“I had to send you off with a smile,” he said, looking down at me. “Welcome back and congrats on graduating.”
“Thank you,” I said excitedly. “It was a lot of hard work.”
“You graduated early, right?”
I went to answer, but he cut me off.
“When I was in college, I was part of the rowing team so leaving a year early would have been nearly impossible,” he said, starting to brag. “But things were different at my school, I suppose.”
“Ivy Leaguers definitely do things differently,” I said, trying to hold back the annoyance I felt at his need to show me up with his college education.
I’d had a crush on Nick since I was like eight years old, and from the amazing smile he flashed standing in front of me, he had only grown hotter over the years. He was always a bit of a wild child, running around with his friends, asserting his wealth, and to be honest, being kind of a dick sometimes. But at home, we really got along. It had been a really long time since I had seen Nick, so I was pretty stoked when I walked into the kitchen and he was standing there. He lifted up his phone and shook it at me.
“Come take a pic with me,” he said, smiling.
“Oh, I don’t really like pictures,” I said, blushing.
“Whatever, you’ll look hot,” he said, grabbing me by the wrist and pulling me into him.
I didn’t enjoy having my picture taken, but I sure didn’t mind having his arm around my shoulders and my hand pressed against his chest. I smiled for the picture and stood back while he sent it to whoever he was taking the picture for. I looked down at the list in my hand and realized I needed to get going on this so I could get to my new place and get settled in.
“Wanna help me clean my room?” I smiled big and watched as he scrunched his nose.
“Just have the maids do that,” he said. “That’s why they’re here.”
He was such a spoiled rich boy, and even though I still had the biggest crush on him, I couldn’t help but be slightly turned off by it.
“No, I can do it myself,” I said, turning and walking toward the door.
“Wait,” he said, jogging over. “I’ll supervise.”
It was kind of irritating how superior he thought and acted, but with one glance of his charming smile and amazing eyes, all was forgiven. I wasn’t even sure why Nick was here today, but it had been a long time since I had seen him, and it was definitely not bad to have him hanging around me. I never got much attention from him growing up, even though I was dying for it.
Instead, I’d sit at the kitchen counter, working on my school work, listening to my mother sing and hum, and steal glances of him when he and his friends came trampling through the house. He always ignored me in those situations, which I understood since I was the servant’s daughter, but it didn’t stop me from daydreaming about him. All the other girls had posters of rock stars or TV stars hanging on their walls. They would stare at them and imagine a teenage love affair. I didn’t have any pictures of Nick, but he was definitely the boy I laid in bed and dreamed about. It was a pipe dream, of course. I was the little immigrant from Mexico, and he was the rich heir to a real estate fortune, but that didn’t matter to me.
When we got to my room, I went straight in and started boxing things up. Nick looked around the room, picking up a picture of me and his mom. He smiled, but I knew he was smiling at her not me. It still sent butterflies through my stomach.
As I packed things away, I could tell Nick was getting restless, and it didn’t surprise me at all when he went wandering off. It was weird having him stand there and stare at me anyway. I pulled out my drawers and looked down at an old photo album I had stashed away. I picked it up and sat on the edge of my bed, opening it up and smiling at a picture of my mother and me. She was so beautiful and confident, and my whole life, I wanted to be just like her. As I flipped through the pages, tears tugged at the corners of my eyes and trickled down my cheeks. Hearing footsteps coming down the hall, I assumed it was Nick coming back. I closed the album and looked up forcing a smile. However, instead of Nick, Nathan walked into my room, and I quickly wiped the tears from my cheek.
He looked concerned for a split second before returning his face to that typical-Nathan, serious look. I was slightly embarrassed about getting caught crying over my mother, but I wiped my tears and took the silk handkerchief he handed over to me. I wiped my eyes and smiled, before handing it back to him.
Nathan was always so strange, so stern and serious. I always felt slightly awkward around him. He had been the only one to really pay attention to me as a small child, stepping to help me with my English when I had first moved to San Diego from Mexico. In fact, some of the things that he taught me really helped me move forward to fluently speaking English.
When my parents died, his face was the first I saw when I walked into the room full of police officers. He grabbed me by the arms and led me to the couch when I collapsed under the weight of the news. I could never tell whether his kindness to me was from his own heart, or because he knew how much his mother loved me and wanted to provide me with the best life that she could. Either way, awkward or not, he had always been there in the background so part of me was happy and comfortable having him come by to say hello, though I wasn’t quite sure how he knew I was here.
Nick had always been the one in the Landers family that I got along with the best. He had a fun personality, and when I got older, he became more playful toward me. It was only natural that I gravitated toward him, even though Nathan had been the more caring one. Part of me felt bad that I didn’t realize that until now. I’d always blown off Nathan and hadn’t even thought about it during family events. He walked in the door and looked around.
“Would you like some help packing and loading your things?”
He was quiet and serious, but I was happy he was there.
“That would be really amazing,” I said, relieved that I didn’t have to be alone during this.
Quietly, we moved around the room pulling everything out and wrapping the breakables. We packed the boxes as full as I could carry, since I would be moving them into my place by myself. I smiled at Nathan as he rolled up his sleeves and awkwardly taped the boxes. I could tell he had never actually moved on his own before, and I wondered who moved his things from college to his house on the water. Being as rich as the Landers meant they could hire someone to do just about anything.
When we were done packing, we carried the boxes, one by one, through the house, pausing momentarily to see Nick in the living room watching television with his feet propped up on the coffee table. Nathan rolled his eyes and shook his head as he pushed past and out of the house. He helped me get everything packed into my car and walked back in with me. As I started grabbing cleaning supplies, he chuckled, realizing there was no way I was leaving my mess for the maids. He grabbed the vacuum and followed me back, and we commenced the cleaning process.
Between the two of us, it took less than an hour to get the place cleaned. When we were done, Nathan helped me put everything away. I leaned in and hugged him tightly, thanking him for helping me. He smiled awkwardly before turning and walking to the kitchen. The house looked so sad and lonely now that Mr. Landers lived there by himself. Most of the shine had faded when Mrs. Landers passed, and she took a piece of my heart with her. I took a deep breath and headed down the hall, knocking quietly on Mr. Landers’s study doors.