Page 13 of Entirely Yours
Instead, I momentarily lose consciousness apparently because the next thing I know the pan is clattering to the floor and slices of garlic bread are fanned out around me.
“I’m going to take that as a yes,” Mom says, a knowing glint in her eye.
“You know her?” Dad asks.
“I—no. I mean, I knowaThea. Could be a different one. Pretty common name,” I reply, even though I know on somecosmic level that this has to bemyThea. I’ve been googling random combinations of “Thea” and “Boston” for the last week like a fucking creep and haven’t found anything.
“Does the Thea you know have long blonde hair, killer legs, and a cute-as-fuck kid?” Ben asks.
“Kid? I...” I think I’m about to pass out.
Ben’s eyes go wide. “Fuck, you didn’t know about the kid. Is it yours?!”
“For fuck’s sake, Benoit—no it’s not mine. If this is the same Thea, I just met her last week when I was in Boston.” I sit down at the dining table, and Gabe brings me a glass of ice water.
“You just met her a week ago? And this is your reaction?” he asks, setting down the glass.
“Oh my god!” Bex chimes in—I hadn’t even realized she had called. “This is the girl you were messaging about the other night!”
Mom sets her phone on the table, and Bex’s face looks up at me, her daughter Elodie bouncing on her lap.
I rub my forehead, unable to truly comprehend that Thea—my Thea—might have just moved in across the hall from my brothers. With her dad. And her daughter.
Suddenly, I stand up, overwhelmed with a deep need to see her. See if everything I felt after one night together is real or if I’ve been blowing things out of proportion in my head.
“I have to go see her,” I declare.
“Slow down, Romeo. Take a beat and decide what you want to say to her,” Gabe suggests.
I sit back down. “You’re right. I should wait.”
“Why? Go get her!” Bex exclaims through the phone.
Elodie echoes, “Get her!”
“You”—I point at the phone—“have no room to talk.” I rub my sweaty palms up and down my jeans. Bex and Anders took years to admit their feelings to each other. Though they’re happy now, I agree with Gabe. I need to take a breath and figure outwhat I’m going to say to her. Thea acted like she never wanted to see me again, leaving without giving me any way to find her.
“What if she doesn’t want to see me?” I ask out loud.
“That’s not the impression I got,” Ben replies.
That catches my attention. “Did she say something about me?” Desperation laces my words, and I don’t even try to hide it.
“Damn, how are you already down bad?” Gabe asks, shit-eating grin plastered on his face. “She looked like she’d seen a ghost when she came bursting into Louie’s the other night asking if we knew you.”
“She called me Jules when we first met—that hasn’t happened to me since before you got all those tattoos and grew your hair out,” Ben adds.
“Why didn’t you call me when this happened?” I ask, starting to get annoyed.
“The assholes wanted to see your reaction in person, I’m sure,” Bex says.
“I had no idea it’d be this good, though.” Gabe smirks. “Can we come with you when you see her again?”
“Fuck no,” I reply, my tone stern. “Don’t talk to her again until I can apologize for whatever you’ve already said to her.”
“Chloe invited me over for a tea party, though!” Ben looks genuinely sad that I would prevent him from having tea with a child.
“Chloe is her daughter?” I ask.
