Chapter 8

• The following week was too easy for me because Cassie was doing most of the work while explaining to me how everything worked. For example, when I was in a meeting with Bornout, my duty was to take notes on almost everything that happened and pay attention to what he mentioned. To see if I had learned anything, Mr. Bornout took both of us to a meeting with an airline to open a new headquarters in some part of the country. It is worth noting that I did well, but at the end of that meeting, he asked me to arrange the trip to New York. This included the food, the hotel, informing the airport of the flight plan for his private plane. So, most of Friday I spent talking to the hotel receptionist arranging two rooms, with the airport and the cars that would take us and bring us back. My plan was to request a regular room for myself and a luxury one for Mr. Bornout, but when he found out about my plans, he ordered that I also have one like his, so I had to call the hotel again where they kindly assigned me one.
• By the time I got home, it was already late and Jason was not there, so I took my time to pack a small suitcase since we were leaving on Monday morning and returning on Tuesday night. I only packed a few changes of formal clothes and one casual outfit since I would be out for the second meeting. When I looked at the clock and noticed it was almost 11 at night, I decided not to worry about my brother and went to bed.
• After showering and getting dressed, I left my room and entered the kitchen where I found my brother with messy hair, drinking from the juice bottle.
• "What's wrong with using a glass?" I entered the kitchen, took a cup, and poured the freshly made coffee. "What time did you get here?"
• "A few minutes ago," he leaves the bottle in the refrigerator and smiles at me. "Come on, let's take a ride."
• He takes my hand, pulling me towards the door as I let myself be led, so we leave the apartment and go down to the parking lot where I thought we were going to take the truck, but instead he puts me in front of a black chrome motorcycle.
• "What happened to the red one you had?" I question, taking the black helmet that was on the bike.
• "I sold it to buy this one."
• He also puts on his helmet and starts the engine. I get on behind him, wrapping my arms around his waist as he accelerates and we leave the parking lot. It had been a long time since I had been on a motorcycle, and it was always on my brother's bikes since he had a slight fondness for them and changed them for a new one each time. I spent the ride leaning against his back, watching the streets pass by until we reached Venice Beach, where life was already bustling everywhere. There were surfers, families strolling, others playing with balls wherever you looked.
• "There wasn't much of an option to come to the beach in New York," I comment as I put my feet in the sand. The only fortune was that I had decided to wear shorts to go out.
• "There weren't many options there, but here there are kilometers and kilometers of beach we could visit."
• We were both sitting near the shore eating ice cream. I loved spending time with my brother, but since he joined the navy, we only had a few days together, which I cherished immensely.
• "Speaking of New York..." I start nervously. "I'm leaving this Monday with my boss for a meeting with a company."
• He looks at me seriously for a few seconds while I gazed out at the sea, knowing that he and Allie were against me going, but if it was for work reasons, there wasn't much I could do and he knew it. So the rest of the afternoon was spent trying to convince me how bad it was to go, coming up with ridiculous reasons like how New York was always the city that got destroyed or invaded by aliens, and to prove it there were hundreds of movies that he began to name one by one on the way back home. But in the end, not finding any more reasons to try to keep me, he showed resignation and decided that he would take me to the airport on Monday. As a reconciliation, he ordered two boxes of pepperoni pizza while challenging me to eat as many as I could.
• "Are you going out tomorrow?" he asks as soon as I get up from the table.
• "I suppose."
• He nods and lets me go to my room where I finally check my phone, noticing that Allie wanted to see me tomorrow for an emergency shopping outing because she seemed to have scored a date with "the sexy neighbor." So, most of the next morning I was dragged around Beverly Center while I discarded store after store, leaving a pile of clothes that the employees would have to tidy up later, and getting murderous looks while I offered apologetic smiles. As for buying, Allie took the record. After a while, when I went for a bottle of water, I discovered that her outfit was a short black summer dress with a rose on it, and finally, she left me at my house with a tired body from all the walking.
• "What's all this?"
• I leave the keys on the entry table, noticing that the living room had turned into a small movie theater with Netflix ready and two plates full of popcorn.
• "What day is it today?" my brother asks from the living room.
• "Sunday, right?"
• "And what were we supposed to do on Sunday afternoons?"
• I look at him without understanding for a few seconds and shrug as I look at him confused when I hear him sigh. He approaches me and takes me by the shoulders to shake me a little.
• "You're offending me right now with your amnesia," he accuses, tapping my forehead. "I was only gone for 5 months and you already forgot our Sunday afternoons."
• I catch on to what he meant after a few seconds, and a smile escapes me. Jason smiles knowing that I had remembered as he lets me go and pushes me towards the couches. At home, every Sunday afternoon, we spent watching documentaries about serial killers and inventing how our perfect crime would be, from where I would commit the murder to how I would dispose of the body. At one point, our mother scolded us, saying that it was bad, but in the end, she gave up and decided that Sundays would be for her, so while we watched serial killers, she would go out for a walk or shopping.
• I didn't know at which episode of the series we were watching I fell asleep, but I could swear I fell asleep with a handful of popcorn in my mouth.