“Maybe we should set the two of them up,” I said.
“Who? Drew and Anna?” he asked.
“Nope. Drew and the Queen. Of course, Drew and Anna.”
“Drew never does well with those things. The last time I tried to set Drew up on a blind date, he showed up acting like he was deaf. He kept throwing random hand signals her way all night.”
“He what?” I asked.
“Yeah. With Drew, it’s gotta come naturally. Organically. I can tell you I had a talk with him while we were patching up your art gallery.”
“Drew was the one to help you with that?” I asked.
“Yeah. He was the only person I trusted to do the best job in the smallest amount of time. Anyway, he told me the reason he hadn’t called Anna yet was that we still weren’t on good terms. I told him things were fine between us now, so I know his gears are turning again. You have to give him time.”
“Why didn’t you tell Anna that?” I asked.
“Bro code. I’m not going to tell the woman he’s crushing on things he’s said about her. But, I trust you not to tell him I’ve told you,” he said.
“Uh-huh. That’s confusing. Whatever.”
“You need more friends,” he said.
“Nope. I’m good with the friends I’ve got. I just want to see my sister happy, that’s all.”
“Honestly? Anna still seems a little lost and not really sure what she wants to do. She really has no plan in place. Drew seems like a lost soul, but he’s got goals he’s actively chasing. I’d advise your sister to find herself a bit first, establish what she wants out of her life before she goes dating.”
“I know,” I said, sighing.
“And Drew’s very close to starting his new business. He’s all but made it official, really. He’s got his products, he knows where he’ll get his inventory, he knows how he’ll pay for everything. Setting up a business from scratch is rough, and it doesn’t allow a lot of time for personal endeavors outside of it. He might be postponing talking to Anna just because of that,” he said.
“Because of what?” Anna asked.
She was lugging a massive box that Bryan ran over to help her with. I shook my head at her while Bryan helped her set it down. Then, she turned around and sat on that box in order to catch her breath.
Again.
“That everything?” I asked.
“Yep. Some furniture’s being delivered later today, and that’ll complete the apartment for now,” Anna said.
“Want us to stick around until it arrives?” Bryan asked.
“No. You’re good. I know Hailey’s got to get back to the gallery, and I’m sure you’ve got stuff with your company you need to do. You guys go on. From here, it’s unpacking and shit,” she said. “Now. What were you two talking about?”
“Relationship stuff,” I said, shrugging. “Nothing really substantial.”
“Uh-oh. Trouble in paradise?” she asked.
“Hardly,” Bryan said, grinning.
“Okay. Well, if you hurt my sister, I’ll kill you,” Anna said. “And Hailey? If you hurt Bryan, I’ll find Drew and have him kill you.”
“Thanks. I think,” I said.
I gave my sister one last hug before I hopped into Bryan’s car. He was driving me back to the gallery, so I could open it back up now that I’d officially used my lunch break to help Anna. My mind started whirling about John’s paintings and when everything should get off the ground. Jennifer said she would run a separate article detailing the night of the formal showcase seeing as her first article was simply about the story of Bryan and me and how John tethered us and led us to one another. The second article was going to be on how John inspired my and Bryan’s community outreach, and then the date and time for the gallery was going to be in there.
That article was supposed to run in two days, which meant I had two days to secure a Saturday evening to make all this work.