Page 59 of So This Is Love

“Thank you, and happy birthday. I brought these for you.”

I hand her the flowers that I spent a ridiculous amount of time choosing at the florist this morning. I ultimately decided on pink lilies and red roses, something classic.

“Honey, these are beautiful, thank you. The two of you go on and wash your hands so we can finish setting up since folks are starting to arrive.”

We do as she asked and wash our hands in the nearby half bathroom.

“See I told you everything is gonna be fine,” Bryce says, placing a kiss on the top of my head before walking out of the bathroom.

He did the action so casually and effortlessly, as if it was no big deal. As if it didn’t cause my heart to stutter and my breaths to rapidly increase.

I take another moment to myself before rejoining everyone in the kitchen. Bryce’s other sister Shannon is seated at the island typing away furiously at her phone. She doesn’t look up to acknowledge me and I opt not to engage and instead focus on the task given to me, to cut up the fruit.

“Bryce, go bring these pans out to your uncle on the grill.”

“Yes ma’am,” Bryce says, picking up the pans.

“Ms. Janet, we didn’t see those tablecloths that you were looking for,” a middle aged man says walking into the kitchen.

Bryce’s mom sighs and shakes her head. “I know they’re in there. Let me go look and see.”

The kitchen is quiet except for the sounds of music playing outside in the backyard and the chopping sounds of Lauryn and I doing the things we were tasked with by her mom.

“Soooo,” Lauryn says next to me when she finishes the salad she was tasked with making. “What’s going on with you and my brother?”

I shake my head. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

“I mean I was just wondering if you and B are together or…”

Lauryn lets the end of her sentence hang, waiting for my answer.

I knew it was a possibility someone would ask me about my relationship with Bryce, but I still feel unprepared to answer. I look out the windows that overlook the backyard and see Bryce talking and laughing with a small group of people who have just arrived.

“Um, not really,” I reply. “We’re just good friends.”

“Interesting,” Lauryn says.

“That’s not really how it works,” Shannon says looking up from her phone.

“Excuse me?”

“You said ‘not really’ but that’s not an answer. You either are or you aren’t.”

I pause mid cut at her words. The tone of whichdoesn't sit right with me.

“It is an answer because it’s the one I gave,” I say calmly, my eyes locked with Shannon’s. “Bryce and Iarefriends. If we ever become more than that, he can tell you himself if he wants to.”

Shannon snorts and rolls her eyes, murmuring something I can’t hear under her breath. Lauryn shoots her a look and Shannon stares back, the two of them locked in a silent conversation.

“Am I missing something?” I ask, holding back the less nice version of the question that was on the tip of my tongue.

Lauryn breaks eye contact first and smiles at me. “Well no, it’s just that B hasn’t ever brought ‘just a friend’ home before. So we were just surprised, that's all. And you call him Bryce, he usually only goes by Sonny. ”

“Oh, well I guess there’s a first time for everything,” I say with a shrug, trying not to read too deeply into Lauryn’s words.

“Leave it to a man to not be able to see what’s right in front of him,” Bryce’s mom says, walking back into the room with the tablecloths in her hand.

Bryce's mom must notice the energy in the room as she looks between the three of us. “Everything alright in here?”

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