Chapter 5
Aster
Things don't become any less confusing with a new day.
They don't become any less confusing with a few new days.
At this point, I'm fairly sure my brother is avoiding me, and it's time to go figure out why.
With nothing much happening at the office at the moment, I decide not to bother with it.
I'm really rocking this professional thing, aren't I?
Because I know I'll be waking my brother up even though it's nearly lunchtime, I make sure to pack up a couple of homemade iced honey lattes, courtesy of the ridiculous basket of honey products left to me on the doorstep of my parents’ house by, you guessed it. Those weirdo neighbors of ours.
I'm not going to think too deeply about how that honey is made. I'm not.
Because my brother loves me, I have a key to his place, even though I haven't lived in this town for quite some time.
Walking in with my eyes closed and praying he doesn't have any overnight guests I need to watch out for, I walk in before he can tell me not to.
It's quick work to connect to the speakers he's got wired through the place, and I start blaring some really annoying pop music and sit at the table and wait.
I like to imagine I look really cool sitting there like that, legs crossed, nails tapping on the table, latte in hand. He looks less enthused than I’d hoped as he stumbles out of his room.
“What are you doing here?”
I let the moment get really uncomfortable for him before I answer.
I'm annoyed. “Gee, I don't know. Maybe I went through an awful breakup and left everything I built behind, crawled back to mom and dad's to start over in our hometown, and was hoping I'd get to hang out with my brother?
You know, the only one I have? But instead, it would seem that he's been avoiding me.
You haven't answered a single text or call since I've been here. What the hell, Anderson?”
He grumpily takes one of the proffered coffees in the recycled jar I hand him, chugging almost half of it down before wiping off his mustache with the back of his hand.
“And here I thought that I'd hear it from my sister when she gets engaged to my best friends.
Or, I don't know, she starts dating them? But no, I had to hear it from somebody else.”
I look up. I know in movies when people get shocked their mouth opens and it looks really stupid, but it really is the natural reaction.
I'm running through scenes in my head, trying to figure out how the hell we landed here.
“Anderson, I'm not dating them. I'm not engaged.
I'm not anything with them. Except for their real estate agent; that is true, actually.”
He grabs a hoodie from the back of the chair to cover up with, sinking into the chair next to me. “So they what, made it all up? I saw the invitations, Aster. There's no way you’re not high-level involved with them.”
I stand quickly, letting my legs kick back the chair for me. “You saw what now?”
My brother scrunches his eyes up and studies me, then lets out a really loud laugh.
“Oh my gods. What's happening right now?
Are you telling me they made wedding invitations and didn't even bring you in on it?” He grabs my hand, realizes there's not some stupid diamond there, and then takes a deep breath.
“Okay, I feel better now. So sis, what's up?
What's new? What's shakin’? Are you seeing anyone?”
“No. We are going back to all of that nonsense you just spewed at me.
What made you think I was engaged to them, other than the fact that you apparently saw wedding invites?
And you know that if I decided to start a relationship with them or anybody else, you'd hear about it.
You were there for me when I was losing my mind over my breakup with Ben.
I'm not exactly in any hurry to go down that road again.”
He grabs his phone and thumbs through it, then slides it across the table. “Explain that.”
Okay, this looks kind of damning. He’s got a selfie Dev took at the restaurant when I wasn’t looking.
In it, Dev is smirking up at the camera, Arbor is giving a thumbs up and pointing to me, where I’m looking really cozy with Hawthorne as he dabs some sauce off my face with his napkin. I’m smiling in a real, gut-wrenching, mood-altering way. “Believe me, I would love to.”
“What do you mean? Did you get body snatched? I'm not going to buy into you not knowing you went on a date with them.”
I drag my fingertips down my face and extend my legs, throw my head back and groan out loud.
“Anderson, I have no idea what's happening.
And that's me being honest. Arbor wanted to show me the place, the one I came here to help them sell supposedly, though I'm having doubts about that now, so I saw the place.
That was the day after I got here. I might have gotten a little emotional and stormed out of there like an idiot, and then Hawthorne brought me my purse and stuff that I left behind.
Told me they'd be picking me up at six and walked out.
