both answer.
“Exactly. No.” This is why I can’t get a meeting with her, not that I try hard.
Lysander shakes his head disapprovingly. “Listen, I understand why you stopped talking to her. I don’t approve, but I get it. If you two were so in love, she’ll understand, and she’ll be open to a conversation. I bet she’s already married and living a happy life with a few kids. Gatsby who?”
His words feel like a punch to the center of my chest. My lungs lose all the air, and I fucking know that he’s right. Her parents had a happy life and they believed in the sanctity of marriage. She always listened to them and did as they said. She’s thirty-two, I bet she got married five years ago.
It hurts so much to think that she might have a beautiful daughter who looks like her—a little girl who’s not mine.
I wanted to marry her. I thought…but life threw me a curveball, and I’m okay with it.
I raised five children, ensured that my mother is still around, and I helped keep my father’s legacy.
I’m satisfied and pleased with everything I’ve done. The intense pain dissipates after rubbing my chest several times and I can breathe again.
“So, what do I do?”
“Figure out a way to have a friendly chat with her,” Lysander suggests. “In the future, you might be able to team up with her on some projects. It’s all about clearing the air between the two of you and maybe letting her go.”
It’s easy for him to say. Maybe I skipped a few things when I told them about her. “I’ve been trying to contact her for years—ever since I sold Findzy —but it’s been impossible.”
Lysander glares at me. “If you wanted to meet with her, you would’ve made it happen. What’s stopping you? It’s not impossible to hire someone to follow her—you have the money to do so.”
“That’s stalking.”
“No. It’s just making sure you know where people are if they try to stab you in the back. Keep your friends close and your enemies on a monthly background check.”
“That’s not how the saying goes. You’re not making sense, asshole,” Aslan argues.
Lysander almost growls. “What are you, the old wives’ tale police?”
“Sayings, they’re called sayings,” Aslan corrects him.
“Please, don’t digress,” I interrupt their rant. “Can we focus on my problems for one fucking day?”
Lysander grins. “Well, I don’t want to take away from your special day, but I don’t like that she approached the twins.”
“Agreed. This is why I’m telling you what’s happening. Tomorrow, I’m dropping by her office. I don’t know what I’m going to tell her, but she has to be aware that I know what she’s doing.”
Lysander arches an eyebrow. “I thought you said you didn’t know how to get ahold of her.”
“I meant personal phone or address.”
Aslan frowns. “This is so fucking confusing.”
Lysander gives me a confused look. “Why haven’t you done things your way?”
“Have you been paying attention to the story? He’s in love and scared that this girl made a life where he’s not a part of it.
He’d rather hide than confront the truth and finally move on.
” Aslan pauses, looking at me. “I never thought that your exile to New York was because you lost a girl.” I almost drop my jaw as I listen to Aslan.
Lysander crosses his arms and looks at me. “I didn’t want to bring up the obvious. Clearly, he’s fucking up because we’re talking about his little blue star.”
I give him a warning look. “For fuck’s sake, I’m not in love, and that was confidential.”
“Why does he know something I don’t?” Aslan sounds like a child who didn’t get to play with his friends.
After Dad died, the three of us quit college and cared for everyone and everything.
Once things settled in, I transferred from Georgia Tech to Stanford to finish my degree.
Lysander went to school part-time too. We rented an apartment and hung out a lot.
It’s not like we didn’t invite Aslan, but sometimes he didn’t join us because of work.
“It happened when you decided to stay on as head of the family. One night, we went to the Stanford Observatory. I was drunk. I let it slip to him that Maia is a blue-white giant star. The fourth brightest star in the Pleiades open star cluster, and coincidentally, Maia’s middle name is Blue.”
He chuckles. “You were drunk, and you could still recite that shit?”
Lysander nods. “He’s a geek. That’s as romantic as he can go.” Then he turns his attention toward me. “You have to confront her. There’s no other way around it, Gatz. You either fix this now, or she might grow an empire around you, and then she’ll take your company down.”
“Why would she want to do that?” My Little Blue wouldn’t. I know her. Once upon a time, I believed she’d be my everything.
Lysander shrugs.
“Though I understand why you’ve given her multiple free passes, it’s time to stop her,” Aslan says.
“Are you telling me to declare war?”
He shakes his head. “No, you end it.”
“How?”
“I wish I could tell you, but you’ll have to figure that one out on your own. If not for yourself, do it for the twins. They come first, always.”
He’s right. I don’t need to turn to look at Lysander to know he’s nodding in agreement. We have to protect them, even against Maia.
Whatever she has to throw my way, I’ll throw it harder.
I’ll be ready, Maia. Better bring your A game.