by Alexis Daria
Once the kids retreated indoors for air-conditioning and video games, Gabe sat with his sister on the deck, drinking beer.
Nikki and Gabe had the same dimples and coloring, but her curly hair and petite stature came from their mom, while Gabe favored their dad. She sent Gabe a glare through eyes nearly identical to his own. “I’m still annoyed that you came to New York and didn’t even tell me. What if we’d been out of town?”
Gabe sighed and took a long pull from the bottle. He should pace himself. This was the only one he was having before he drove back to the Bronx.
“I’m sorry, Nik. Nothing about this trip has gone as expected.”
Total understatement.
“Man plans, God laughs,” Nikki muttered, and Gabe raised his beer in salute.
“Are you going back to California?” she asked.
“Yeah, in a few days.”
“Permanently?”
“Of course. That’s where I live.”
Nikki twisted in her deck chair and pinned him with that older-sister look, the one that reminded him all too much of their mother.
“So what the hell are you doing here?” she demanded.
Gabe frowned. He’d told her about launching an Agility location in Manhattan. “I’m here to open a—”
“No, I don’t mean what are you doing with the gym, I mean what are you doing in the Bronx with Michelle?”
“Oh.” Gabe looked down at his beer as if it held the answers, which he knew full well it did not. It was why he rarely drank. Alcohol never made him feel clearer on his problems and, if anything, led him down the path of second-guessing his life choices. “We, um, we reconnected—”
“Don’t give me that bullshit story you told Mom. I don’t believe it for a second.”
Gabe let out a heavy sigh. It was almost a relief to be called out, because he needed to talk to someone about Michelle. Fabian was busy, and Gabe wasn’t in the mood for I told you so anyway. He’d explain to his friend later. For now, his sister was the next-best option.
“Michelle is actually helping us with the new gym,” he admitted, and then he told Nikki the whole story.
She listened, asking questions for clarification but offering no opinions. Until the end.
“All right, look,” she began, and Gabe knew he was in for it. “I’ve known Michelle just as long as you have. Longer, even, if you consider that I’ve seen her plenty of times since you two started college, and you haven’t. I know both of our families very well. So believe me when I tell you, you better figure out what the hell you want before you drag her into this any further.”
Gabe scowled at his sister’s accusatory tone. “What are you talking about?”
“You have her working on this New York project—which, let’s be real, is clearly some sort of bid to get Dad’s attention—and now you’re prancing around with her like you’re the greatest love story of our generation. Wake up, Gabe. This isn’t going to turn out how you want.”
“I don’t even know what I want,” he shot back, and she raised her eyebrows.
“Therein lies your problem.”
Fuck, she’d talked him into a corner, just like she’d done countless times when they were kids. “Opening an Agility location here is part of the investment agreement. Fabian was supposed to handle it.”
“Yet here you are.”
Here he was. Mixed up with Michelle, and Powell, and their families—
Shit, Nikki was right. He had no idea what he wanted, from any of them.
Gabe set his beer on the patio table and dropped his head into his hands.
“What am I doing?” he moaned.
Nikki patted his shoulder. “You gotta be clear on what you want, Baby Gaby.”
“For god’s sake, Nik. Don’t call me that.”
She grinned wickedly at his response to the old nickname. “Then stop acting like a little kid. What do you want?”
Gabe sat up and said with as much conviction as he could muster, “I want Agility to be a success.”
Nikki stared at him impassively for a long moment, then sipped her beer. Finally, she asked, “And what does that mean?”
“It means . . .” Shit, what did that mean? Talking points swirled in his head, from the gym’s tagline to publicity buzz to what he’d told Michelle.
Agility can be yours!
#5 on Hollywood’s Hottest Celebrity Gyms List
To help people feel better in their bodies and achieve a full range of motion.
Was Agility’s success about fame? Money? Helping people? Or was it all about proving to his father that he hadn’t needed him after all?
The thought made Gabe’s head hurt.
Nikki cut into his conflicting thoughts. “Let me put it this way. Michelle is working for you on the New York campaign, which you don’t want to be doing, because you want to stay in Los Angeles. But while you’re here, she’s also pretending to be your—what, girlfriend? To save you from telling Dad about the gym. What happens when you go back to California?”
“It’s temporary. She knows I’m leaving soon.”
“Except she will still be working for you.” Nikki enunciated each word as if to make sure he didn’t miss a single one.
Gabe began to sweat, and it wasn’t because of the August humidity. “Fabian’s going to take it over.”
Nikki raised her eyebrows. “Oh really? While he has two infants at home?”
Fuck. Everything was so tangled up now that he’d let all these people back into his life. Gabe had been ignoring reality for the past few days, telling himself it would be easy to pack up and leave again like he’d planned. But even when he returned to LA, things would be different. He and Michelle had told a giant lie, all so he could protect himself from facing his father’s judgment, and she was going to be left holding the bag, while still technically working for his business. For him.
