“Scared of new relationships?”
“Yeah. Scared of new relationships in general,” I said.
“That seems like a conversation you should have with Tyler, don’t you think?” she asked, emptying her glass.
I sighed. “I know. I’m just scared. Especially since things aren’t exactly out in the open anyway.”
“Eventually, you need to talk to your brother, too. He has to understand that you didn’t do this on purpose, but you don’t have anything to apologize for, either. It’s his best friend. If anything, he should be delighted his best friend and his sister are happy being together.”
“I think his bigger worry would be that something would happen, and he would have to choose between us,” I said.
“People always say that,” Melissa said, “and hardly anyone ever chooses sides. He’s your brother and Tyler’s best friend. If you two split up, he’d be fine.”
“I suppose so,” I said. She was making really good points, some of which I had never really thought of before. I suppose it made sense what she was saying about my brother, and the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I might need to take her advice and just put on my big-girl panties and address the situation with both Tyler and my brother.
Melissa and I continued talking about how I felt, but by then it was rehashing old stuff and her just telling me it was okay to feel whatever I was feeling. I thanked her for being there for me and for being willing to talk about my trouble so often. She just hugged me in response, and I sat there, my head on her shoulder as we watched the movie we knew by heart already and quoted scenes to each other.
Eventually, it started to get a little late in the evening, and I had sobered up enough that I was safe to drive. With a quick hug, I said goodbye to Melissa and got into my car, pulling away and heading back to Tyler’s feeling a lot better about everything. Even if I did know now that I had some subjects I needed to broach with various people in my life. And not all of those conversations would be as light as the one with Melissa.
19
Tyler
I had the early shift that day, which meant working the bar for the lunch rush, along with setting up the night service. It was more boring than it was hard, but once the rush began, it wasn’t so bad. Getting through lunch was always an accomplishment because often we just closed the doors and took a break ourselves until six. The cost of keeping everything running never seemed to outweigh the business.
So it was at the bar, prepping for the night service in an empty bar, that I was standing when Jordan and Matt descended on me like a cheap mobster movie gang. They surrounded me at the bar, and I noticed Ava in the background, wiping down a table, but doing slowly so she could eavesdrop. Mason was somewhere in the back of house.
This was going to be fun.
“Hey, buddy,” Matt said in a tone that told me they were treating me with kid gloves. I hated that. I was older than both of them.
“Hey…” I said cautiously.
“We were just wondering,” Jordan said, “why Mason seems to think you’re down.”
I sighed. I guess we were doing this now. To hell with planning.
“So, he didn’t tell you, but he told you I was down?” I asked.
“Pretty much,” Matt said. “What’s up?”
I took a deep breath. This could go as well as it did with Mason, or it could go really, really poorly.
“I’m thinking about going back to school,” I said, “and eventually leaving the bar.”
“Wait, what?” Jordan asked. “Why would you leave the bar? You can do school and work here.”
“Yeah, I mean, depending on what you wanted to take, it might actually help the bar,” Matt said.
“I don’t think so,” I said, interjecting before they mapped out my entire future for me. “I want to do something in the tech sector.”
“Do you not like being here?” Matt asked, and I knew I had to reassure them it wasn’t about them.
“It’s not that,” I said. “I like being with you guys. I like this being a family business. It’s just, I don’t know, I feel like everyone else has something they love to do, and I don’t. I just have a job. A great job, but just a job, you know?”
They were quiet for a minute, and then a shift behind me made me turn around. Mason was standing behind me, a pencil stuck behind his ear and his sleeves rolled up to the elbow. He nodded at me.
“I should tell you guys,” Mason said, “I am in full support of this. Tyler wants to pursue his dream, and as sad as I would be to have him not with us here every day, I’d much rather know he was happy doing something he loved.”