The Christmas Party

Her Brother's Blessing

"So what's going on with all of this?" Luca asked, waving his hand all around me in a vague gesture which I supposed was an attempt to capture the essence of my being.

I sat across from Luca over our brunch and coffee at a small downtown café, the snow falling gently in lilting patterns from the grey sky. Thea and I hadn't explicitly discussed what we would tell everyone or how: in fact, the conversation never crossed our minds yesterday as we sat together cuddled up on the couch and enjoyed the simplicity of each other's company, so when Luca texted me on Saturday evening after I'd dropped Thea off at home and asked to go to brunch, I texted her asking what I should tell her brother.

She responded simply, blunt and unhelpful as ever: Tell him whatever you want.

When I demanded to know what she told him, what she had been telling him all along, she told me to talk to her brother unencumbered by any expectations or ideas I may have had.

"What's going on with what? My outfit? I like this shirt." I said, playing dumb until Luca clarified exactly what he meant. I wouldn't walk headlong into another Amato trap.

"Nice try. What is going on with you and my sister?"

"What do you mean?"

"Mhm. Mhm." Luca hummed, nodding his head, exasperated. "You know exactly what I mean. Going on a date, cuddling on the couch the other night, Thea not coming home Friday night and staying at your apartment all day Saturday. What happened Friday night? Did you sleep with my sister?"

"First of all it wasn't a date."

"Mhm," Luca hummed, his face arranged in such a way that told me he wasn't buying anything I said.

"Second of all you lay your head on my shoulder all the time!"

"And yet, Thea does not. Never. Not with anyone. Not even with that scumbag Mark. Why did she do that with you? What's going on?"

"Third of all, I did not have sex with your sister, so calm down."

Luca narrowed his eyes.

"Interesting, I like that you casually avoided my question about what happened on Friday night."

"What did she tell you."

"Nothing."

"Really? Thea said nothing?" I asked.

"She said to talk to you."

I chewed on the side of my lip contemplating how I would play my cards.

"No," I said much too quickly.

"Mhm." Luca hummed again. "Okay so you like my sister."

"I never said—"

"What are your intentions with her?" Luca asked, crossing his arms across his chest. I felt like I was on the other side of the interrogation table.

"My intentions?"

Luca shook his head, polished off his drink and took a deep breath. "I don't know what's going on between you two since you won't tell me anything." I opened my mouth to speak, but Luca put his hand up. "Just let me say this before our conversation goes any further, because I know something happened Friday." I closed my mouth and listened to Luca's monologue.

"I don't know what you're doing, but I've never seen my sister this carefree and happy since our parents passed away. Like, she's actually happy. She's actually enjoying her life and working much less and is much, much less stressed out. All of this seems to correspond to when you and her made your little deal and began hanging out quite literally daily. I know you've been trying to befriend her for three years and you've been so patient with her for so long and it seems like your patience has finally paid off.

"I know Thea is rough around the edges, but she cares a lot about the important people in our lives. When our parents died, Thea fought and fought and fought for custody over me. What business did a nineteen-year-old have adopting a sixteen-year-old? But she did and she won. Through all of those battles in court, she decided to be a lawyer, because she found something she was good at. It was rough; there were long nights for her, going through school and working to support us. We had no one. No one helped us. No one helped Thea. Thea helped me, but no one was there for Thea.

"It was tough for a very, very long time, but she did it. Thea is unbreakable. She's like no other person I know.

"So when she doesn't let herself be helped; when she's weary of every nice gesture you do for her, she's always thinking 'what's the catch?' because she can't help it. Hardening herself like that is what got us through. I wouldn't be here without her. She's not going to open up so easily to you or to anyone. She was with Mark to close to a year and he didn't know the first thing about her. You've patiently spent three years getting to know her, showing her that you've paid attention, that you care and I've seen her slowly open up to you like she has with no one else but me.

