Chapter EighteenMicah
Chapter Eighteen
Micah
As she plops onto the couch, Brooklyn shakes her head and gives me her signature “I mean business” look. I’m pretty sure she uses it with her students with great results because it makes me feel like I’ve done something wrong. “Nope,” she says. “First we’re talking about you and Fischer.”
I scoff, though my traitorous cheeks start to heat.
“There’s no me and Fischer.” Which is technically true.
Yeah, maybe he gave me a hug goodbye and it was one of the best hugs of my life, and maybe I feel like I’m floating whenever he looks at me.
But that doesn’t change one very important fact.
“He doesn’t date coworkers,” I tell Brooklyn.
She raises one blonde eyebrow. “But you wish he would?”
She can pretend all she wants that she’s not good with relationships or body language, but with the way she’s reading me right now, it’s like my big sister is looking into my soul.
“I don’t know,” I tell her. “I hadn’t really thought about it before this weekend because he was never interested, and he’s just so different from me.
But then we got caught in the storm, and it’s your classic forced proximity.
” I grab one of the blankets she keeps in a basket by the couch and furiously wrap myself in it, as if that might help me make sense of the way I’m feeling.
“How am I supposed to know if I like him or if this is just a trope trying to push us together? It’s a workplace romance with an age gap thrown in there. Opposites attract. Sapiosexuality.”
“Wait, which one is that?” Brooklyn asks, pulling her eyebrows together.
“Attraction to intelligence.” Thankfully, her question stopped the stream of tropes that was sure to continue spewing from my mouth. “I don’t know, Brook. Nothing with Fischer has felt the way love’s supposed to feel.”
My sister turns bright red at that, which is a pretty convincing argument toward something going on between her and Houston’s best friend. “I think love is a lot more confusing than the movies say it is,” she mutters, fiddling with a loose thread on the bottom of her leggings.
“So.” I twist in my seat and scoot forward so my knees are touching her leg. “Are you telling me you’re in love with Jordan?”
“No!”
“Methinks the lady doth protest too much.”
Sighing, Brooklyn shakes her head. “I don’t know, Micah. He hung around all of last weekend because I hurt my ankle, and then everything went down with Mark and—”
“Hang on.” I grab her arm. “What do you mean, ‘everything went down with Mark’? What everything?”
Though her eyes go wide, she’s smart enough to know that I won’t let this mention of her longtime crush get brushed aside. “I may have gone on a date with him. Jordan helped me, uh, learn how to flirt.”
I snort a laugh. Though I am a few years younger, Houston and Brooklyn lived at my dad’s house when they were in high school.
AKA when Jordan was hanging around all the time.
I may have had a teensy crush on him at one point, but his interest in Brooklyn was always pretty obvious.
Though, I don’t think it was ever obvious to him.
Or to either of the twins. Houston definitely didn’t notice.
Still, I know Jordan well enough to know that I dearly wish I could have seen those flirting lessons.
Jordan is the king of flirting, but he is also one of the most genuine people I know.
If he was showing Brooklyn how to flirt, that likely means he was actually flirting with her.
“How was the date?” I ask. “You’ve been crushing on Mark for a million years, so I hope it lived up to the expectation.” It probably didn’t, though. Not if Brooklyn is clearly interested in Jordan now.
Sure enough, she drops her gaze. “I don’t really want to talk about it. We were talking about Fischer, anyway. Tell me all about him!”
I give her the rundown, from our first meeting to working together on the event, even including the ridiculous “would you rather” texts we’ve sent back and forth. I don’t tell her about falling asleep in his lap or the way he looked at me when I startled him awake. I want to keep those for myself.
“He’s kind of a really good friend now,” I admit with a shrug. “And I think he could really use a friend. He seems pretty lost right now.”
“Has Chad looked into him yet?”
I chuckled. “Of course he has. But there’s a lot he wouldn’t tell me.”
Rolling her eyes, Brooklyn grabs her phone. “I both love and hate that he does that. Sometimes I wish he would just come right out and say some of the things he knows.”
“But other times ignorance is bliss?” I say with a grin. Then I notice what she’s doing on her phone, and I grab it out of her hand. “Oh no, you are not ordering pizza.”
She blinks at me. “But we always have pizza on girls’ night.”