“Well, 6:00 came around, and they all showed up, with a key to my office by the way, and Dev stalked up to me with this stupid nice smile on his face and told me he was so happy or something. So they drove me to the restaurant, people congratulated us, which was very weird, and yes, we had dinner.
“But I just figured it was more like, I don't know, reconnecting with old friends or something.
I actually expected you would be there too when they originally told me about it, but they dropped me off home after and I haven't really talked to them since.
There's been strange... gifts, but nothing else.”
He runs his hands through his hair, making his bed head even worse. “Wow, this is a bit of a mess. Sorry for avoiding you. That was a dick move. I'll talk to them, try and figure out what's going on.”
“Thank you for acknowledging that.”
It's quiet for a minute, and then he smirks. The longer he smirks, the bigger it gets, and I take the bait when I can't handle it anymore. “What?”
“I was just thinking, how much have you been kicking your feet about this whole situation? You've been in love with them forever, this must be a dream come true to you.”
“Excuse me, I have not! That's a very... heinous accusation.”
“Come on, Aster. You know, I’ve always dreaded the day that they realized your feelings for them and decided to do something about it. I've always kind of thought you guys would end up together, actually.”
“What even are you talking about? You've never said anything to me about this.
I've tried to be so good keeping things to myself.
I moved out of this town for god's sake.
Dated somebody else. Lived with him, even.
There's no way this is an outcome that doesn't surprise the hell out of you.
Not that it's an outcome mind you, just that we're talking about it, you know.”
“Sure. You know they're my boys, right? And you, you're my sister.
It's weird, don't get me wrong, but if you're determined to get married and do that whole thing, it should be with somebody that I trust, that our family knows, and that our family trusts.
Someone I know isn't gonna screw you over like that asshole Bob did.”
“Ben,” I correct him. “And this is all very cutesy talk, but I'm telling you we're not together.
They haven't mentioned being interested in me; I think I would know.
I'm just trying to get myself set up in Trash Haven right now.
Dating is not something I'm even thinking about at the moment.
And absolutely nobody is talking about marriage, unless we're talking about you. Who are you seeing these days?”
He laughs again. “Oh, no, no, no. We are not talking about me. You're the big subject of discussion here. I give it a day max before you call me and tell me they asked you out and a week max before you tell me you're all disgustingly in love with each other.”
“Wait, I thought you were mad that you thought we were together. Now suddenly you're endorsing it? How the hell did you flip sides so fast?”
“I was just mad you didn't tell me yourself.
Now that I understand what they're doing I think it's kind of funny.
You know how Arbor would come see you in the city?
He'd always tell me about the garden you had growing on your patio.
How well tended it was, how beautiful the flowers and how carefully you chose pollinators.
I think it's cool that you've kept in touch with them all these years.”
I tilt my head at him, more confusion filtering through my brain. “Run that by me again.”
“You know, all the times you... let Arbor crash with you guys? It was cool of your ex, even though we hate him now, to let a family friend stay with you. I know I never made it to visit you when you were in the city, but sometimes it felt like I almost did because they always kept me up to date with the changes in your apartment. I guess I should have realized sooner how obsessed Arbor was, because who else gets excited and takes pictures when other people get new throw pillows or holiday mugs? Yeah, there were definitely signs.”
“Excuse me, would you? I have somewhere to be.”
I grab my stuff, making sure I leave nothing behind this time, and try to be as calm as I can as I walk down to my car.
“Wait! Why are you leaving? I thought we were going to hang out?”
I want to respond, but the problem is there are crazy things going through my head once again, and I fear that if I try and talk at a normal volume about normal things, it might make my brain explode.
So, I simply get in my car and drive off, going to the house that is starting to mean something different.
What does Anderson mean that Arbor showed him pictures of my place?
Or my garden on the patio? We were on the ninth floor in that condo; there was no fire escape.
The only way to that small deck was through our front door, or by flying.
Which, considering he's a bee shifter, I suppose he could have done that.
But if he was in the city, why wouldn't he just come to my door like a normal person?
Why snoop? Clearly, he was inside my place if he was going on about throw pillows.
Trying to figure this out is just making my head spin faster.
I need to hear from Arbor what exactly he did when I was with Brian.
I mean, Ben.