Page 19 of The Boyfriend List
“Just because I live in L.A. doesn’t mean I attend parties, Paulo.” I sigh as I open my eyes again and prop up my phone on speaker on the desk. “And I do have friends. Knitting club friends.”
I talk to Sasha, who’s a regular at Raina’s old workplace, and we used to go to knitting club together. I haven’t been in a while since work got busy, and I realized that I have the rare ability to tangle skeins of yarn just by looking at them. I should probably catch up with Sasha, though.
“You have knitting club friends?” he asks dubiously.
“You say that like you don’t believe knitting club is a real thing.” I groan.
“What about your coworker? England?”
“Londonis my coworker and my friend.”
Paulo chuckles. “Mom is wondering if you’ll come back home this year. Eddie, too. He keeps bugging me about when you’ll be home again.”
“I haven’t seen Eddie in forever.” He’s probably grown so much. The last time I saw him, he was nine or ten. Now he’s a teenager, only a few years from being an adult.
“Which is why you should come home. What about All Saints’ Day in a few months?”
Every All Saints’ Day, on the first of November, we go to the graves of our ancestors for the Catholic feast day and remember loved ones, eat food and spend time with family we haven’t seen in a long time, and just generally relax. I’ve always enjoyed the holiday and maybe this year, I should go back home to celebrate it.
“You’re right. I think I’ll make plans to come home for All Saints’ Day,” I say, thinking of how I can schedule time off from work and make it happen. It’ll be hard with the promotion coming up, but I can make it happen. “What’s new with you?”
To my surprise, my workaholic brother tells me about the girl he’s been seeing who lives next door to him. She works in a cafe and they keep completely opposite hours, but her cat keeps escaping into his yard.
“She sounds like a keeper,” I joke. “But how are you carrying on a relationship if you never see each other?”
“We write each other notes…” he confesses.
I laugh. “That’s adorable.”
My brother, falling in love and writing a woman love letters. I never thought I would see the day.
“So when are you going to settle down and have kids?”
“Even Mom hasn’t asked me that, why would you?”
Mom is more focused on encouraging me to have a steady career. She says she trusts in God’s timing when it comes to my relationship, which I think isher way of telling me not to date anyone. Or maybe it’s her way of telling me she has no hope for my love life and has to rely on divine providence. Either way, at least she doesn’t pressure me about it.
On the other hand, hearing all the wedding announcements from my cousins who are my age makes me feel left behind. Not to mention that Raina got married five years ago. I feel like I’m lagging behind in a race I didn’t even know I entered. And there’s nothing I hate more than being a straggler.
“I’m your brother and I want you to be happy?”
I laugh. “I appreciate your concern, but I’ve already started to work on that.”
“You make it sound like dating is a project.”
“First Raina, now you. Why does everyone say that I’m unromantic?”
“Because you said you’re ‘working on it’ like I’m your boss who wants a progress report.”
“I have a date planned for Monday.”
“What’s his name? What does he do? Where does he live?” Paulo peppers me with questions.
I rub my temples. “One question at a time, please. His name is Lindon.”
Which, now that I think about it, sounds awfully close to London. That would be confusing if things actually worked out between us.
“He works as an architect. I don’t know where he lives, or his social security number, or his date of birth either.”
