Vanilla Cocoa

Chapter 8

I took a deep breath, then blew it out in a futile attempt to settle my nerves. It wasn't exactly a short walk to my sister's apartment, but I was here now. It was too late to chicken out.

I knocked on the door, then stepped back. I could just make out the muffled sound of movement from the other side, then Lillie opened the door.

She fixed me with a cold glare. "I hope you're here to apologize."

I nodded. "Is Aster here?"

"No, but she's on her way home from work." She moved out of the way and gestured for me to come in. "Have you eaten?"

I carefully moved past her without getting close enough for us to accidentally touch. "Yeah."

She closed and locked the door while I settled on the couch. "You never should have brought our marriage into your argument with her last night."

"I know."

She sighed and sat down on the opposite side of the couch with her hands folded in her lap. "Just so you know, I don't think she should have said some of the things she said either."

"I know."

"Did you end up sleeping with that guy?"

"No."

She nodded. "I'll step out when she gets here."

"Okay."

We lapsed into silence. Lillie was doing something on her phone, but it didn't look like she was texting Aster. I pulled out my phone too and pulled up my texts with Nasos.

"I made it to my sister's. Wish me luck," I texted.

Almost as soon as I hit send, he sent back a cute cat gif with "You got this!" in sparkly letters at the top.

I almost smiled at that, but my dread for the conversation I was about to have dampened my humor. It would take a lot more than a cute cat gif to make up for this fuck up.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when I heard the lock to the front door click. Lillie stood and moved towards the door as my sister entered, wrapping her in a tight hug before she caught sight of me sitting on the couch.

"He's here to apologize," Lillie said, her expression much warmer than she ever showed anyone else. "Try not to disturb the neighbors, okay?"

Aster nodded, hugging Lillie back and placing a tender kiss on her cheek. "I'll text you."

Lillie pulled back, placing one last kiss on Aster's lips, then walked out, closing the door behind her. Aster turned her attention to me as she set her purse down on the kitchen counter.

"I need to apologize first," she said with a heavy sigh. "I said a lot of things I shouldn't have last night. That wasn't fair to you. I'm sorry."

"And I never should have brought up your marriage," I said. "I know it's not that simple for you, even if Mom never thought of you as an heir."

She nodded and leaned back against the kitchen counter. "I don't know why I even bother to keep up appearances with her. I'm way too old to care so much about her opinion."

"You still do though."

"Yeah."

After a long pause, she asked, "Did you end up taking the phoenix home?"

"Technically. We didn't do anything, though."

"I guess he was actually being honest. I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

Another long silence.

"I met one of his dads this morning. He took me out to his family's café for breakfast."

"That's... unusual for you."

"Yeah. It's way too early to tell, but I hope we can be friends. I could really use one of those for a change."

Aster finally came over and sat next to me on the couch, wrapping me in her strong arms. "You deserve a friend. I shouldn't have been so quick to judge him."

I nuzzled into her shoulder, doing my best to hold back my tears. "I'm sorry for always being such a mess."

"You're not a mess, Seth."

I began to sob, unable to keep my feelings suppressed any longer. "Thank you for always being there for me. I love you."

She rubbed my back and rocked me gently as I cried. "I love you too."

***

Aster had driven me home after we made up, and now I was sitting on my bed watching Stormy push her balls across the floor in her pin. She never showed much interest in escaping, but I kept an eye on her any time she was outside of her cage, just in case she got any ideas.

My phone chimed to let me know I had a new text. I pulled it out to check, still keeping half an eye on Stormy. It was Nasos.

"How'd it go?"

"We're good now," I texted.

Once again, almost immediately he sent me another cute gif, this time of a dancing penguin.

I smiled and sent him back a heart.

I wasn't really sure what exactly I wanted from Nasos, or even what exactly he wanted from me, but it was nice to have someone express a seemingly genuine interest in me maintaining a good relationship with my sister. Most of the guys I met at Lillie's bar treated Aster like a nuisance, maybe for obvious reasons. Pretty much everything about Nasos was different from the guys I usually hooked up with.

Nasos sent me another text. "Can we meet up during the week?"

I hesitated. "What day/time? I have work Mon-Fri."

"Can I take you out for lunch on Wednesday?"

I set my phone down and grabbed Stormy before she could figure out how the latch on her pin worked. "Okay, no more pin time for you, young lady," I chided her. For her part, she just rubbed her head on my arm. "Flirting will get you nowhere." But I still gave her some scritches as I carried her back to her cage and dropped a treat in her bowl before locking her in. "You're too cute for your own good, you know that?"

By the time I picked my phone back up, Nasos had sent several new messages.

"We can do another day if you want?

No pressure.

Actually, no, I'm sure you already have plans, I'm sorry for asking.

Just forget I said anything."

Oh, no, he was that kind of texter.

"Sorry for leaving you on read, Stormy was committing crimes. We can get lunch on Wednesday."

"We really don't have to if you don't want to."

"I want to."

There was an uncharacteristically long pause after that, then he finally replied, "It's a date <3"

I paused, not sure how I wanted to respond to that. Before I could get my thoughts together, he sent more rapid-fire texts.

"Or not.

It doesn't have to be a date.

Maybe we shouldn't?"

I sighed. "It's a date you dork."

Another long pause, then, "Okay. It's a date :)"

He really was going to be a handful, I could already tell, but maybe that wasn't the worst thing.