“I know. I’m ordering the pizza. The last time you tried to order it, you somehow managed to get us eight pizzas with nothing but sauce and mushrooms. I don’t even know how you did that.”
Brooklyn doesn’t argue because I’m right. For some reason, technology really hates her, and I’ve lost track of the number of things she’s either goofed up or embarrassed herself with because she can’t figure out how to use a screen properly.
As always, when I finish up the order, I add a little note to the special instructions. Please send your cutest delivery boy . It’s never actually worked, but it’s fun to try.
Once our food is ordered, I hand her phone back and then scoot closer. “Did Chad tell you about his neighbor when he called you?”
She frowns. “You mean Hank?”
“No, the girl neighbor.”
“He mentioned her but didn’t say much.”
Darn. I was hoping she had more info than I do. “Apparently someone bought the house next to his and is driving him crazy, which I’m pretty sure is code for making him fall in love.”
“Chad falling in love?” She scrunches up her nose in disbelief. “Is that what you were talking about the other day?”
She’s so much easier to read than Fischer, but I already kind of miss his hard-to-earn smiles. It’s been a whole ten minutes since he drove off, and my fingers are itching to text him again. He didn’t respond to my picture. I’m trying not to read into that.
“Mark my words,” I say, trying to focus on my sister instead of the confusing guy I spent the night with. “When Chad comes back— if he comes back—he’s going to be head over heels for this mysterious neighbor.”
“I don’t know. I don’t think he’s over Mercedes.”
I groan, tempted to fake spit on the ground. I don’t hate people often—everyone has some good in them—but it was so hard to like Chad’s ex. “I don’t know why he stayed with her for so long,” I whine. “She was clearly just using him, and I’m glad she broke up with him.”
Brooklyn picks up a pillow and hugs it. “Maybe he just wanted to be loved.”
“We love him,” I argue. “Isn’t that enough?”
She doesn’t reply, which I expected. And I didn’t really mean it either.
I am desperate to be loved and always have been, and familial love isn’t the same as being wanted.
And I know Brooklyn is the same way. She’s been in more relationships than I can count, but none of them have ever worked out.
Probably because she always chooses terrible guys, but I try not to point that out to her.
Jordan isn’t a terrible guy. If Brooklyn is starting to be interested in him, I can definitely see that relationship going the forever route. Assuming she doesn’t sabotage everything…
“Houston is back,” Brooklyn says, changing the subject. “Got home yesterday.”
“Have you seen him yet?”
She shakes her head, and her misery is clear as day. She and Houston couldn’t be more different, but they’ve always been best friends since the day they were born. Since the day Houston started making it big in baseball, they’ve barely been able to see each other.
I should probably try to hang out with Brooklyn more than I do.
“I have an idea,” I say, grabbing my phone. “Kit and Skyler might be coming into town this week, so we should do trivia night!”
“Without Chad?”
“I told you. Chad is too busy falling in love.” Still, I do feel guilty about going to trivia night without our big brother. It’s always been the four of us. “We can just go again whenever he gets back.”
I send a text off to Skyler, reminding her that Kit promised they would come to Sun City this week even if he did nothing of the sort.
“You could invite Jordan,” I add as casually as I can.
Brooklyn cringes. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
“Why not?”
“Houston.”
“What about Houston?”
When Brooklyn doesn’t answer, I switch over to our family group chat.
The last time we texted was right before Houston’s last game, wishing him luck, and I brought up the potential for Chad to fall in love.
I have no proof whatsoever, but that doesn’t stop me from sending a gloating text anyway.
I need to get Brooklyn to realize our brother shouldn’t be a barrier in her dating life, but I’ll ease into it first.
Me: By the way, I was totally right about Chad!
Brook rolls her eyes but starts typing out a response.
Blondie: Nice job on winning the Series, Hou.
Texas: You only know I won because Jordan told you. What’s going on with you and Jordan, anyway?
Blondie: Nothi
She drops her phone, scrambling to pick it up again.
Blondie: I don’t know what you’re talking about.
Blondie: I didn’t mean to send that first text.
“Smooth,” I tell her, and she glares at me as she keeps typing.
Blondie: Isn’t Jordan with you right now? He said he was helping you with something.