"You are the only person who hasn't flinched against her jagged edges or turned away. You've learned to move with her so that you're not cut; you know when to step away and let her rage and you know when to step in and be that immovable object that even Thea can't knock down."

Luca took a breath and studied my face, looking for hints as to what I was thinking. I remained silent.

"All I want to say is that it's been no easy feat to get Thea to let her guard down, to be herself, and if there's anyone that I've seen her with that I think can do it it's you. It's been a slow, three year process, but you've stripped away every defense Thea has without her even knowing. Even if she can't see it or even if it scares her, you're the best thing that's happened to her."

I sat in stunned silence. Luca exhaled the smiled at me. "That's it, that's all I wanted to say."

I chewed on my lip. Luca flagged down the waitress and ordered us mimosas.

"She kissed me at the party," I confessed.

"And?""

"Has she told you anything else?"

"She's shared almost every thought she's had about you the last two weeks but she hasn't said a peep about Friday."

"Well, she kissed me under the mistletoe," I began and gave Luca and abridged version of the party. "I invited her to stay the night with me. Literally just to sleep, nothing happened. I wanted her to stay with me Saturday. I just want to be around her. I . . ."

Luca looked at me expectantly, waiting for me to divulge my heart to him. It felt weird pouring out myself like this, gushing about a girl. Of course we'd always been best friends and told each other details about our love life, but it felt odd to share these details with now that we were discussing his sister.

"I really care about her, Luca."

Luca grinned. "So you do like her?"

"Obviously," I snapped. "Have you seen your sister? She's gorgeous."

Luca laughed. "I knew it; she's totally your type."

"'My type'? What exactly is my type?"

"My sister, apparently."

I rolled my eyes. "Whatever."

"So I'm thinking that after the new year you can bring me Starbucks every day for two weeks."

"Why on earth would I do that?"

"To receive my blessing."

"Your blessing?"

"Yes, to date my sister."

"I didn't realize I needed your blessing to date her."

"You'll need it both to date her and to ask her hand in marriage."

"I didn't realize we were living in the seventeenth century."

"Mark did not receive my blessing and look how that turned out."

"Mark was an ass."

Luca waited, his eyebrows raised high, unimpressed.

"No."

"I will be the one walking her down the aisle; you need my blessing."

"Then I'll ask for it if I propose!"

"So you're planning on proposing?"

"I've literally been dating her for one day."

"Then what are your intentions with my sister?"

"To . . . date her?"

"Mhm and what else."

"Oh my God. I'm leaving."

"I really only have one condition."

I sighed. "Fine. What?"

"Under no circumstances are you allowed to have sex in our apartment, because I swear to God if I hear either one of you I will kill myself."

"Oh my God," I breathed, covering my face with my hands. "I would literally rather be anywhere else right now."

"I know you think I'm joking but I am not. I will be having this same conversation with her."

"Please don't."

"Then don't have sex in our apartment!"

"Oh my God, fine! Can we please stop talking about this?"

Luca grinned. "Of course!" He sipped on his mimosa. "Remember when I said it would be so cute if you two actually fell in love?"

"Who said anything about love?"

"Oh honey, it's written all over your face."

* * *

A/N: I realized that many of you were disappointed yesterday when I updated so late. I'm really sorry about that! My goal is to update first thing in the morning, but on weekends my schedule is always off for a multitude of reasons (like being hungover, not being at home, staying at someone's house for the night, or like last night, staying at the vet until 4am). I'm also extremely grumpy if I don't get my 7 hours of sleep and my brain will just not work. For a reference, on the weekdays I wake up at 5am to write before I go to work, but weekends I'm under no obligations to wake up that early.

Long story short: I will always update this story every single day, but for someone of you (like those in Europe), this story might be updated after you've already gone to sleep since you're anywhere from 9-10 hours ahead of me here. I hope that cleared everything up and I appreciate each and every one of you that is reading, voting, and leaving fun comments! You make my day.

Best wishes everyone!