Chapter 7

• Guillian arrived for the puppy past 10 at night, thanking me for taking care of it while Allie went from a slightly enamored girl to a stalker in a matter of seconds; she got my neighbor's number through Kenji's identification tag and didn't stop until she had almost all the information, while I found myself surprised to be thinking about Bornout.
• "You're scaring me," I murmured in my pajamas.
• "I expect you to introduce me to your neighbor properly," she ordered, ignoring my comment. "I might move here to take care of the dog."
• I heard the phone ringing in my room, preventing me from responding to Allie, who seemed to be in a daze. I looked at the caller ID and instantly answered:
• "I thought you had forgotten about me," I said calmly, sitting on my bed.
• "How could I?" I heard his voice through the noise on the other end of the line.
• "Where are you?"
• "At the airport."
• "Escaping or on business?"
• He laughed for a few seconds as I smiled, remembering how bad he was at keeping a job.
• "Something like that, I heard you moved," he announced proudly. "And that you had a job interview, how did it go?"
• "Good, I have a job and a place to sleep."
• "I'm glad to hear that," he paused for a few seconds and cleared his throat. "I'll be landing in Los Angeles tomorrow and I was wondering if you could give me temporary, maybe permanent, asylum."
• "You know you can, brother."
• Jason gave me his flight details while I gave him the address of my house. For a while, he was excited about seeing us again and how fun it would be to live together again. When he hung up with a "see you tomorrow," I got up to find Allie still on the couch.
• "Unfortunately, your 24/7 stalking of my neighbor cannot happen," I announced, eliciting a groan from her. "My brother is moving here."
• "Isn't that good? You'll finally have someone to keep you company."
• I nodded slowly, letting her settle on the couch because she refused to sleep in the spare room until I changed the mattress with mine. I lay down in bed, set the alarm, and fell asleep almost instantly.
• I tiptoed around looking for my brother without much success, mentally counting how much time I had to get to work on time. I glanced at the clock for a few seconds until I heard a shout.
• "There you are!"
• Jason dropped his backpack and ran towards me, taking me by the waist to spin around for a few seconds.
• "You're still the same, little sister," he said as he put me down, taking my hand and going back for the backpack.
• "I wish I could say the same about you."
• His face was more defined, as was his toned body. His hair was slightly long and he had a long, chestnut beard.
• "Come on, hurry up, I have to get to work on time."
• He laughed as we ran to the parking lot, pushing and stumbling. When we reached the truck, he threw the backpack on the back seat and got in the passenger side. I couldn't deny that I missed my brother, especially since we had always been inseparable until he joined the navy while I went to college, so we were separated for quite some time. I was in school and he was on warships; two years later, he changed positions from lieutenant to mechanic, so he always had to travel from coast to coast.
• "I want my truck without a scratch, understood?" I ordered, getting out of the truck and walking around it.
• "Don't worry, Ryn," he said, getting out too. "Your truck is in good hands."
• "You said that last time and you had to drive me on a motorcycle for a whole semester."
• He smiled apologetically for that as he sat behind the wheel, starting the engine. I stood on the sidewalk for a few seconds watching the truck drive away until it turned two blocks later, hoping he wouldn't cause a disaster. I entered the building, taking out my ID badge from my bag to scan it at the checkpoint and greeting the guard on my way to the elevator.
• When I arrive at my apartment, I head to my desk greeting Cassie, who was answering calls. I sit down, take out my things, grab my agenda, and open it to add a reminder on Bornout's computer about the charity foundation he needed to attend to. As soon as the message is added, my phone rings with a message from Jason announcing his arrival at the house and complaining about the lack of pop"tarts, saying "your crazy friend has devoured them all waiting for your neighbor to arrive." I let out a slight laugh, causing Cassie to look at me for a second as she finishes a call with someone from the 19th floor."
• Around noon, Bornout comes out of his office and looks at both of us for a second.
• "Eryn, call Valerie," he orders. "Have her come in for the meeting and bring Angston's documents for me to take to the meeting. Cass, you come with me."
• The aforementioned Cassie nods, leaving everything instantly and only taking a notebook, so they both leave me alone. A few seconds later, Valerie was already on her way to the meeting with the papers, so I slump into the chair not knowing what to do. By the time it was past noon, at least 3 pages were filled with doodles and reminders that I sent to Bornout's agenda when my phone vibrated with a message from Cassie saying I could go eat, that there wouldn't be any calls for another hour and a half.
• I get up from the chair, stretching for a few moments before taking the elevator and heading to the 20th floor where I walk to the white trays to pick up a salad, a grilled cheese sandwich, and a small dish of rice pudding for dessert. I go out to the terrace where there weren't many people, take a seat, and start eating in silence, taking my time to chew the food while wondering what Cassie was doing in those meetings and if I would ever be in one of them. When I finished, my phone rang with a message from Mr. Bornout informing me that I could leave if I wanted to, as the meeting would last longer than expected, and wishing me a pleasant afternoon. I let out a sigh as I get up to leave the tray and go up to my apartment to grab my things. The upside was that I would leave earlier and could spend some time with Jason, hoping he would really tell me where he had been these months.
• So when I arrived hopefully at my apartment, I found Jason in the kitchen smiling at me as he sat at the small table.
• "You got out early."
• "A meeting that dragged on," I explain as I steal a piece of the sandwich he had served.
• He glares at me to take the other piece and bite into it.
• "The crazy girl left an hour ago," he announced after swallowing. "She said she would be back later, hooked again?"
• "You know how Allie is."
• That brought back memories from a few years ago when they met at a mutual friend's party and Allie had a slight crush until she found out he was my brother and didn't want anything to do with her, although unfortunately, he had to endure her slight harassment and other techniques of Allison.
• "Let's hope she doesn't scare your neighbor."
• "Let's hope."
• After that, we spent time catching up on what had happened to us in the months we were apart, finding out that he had been on a warship off the coast of Hawaii fixing a faulty engine. And it wasn't until late at night that we both went to sleep, not without arguing because Jason wanted my room since it was bigger and had the bay window, so we had a fierce rock"paper"scissors battle where I emerged victorious after several rounds, so I could sleep another night in my room but now with my brother on the other side of the wall.