Page 84 of I Think They Love You

He laughs, bitterly. “I didn’t have ‘becoming an orphan before twenty-five’ on my bingo card. Cheers to therapy.” He passes Denz the plate. “Found a lovely therapist. She’s helped loads.”

“Sounds nice.”

“It is.” Braylon smiles. Small and lopsided, but it’s there. “What about you?”

“What about me?”

“Please. You’re different too.”

“’M ’ot,” Denz says through his first bite.

“Hell no. The heir prince to the 24 Carter Gold empire doesn’t get to come to my flat—”

“Apartment.”

“—insult the way I talk, my exquisite taste in clothing,” Braylon continues, pulling a chilled bottle of water from the fridge for Denz, “and not acknowledge his own issues.”

After a sip, Denz says, “I have none.”

“Fuck off.” Braylon guffaws.

“No. Seriously. I’m perfect.”

“Since when did your life become so obsessively about ajobthat you’re miserable?”

“I’m not miserable.” Denz sighs. “Fine. I’m notalwaysmiserable.”

“Only on rainy Sundays?”

“Or when someone claimsCaptain Whateveris one of the greatest rom-coms ever.”

“Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” Braylon corrects, offended. “And it bloody well is. Fight me.”

“Or when,” Denz says, face wrinkling, “he putsvinegaron his fries.”

“So, basically, all the time.”

“I didn’t come here for a character assassination.”

“No?” Braylon smirks.

“I’m here forthis.” Denz aggressively chews another bite. He eyes Braylon with extreme contempt, all the while melting inside at the grilled cheese’s flawless execution. It’s criminal how Braylon is still the one person who knows what he needs the most.

“Why do you want to be CEO so bad?” Braylon inquires.

It’s a question he should have an automatic response to. Things likeMoney and prestige. To prove the aunties wrong. It’s a lifelong career goal.But that’s not the answer Denz gives.

“This company—what my dad’s done—is why my family hasanything,” he says. “It’s why I am where I am.”

Denz spent 90 percent of college avoiding the spotlight. He didn’t want to beontwenty-four-fucking-seven. When asked, he never went into deep detail about his dad’s company. It’s not like Braylon couldn’t see it whenever they visited home. How, outside of Athens, being a Carter was Denz’s entire world.

Back then, he didn’t know who he wanted to be outside of that.

Now, he does. He thinks. He hopes.

“All my life, I wanted to be my dad.”

Braylon’s seen theMarvelous Weddingsclip. Knows that part of Denz’s backstory. He decides, in this tiny kitchen scented with bacon and butter and a hint of cardamom, to tell him more, finally. How he’s determined to make the impact Kenneth has on other people’s lives. That losing the one thing that gave him purpose as a kid feels like drowning.

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