Gabe let out a long sigh. “I should’ve never come back to New York.”
“But you did. And now you have to clean up the mess you’ve made.”
“I don’t even know where to begin.”
“You begin with what you want, regarding Michelle, the gym, and Mom and Dad. I didn’t tell you this before, because I knew you weren’t ready to hear it, but they were devastated when you left. We all were. Well, except for me, because you’d at least reply to my texts. Mom, Dad—hell, even our aunts and uncles were pissed at you for disappearing after my wedding. Only Tío Marco got it, and I think he tried to talk to Dad, to explain. I did too. But they were so hurt, Gabe. You have no idea.”
He forced himself to take a small sip of beer. “I was hurt too.”
“I know you were. And I understand why you felt like you had to leave. But if you think you can just waltz back to Los Angeles like nothing’s changed . . . maybe you’d better think again.”
He had thought that, but now he could see he’d been fooling himself.
What do you want?
His sister’s question echoed in his mind. Gabe shut his eyes and tried to think.
He wanted . . .
Michelle.
No shit. He’d always wanted her.
But what did it mean, to want her? Beyond sex, beyond a shared past.
He didn’t know. Once, he’d wanted a future with her, but his plans had changed and he’d realized it was impossible. She was firmly entrenched in his old life, and he couldn’t stay here, not even for her. And he’d never ask her to leave her family for him.
The reality was, he didn’t have a future in New York, and he didn’t have a future with Michelle. It didn’t matter what he wanted.
It was painful to think about leaving her, so he turned his thoughts to Agility.
This, at least, was becoming clearer. He missed the real work of helping people recover from injuries and improve their mobility, to live better lives in the bodies they had now, instead of whatever kind of body they wished they might have.
But he was currently the owner of “Hollywood’s
5th Hottest Celebrity Gym,” and he had an obligation to expand that brand into a new market.
As for his parents, he didn’t want anything from them, except to prove his father wrong and show them that he could be a success all on his own. For that, he needed the gym expansion to go well, and that meant he needed Michelle to stay on board.
He had to stop doing anything that would jeopardize Agility. Including messing around with Michelle.
“Have you decided what you’re going to do?” Nikki asked.
Gabe pushed the beer bottle farther away from him. Now was not the time to introduce more self-doubt. “I’m going to buy my return ticket to LA.”
Nikki sighed and shook her head. It clearly wasn’t the answer she wanted to hear, but it was all he had.
Somehow, he had to untangle himself from Michelle. From his parents. And, if he could manage it, from the responsibility of managing the New York location.
Fourteen years ago
Windows Messenger Chat Transcript
Celestial Destiny: Episode 10 Planning Session
Michelle:
Our poor fans.
Gabe:
We’re going to rip their hearts out.
Michelle:
They really think this story is almost over.
Gabe:
We’re just getting started.
Michelle:
It’s been fun to watch them speculate about who’s on the ship that just landed.
Gabe:
Little do they know things are about to get very bad for our intrepid heroes.
Michelle:
Daddy’s home!
Gabe:
What?
Michelle:
Zack’s dad. King Salazar should finally appear in this scene.
Gabe:
Oh I thought you were saying YOUR dad is home.
Michelle:
LOL he is, but no, that’s not what I meant.
Gabe:
Mine is at his store, thank god.
Michelle:
Good, you can work on this chapter in peace.
Gabe:
Me?
Michelle:
I wrote a lot of the last chapter, and since Zack has his memories back and is seeing his dad again for the first time in years, you should write this one. He’s your character.
Gabe:
No, they’re OUR characters.
Michelle:
That’s right.
Chapter 20
Gabe stood next to Michelle in her brother’s old room, staring at the bed like the floral coverlet concealed bear traps.
“I didn’t see this coming,” he said in a low voice. “I figured they’d make me sleep on the sofa. Or in the backyard.”
While Gabe had loved sharing a bed with Michelle at the hotel, after his talk with Nikki, he was finally seeing the wisdom behind Michelle’s no-bed-sharing rule. They needed more space between them, not less.
“I kind of did expect it,” Michelle admitted. “That’s why I washed the sheets from the other room and made up the bed like I hadn’t been sleeping in there.”
“Ah. I was wondering why you’d decided to do laundry at the crack of dawn before we drove upstate.”
“Clearly my mother has decided it’s better to risk un escándalo than get in the way of our secret romance. We should make sure the condoms haven’t been tampered with.”
Gabe shuddered. “I hope you’re kidding.”
“I am. Mostly.”
“That’s not comforting.”
“Look,” she said. “The bedrooms are connected. We’ll wait until my parents go to sleep, and I’ll sneak into the other room through the bathroom. Then I’ll get up early and remake the bed so my mom doesn’t know I slept in there.”
He shook his head. “Your mom will definitely know. These walls are thin, and as you might have noticed, we’re not great at sneaking around.”
