Page 77 of It Couldn't Be You
Katie nodded.
“This town is lucky to have you. I’m lucky to have you. Mom and Dad are lucky to have you. I’m sorry I made you feel anything other than that.” Gabe said.
I could see that Katie was wiping her eyes.
“And, God, I don’t care if you’re living at Mom’s. I know you guys decided for you to save up to invest in your future for a few years. I respect that. I was being insensitive and not thinking about how my questions would make you feel. I was just talking to talk,” he added.
“I might’ve overreacted. I think I had some pent-up feelings or something,” Katie mumbled.
“Forget about it,” Gabe said while Katie walked from behind the bar and over to his side.
“Hug it out?” she asked. It was the same phrase she’d said to him as we grew up. Every time they had a scuffle, it would end with one of them asking, all sheepish and sorry, “Hug it out?”
“Bring it in.” Gabe opened his arms to her.
Katie had spent much of the past couple of years frustratingly telling me about how she felt Gabriel hadn’t wanted her to move back home. She would wring her hands and say he acted like she was working at the coffee shop as a cop-out.
She would ask me, “How can you so easily understand what makes us different, but Gabriel can’t get it?”
Once, I told her that it was because she told me how she wanted to move back home all through college—as if the tears in her dorm room weren’t enough of a sign. She would dream up her own coffee shop plans while we ate lunch. She was confident when she told me she was staying in her childhood room for a while as she pocketed money to buy a fixer upper downtown someday and open her own business.
She would talk to me about the football games. She took me with her to the weekend farmer’s market vendors. I watched how she knew the local shops and supported them. She would rally about changes that needed to be made and keep up with the town’s governmental changes. She cared about what the town needed.
While I sat in our local church, I bounced my leg and wondered,What else? What next?She took a deep sigh and sunk into the pew.
Gabriel wasn't privy to this. She dodged and evaded the subject with him. Did she owe him an explanation? No. But if she wanted him to understand, I thought, this was a good start.
After they hugged it out, Katie went to help a customer, and Gabe took a sip of his mocha. He looked at me sheepishly.
“Sorry,” he said, finally.
“Don’t need to apologize to me. I’ve seen a billion Hernandez showdowns. This was teeny tiny in comparison to some.”
“Indeed,” he said. “Remember the time I forgot I was supposed to take her to Six Flags?”
“Oh, God, don’t remind me.” I winced.
“Do I…” He searched for the right words. “Do I come off judgmental?”
“In general? Not at all. You’re genuinely one of the sweetest guys. Do you sometimes make comments to Katie about her life choices that rub her the wrong way? Yes, to that. I mean, I don’t always pick up on them, but I think it’s a sibling dynamic thing. I know she’s always…” I lowered my voice. “She always cares what you think.”
“I think I know that… I just forget.” He sighed.
“You forget she cares what you think. You also tend to forget to think through your words a little more carefully when you’re speaking to your little sister. It’s not that hard. You might not care if someone teases you about your living situation,supposedly, but she does,” I said, a little harsh but honest.
“Oh, I care,” he said. “My family is always getting onto me. Why not move home if you can write from here? If you’re not going into an office, why aren’t you back home? Don’t you miss us? Don’t you want to see the babies? If you’re going to be on so many trips, why rent a place in LA and not here by us? On and on.All the time.”
“Katie, too?” I set some fresh pastries in the display case.
“Not Katie so much. Though she has been in on it from time to time. I think since it’s usually said as a joke, and with a lot of love and affection, they think it won’t bug me. For the most part, it really doesn’t.” His voice was low, keeping this conversation just for our ears.
“Why don’t you tell them it bothers you? Like Katie just told you. Help them get it.”
“I don’t want it to turn into a fight.”
“If you say it right, it might not.” I shrugged my shoulders as if to say, “Why not try?”
“I’m not exactly known for saying things right.” He pushed the empty mug across the bar.
