Page 73 of Yours, For Now

consistently.

Lina: yeah, but it's not the specialization

of the Sotomayor construction branch.

Gabe: ooooh. Now I know what you're

planning. Good trade secret. Thanks

for sharing.

Lina: only because I know you won't

actually play dirty. We can share.

Gabe: We already are

Lina: Right. Well, my eyes are closing.

Goodnight, Gabe. See you tomorrow at 5.

Gabe: bring a swimsuit

Drivingintothemountainsbrought a deep sense of peace to me. Lina turned out to be a great copilot; we chatted right through the section of the road without cell service, time moving fast as we filled the car with banter.

My soul calmed down completely once I saw my family's lake house lit up among the shadowed trees. It was the one place— and time— where I could let go of the sense of responsibility I held for the Sotomayor Group, and simply be me.

The appearance of the large cabin filled me with shimmering warmth each time. A mix of traditional with its big logs, and modern with its huge windows, it cast a warm glow in the midst of the dark forest. Through the wide and tall glass panels, I could see my family puttering around and waiting for us. The tingle in my chest morphed into a delightful mix of awe and affection.

"Wow, this place is gorgeous," Lina said. "I'm a little sad for past me, because I didn't know this existed when I gave you attitude at the convention."

I chuckled. "So you're saying you would have been friendlier, had you known it could have scored you an invite?"

"No, just that I'm happy that in our weird circumstances, I get to be here today."

I parked the car and gazed at her. "I'll invite you over sometime, when we're broken up. If people don't get too weird about it."

"Oh. I hadn't realized." She undid her belt buckle, her eyebrows heavy on her face. "People will expect us not to be friendly anymore, when we break up."

I grabbed the wheel tight in my hands. "I asked Vi. The contract will be ready this week. That gives us two to three weeks to figure out the break up, right?"

She sighed. "We'll have to stop spending so much time together."

All the inner glow in my chest grayed out, shadowed by a passing dark cloud overtaking my lungs.

"We can always text." I frowned. "Insist the break up was friendly. We can say we discovered we're better as friends than as a couple."

In my mind, I heard the echo of words my dad shared with me ages ago, when I'd had a crush on a friend, and he'd told me that a good partnership required friendship, too.

"I guess we can do that," Lina said. "It's been nice to have someone who understands, to talk to."

"Yeah. It has been. So let's go have a nice weekend to celebrate the success of everything we've managed to do the past few weeks."

We took our things out and I opened the door to the cabin with my heart in my throat.

Gabe opened the door to his family's home away from home, and coziness seemed to explode straight into my mind.

"My favorite brother is here!" Vi jumped up from her spot in the living room across the house, and came to us as I studied the view.