Michelle pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes and groaned. “God. You’re right. We suck at this.”
“I could go sleep next door in my parents’ house.”
“How the hell would you explain that? You’d have to tell your dad the truth about why you’re in New York. Are you ready to do that?”
No. He wasn’t. “Should we tell them we had a fight?”
“They’d ask a million questions, and our moms are super excited about this dinner tomorrow. It would crush them.”
It echoed what Nikki had said earlier, and Gabe felt a pang of regret. He should’ve just told his father the truth—that he was in New York for work and Michelle was helping him.
But he still would’ve had to explain the condoms. And why he’d been sneaking around next door. And why he hadn’t called them in nine—
Never mind.
“We technically shared a bed last night,” he pointed out. As awkward as the whole thing was, part of him really looked forward to cuddling with her all night again.
“That was a hotel,” Michelle replied softly, and Gabe understood the distinction. It had been a place where they could play pretend and indulge in all their fantasies together. But now, back in her parents’ house, they were confronted with reality.
And a lack of privacy.
“Besides, your parents are right down the hall,” he added.
“Having loud sex where my parents can hear it would really sell this fake dating story.”
Gabe rubbed a hand over his face. “Your father would kill me.”
“Plus it’s only a queen-size bed.” She looked at it skeptically.
“We’ll manage,” he said, then remembered what Nikki had told him that afternoon.
You better figure out what the hell you want before you drag her into this any further.
Was he leading Michelle on? Giving her false hope?
“I’m going to buy my plane ticket tomorrow,” he blurted out. Might as well get it out there before this went any further.
“Oh?” Michelle leaned over to move the pillows around, and he was momentarily distracted by the way her shorts rode up. “For what day?”
“Soon. I’ll talk to Fabian tomorrow.”
“Okay.” Her tone was deceptively breezy as she peeled the blanket and sheet back, and Gabe realized he was talking to the old Michelle. The Michelle he remembered from their teen years, who appeared unconcerned by the actions of others, who took everything in stride or turned it into a joke. Now that he’d seen another side of her, he recognized this for what it was: a defense tactic. She was hiding her feelings from him.
And maybe from herself.
Over the past week, they’d managed to build something new on the ashes of their old friendship. It was fragile and undefined, but it was real.
Whatever it was, it would be demolished when he left. It would hurt both of them, and he had no idea how to avoid it. He had to go back.
“Let’s go to sleep,” Michelle said, sounding tired.
Side by side, they brushed their teeth at the mirror in the adjoining bathroom. Michelle wore the same pajama set from their first morning together, and Gabe couldn’t help watching her tits jiggle in the mirror as she brushed her teeth.
She spat and rinsed, then gave him a smirk. “Were you looking at my boobs?”
“Always,” he admitted, and she laughed. The tension in him eased, and as they returned to the bedroom, things didn’t seem so bleak.
Michelle adjusted the ceiling fan setting and pushed back the blankets.
“Do you have a side of the bed you sleep on?” she asked.
“Well, since I sleep alone, I sleep in the center.”
“That’s fair,” she said, grinning. “I’ll probably have to get up to pee in the middle of the night, so I’ll sleep on the side closer to the door.”
“That works.”
Gabe climbed in first, moving over to make room for her. Michelle sat on the edge of the bed and turned off the lamp, then stretched out under the covers next to him.
Gabe lay quietly for a m
oment, barely breathing. Every one of his cells was hyperaware of Michelle beside him. The night before, they’d fallen asleep sprawled together on the big hotel bed, exhausted by their sexcapades. There hadn’t been time in the morning for awkwardness, because they’d had to hurry and hit the road. He should take Nikki’s advice and put space between them. Let Michelle sleep on her side of the bed and above all, don’t touch her.
But he didn’t want to.
Rolling onto his side, Gabe found her in the dark and kissed her shoulder. “I want to cuddle with you.”
“Okay.” Michelle’s voice was soft in the darkness, but she turned her butt toward him so he could be the big spoon. Gabe pulled her closer, pressing his thighs against hers and tucking his knees into the backs of her legs. Her hair was in his face, but he didn’t mind. The sweet herbal scent of her shampoo soothed him. There wasn’t an inch of space between them.
And it felt so, so right.
He tried to sleep. He really did. But it was hard. He was hard. How could he not be with her gorgeous ass pressed into his crotch?
Her parents were down the hall, so sex was out of the question, but maybe . . .
Gabe raised his head to whisper in her ear. “I want to make you come.”
Michelle’s breath caught, and he felt her tense. “Now?”
“Right now.”
She parted her thighs to give him access. Her immediate acceptance of his offer showed how much had changed between them in a few short days.
He dragged his hand down her body, traveling over her hip to the waistband of her sleep shorts, where he slid his fingers underneath and into her panties.
When she made a little noise, his hand stilled. “Shh. You have to stay quiet, babe.”