Me: Houston, you’re not allowed to tell them they can’t date!
Brooklyn gasps. “Why did you just say that?” she asks me right as Houston replies.
Texas: I never said that.
Texas: Are you guys dating?
Texas: brOOK
I break into a fit of giggles and dodge the pillow Brooklyn swings at me. “Okay, okay, I’ll change the subject.”
“You’d better.”
Me: We’re getting off topic!
Blondie: YES. Wait, what topic were we on?
Me: Chad and his woman!
“You know Chad is on this thread, right?” Brooklyn says, rolling her eyes at me.
I do know, but Chad is a lurker like none other. He could easily step in and defend himself, but I know he won’t. That’s what makes this so fun. But if she wants me to change the subject again, I can do that.
Me: But I’m happy to talk about Brook and Jordan as well.
Brooklyn squeaks and scrambles to type out a response, which remarkably comes out clear.
Blondie: We should talk about how Micah is totally crushing on her coworker Fischer.
My jaw drops. “Playing dirty, huh?”
She sticks her tongue out at me. “Only because Houston isn’t dating anyone right now so he’s weirdly focused on my friendship with Jordan.”
I snort. “Friendship. Right. Whatever you say, Brook.”
Though, I wish she would tell me more about what’s happening with Jordan.
Even Houston knows there is something there.
I don’t think he would be as opposed to the match as Brooklyn seems to think, but I don’t want to speak for my brother.
Lately, he’s seemed more restless than usual, and he hasn’t started dating anyone new since he broke up with the sweet and gorgeous movie star, Bonnie Aiken, a couple of months ago.
That’s weird for him, so he must be dealing with something.
Maybe that’s why Kit thinks he could use a friend?
I think he could use some real love in his life.
“Wouldn’t it be crazy if we all fell in love at the same time?
” I say, knowing full well that Brooklyn is going to read into that when it comes to Fischer.
She can make whatever assumptions she wants, but I won’t hold my breath that something will happen with him.
Even if he’s interested, a part of me thinks I’m cursed to be trapped on first dates for the rest of my life.
I won’t believe in potential until I get to a third date with someone or there’s an immediate connection.
“I don’t know if Houston will ever give up casual dating,” Brooklyn says with a frown. Interesting. She didn’t say she wouldn’t be falling in love anytime soon.
I wish I had Jordan’s number so I could get his take on this whole thing, but I haven’t talked to the guy since he moved to California a decade ago. He moved back sometime in the last year, though I’m not sure when. Or why. I just remember Houston mentioning it at some point.
I pull up a new group chat, ignoring the guilt of leaving Chad out of this one. I guess I don’t want him to feel bad about not being able to come with us, but I tell myself it’s because I don’t want to interrupt his budding relationship with his unnamed neighbor.
Me: Kit and Skyler are coming to Sun City so we’re all doing dinner on Thursday!
Kit: I said we might come out.
Texas: I thought you knew better than to go against Micah when she’s made her mind up, Morgan.
Brooklyn chuckles. “He makes a good point.”
Skyler: We can come.
Me: I told you! You guys can stay with me if you want!
Skyler: We’ll get a hotel.
Texas: Gross.
Kit: It’s because Sky snores, you dummy.
Skyler: I do not. It’s because we’ve only been married for a few months and can’t get enough of each other. *winky face*
Texas: GROSS
I laugh, partly because of Houston and partly because Brooklyn has gone bright red from secondhand embarrassment. “You’re so cute and innocent,” I tell her. “No wonder Jordan likes you.”
“You think he likes me?” The question clearly comes out of her unbidden because she slaps a hand to her mouth. “Um. You should invite Fischer to trivia night. You said he could use a friend, and no one is better at befriending people than Kit.”
She’s not wrong, but my own face heats at the idea of introducing Fischer to my family.
That would definitely push us out of coworker status.
“I’ll invite him if you invite Jordan,” I say, though I’m not sure if I want Brooklyn to rise to the challenge or give me an excuse to keep Fischer to myself for a little longer.
To my surprise, she sits up straighter. “Deal.”
She seals it with a pinky promise, and suddenly I’m not as hungry as I was a minute ago because now I have to work up the courage to invite Fischer to a family gathering.
No pressure.