swallowed my nerves and headed to her place. There was a good chance she’d ignore me, that she’d decided it was too much to deal with, that I’d put her in a position that was too uncomfortable.
But I had to take that chance.
When I arrived, I stepped out, flowers in hand, and walked to her door. After a deep breath, I pressed the button for her apartment without getting an answer. I pressed it again.
Nothing.
I deserve this, I thought. I’ll be lucky if she ever talks to me again.
“Hello?” her voice cut through the quiet of the evening.
“Annie. Is that you?”
“What do you want?” Her tone was sharp.
“I want to talk to you about what happened last night.”
“I bet you do. And what makes you think I want to hear about it?”
“Because… because I didn’t know. I had no idea who my brother was to you. And I’ve been kicking myself ever since it all went down. Please, just give me the chance to apologize in person.”
Silence followed. Then, after several moments, the lock clicked open. Relief washed over me. I opened the door and hurried up the stairs, giving her door a knock when I arrived.
A crack appeared, but Annie wasn’t there. She’d simply opened the door and expected me to come inside. I pushed the door open and entered. Annie was seated at her kitchen table, her eyes on her laptop in front of her. She didn’t even glance up as I entered.
“Hey, I—” I didn’t finish the sentence. She held up her hand as if I’d rudely interrupted the work she was doing.
“Give me a sec.” She kept on typing, her eyes locked onto the screen. It was clear what she was doing – Annie was making me wait, making me sweat. I deserved it.
I caught sight of an instrument case on her coffee table. For lack of anything to do after putting the flowers in a nearby empty vase, I stepped over to the case and opened it. Inside was a violin.
“Don’t touch that,” she said, her tone quick and direct. “It’s expensive. I don’t want you being careless and breaking something valuable.”
The double-meaning of her words weren’t lost on me.
After a short time, she finished what she was typing, closed her computer, and finally turned her attention to me. “Alright,” she said, running her hand through her hair and letting out a sigh. “What’s up?”
“Like the flowers?” I asked.
She glanced at them. “They’re nice. Thanks. Anyway…” She twisted her hand in the air in a get on with it gesture.
“Last night,” I said. “That…I didn’t know.”
Confusion flitted across her face. “Oh, you didn’t know that your brother happened to be the man I moved here to get away from? Just a small detail you hadn’t noticed along the way?”
“I didn’t know. Annie, I’d never do anything to hurt you like that.”
I was lying, trying to be vague. But it was impossible. I had two choices, to tell her the truth and ruin everything, or to look her in the eye and tell her a lie.
It was an easy choice – there was no way I was going to lose her. As much as I hated hiding the truth, I simply wasn’t going to let her go.
“How did you not know?” she asked. “He’s your brother.”
“You know that he and I don’t exactly have a normal relationship. He’s my brother, sure, but I’ve only recently met him. I was given up for adoption, remember. And it’s only recently that we’ve come back into one another’s lives.”
She said nothing, as if understanding I’d made a reasonable point.
“We’re getting to know each other again after all this lost time. But we’re still…strangers in many ways. He’d mentioned that he’d been seeing someone, sure. However, it wasn’t as if I knew who you were.”
“He…never told you my name, anything like that?”
I shook my head, continuing the lie. “No. I didn’t get a chance before you two split up. And when that happened, we didn’t talk about it anymore.” I stepped over to her and took her hand in mine. She didn’t remove it. “Annie, this was just as much of a shock to me as it was to you. But I know we can work past it.”
She turned her eyes away, giving the matter some thought. “It’s…it’s just so weird. I date a man for a long time, then I end up dating his brother. Seems like more than a coincidence, you know?”
“Yeah, weird is the exact right word.