My Professor's Secret

27|

twenty-seven

"What was so urgent that you couldn't wait long enough for me to finish a conversation with dad's girlfriend? We were actually making solid progress."

He looked distressed like he was withholding information only the two of us could converse about so he waits until we've finally entered into the confides of his room before daring to speak. Only he still doesn't. He finds a seat on the edge of his bed and rubs the palms of his hands against his denim jeans. Obviously he needed me to break the ice. I knew whatever was going on between Meghan and Trevor back at Winchester was starting to get the best of him.

Chris was barely present in whatever theory Lorelei had about our father but now it all seemed too much to unload on him. He didn't need to worry about our dad possibly losing his mind. Especially if it were true that Meghan was involved with Trevor again while he and Meghan were supposed to be together. Even I found myself pondering the travesty of that possibility and I had no romantic connection to either of them.

"Is everything okay? You look like you've seen a ghost," I say, sitting at his desk chair. His brown complexion nearly camouflages the crimson on his cheeks. Chris lounges towards the bin before I'd even processed the dry heave and vomit repelling from his mouth. Instinctively I wish my first reaction was to comfort him, but before I could pull myself to attempt any manner of support the aroma and heaving almost sends my dinner out of me as well. "I'll get dad."

"Don't!" he speaks, finally able to take a steady breath. "Please."

He was right. If I involved dad, he'd demand to know what and why things weren't right with him. Neither dad nor Chris would be able to handle each others explanation so again I find myself back in the seat of his desk chair desperately trying to hold onto the dinner in my belly.

Chris eventually gets ahold of his uneasiness and encourages me to wait in his room while he excuses himself to clean and dump the bin and brush his teeth. I can't help but wonder what's actually got him so bent out of shape. My brother has had girlfriends before. Sure, majority of them were casual flings but there were one or two that he seemed genuinely in sync with. This behavior of his was new and particularly different. There had to be something more he'd been keeping from me that would cause him to get physically ill.

It isn't long after I've spiraled down a tunnel of theories when Christian returns to his bedroom eager to kick me out. The only explanation he could muster was it could wait until morning. I knew what that truly meant. We'd probably never mention it again until it became unaviodable.

As expected, Chris didn't attempt to hold a single conversation with me the next day. Even when dad called us all to the kitchen for breakfast, he took his straight to his room without a good morning to either of us. Whatever was bothering him this much was draining the buoyancy from his face. Hallow circles hang from the bottom lids of his swollen, droopy eyes. He even somehow manages to look worse than he did the night before. Restlessness was obviously the culprit—and regurgitating his emotions in tear form.

Majority of the day had already managed to slip by when dad proposed the plan he and Lorelei thought up the night before without the company of my brother and I. Honestly, a part of me assumed that the secrecy might've been the point. An open conversation at the dinner table about Christian and I meeting Lorelei's children would've definitely ended in objections. Being bamboozled with it on the spot left no time for thought. Instead of having dinner in the confides of the Castillo residence, we ride the wintery streets of Dreycott all the way to Warrington Heights. Mouthful, right? Clearly for the rich and wealthy.

Though I wish I could blame Lorelei's impeccable reputation on the luxurious connections a well known family holds in the towns surrounding our city, I couldn't. She could hold her own without the likes of her family's fortune or the burden their name carried. Her bakery was a top seller. She even catered desserts across state lines. Her business was in the process of becoming an actual corporation all at the hands of her own. At least that's what dad tells Chris and I on the drive over. The closer we got to Lorelei's place, the less I could focus on trying to get Christian to speak to me. I'd been more concerned with the way things would turn out once Trinity and I entered the same room.