Page 9 of Fluttering Heart

“Thanks, Fi. I know. Now...” His tone changes to happy and bright again, like he’s forcing it.He’s definitely forcing it.“Gab told me she offered you guys the suite for Sunday’s game too, but you said you wanted tickets?”

“Uh, yeah.” I think about it for a second and then decide that I can’t decide yet. “I need to ask Lou first?—”

“Who’s Lou?” There’s way too much curiosity in those two words.

“Just a guy,” I hedge.

“Sure,” he snorts. “Just a guy you want to impress. I know that tone.”

“Okay, yeah, maybe I want to impress him. Whatever. Shut up,” I hiss when he laughs at me. “Let me just check with him. I don’t know yet if he’s the crowd type or the silent type.”

“Fine,” he starts, sarcasm dripping from the word. “I’ll just be here eagerly waiting for your instructions, master.” I smile because any time I get to hear my older brother call me master is a good time.

“That’s the way it should be. It’s nature’s way,” I say with a hoity-toity tone just to be a little shit.

“Ugh, you’re?—”

“I need to go now, but we’ll see you for dinner before the concert so we can actually work on cheering Beau up?” I ask, making sure he’s still in the bathroom, though I heard the shower shut off.

“Yes, fine. Come by my place.”

“You got it, bye.”

Beau comes out a second later and looks miserable again. I smile at him, infusing as much sunshine as I can into my words.

“Get ready, we’re going to brunch.”

I start walking out before he can complain, but still hear his startled, “What?” before the door closes behind me.

I run to the elevator banks and see Lou wearing a cute, soft-looking maroon sweater over a button down and my stomach fills with butterflies. He clearly combed his short brown hair, and his jeans fit him damn well if I do say so myself.

“It’s the most casual outfit I brought,” he says as soon as I’m in hearing distance. For some reason that makes the butterflies in my stomach go even wilder.

“It’s perfect.” I sigh out the words. “You’re perfect.” The words come out of my mouth without permission, but I can’t bring myself to regret saying them because he brightens up the whole damn building with the happiness shining from his eyes.

“Look,” I start and take a deep breath. “I really wanted it to be just us at brunch, but the whole reason I’m in Vegas in the first place is because my brother is going through a really tough time. I mean, it’s possibly the worst break-up scenario I’ve ever heard of. He’s really upset and I can’t bring myself to leave him alone all day. I’m sorry.”

The light in Lou’s eyes dims until it’s completely dull.

“Oh yeah, I understand.” He’s already turning before he’s done speaking. “I’ll go back to my room, then.”

“What? No!” I shout, probably too loudly, and reach to grab his arm. “Please don’t go. I didn’t mean that I don’t want to hang out with you. And actually, Charlie already arranged for your ticket to the concert tonight and I wanted to ask about—okay, getting sidetracked, we’ll talk about that later.”

I let go of his arm and take another deep breath.

“I still want you to come with me for brunch and then dinner with Charlie and then the concert and all the rest. But my brother needs to come too. I know that’s totally lame, bringing my brother to a date but?—”

“You said that before,” he interrupts.

“What?”

“That this is a date.”

“Uh, yeah.” I realize as I speak that I never asked him if he wanted it to be a date. Fuck, did I completely misread the situation? “Do you not want it to be? Sorry, it’s been a very long time since I’ve actually been on a date. Would you like to go out on a date with me, and with my brother?” The smile stretching his lips makes the butterflies take off again, and I can’t stop my mouth again either. “It might actually be good for him, you know? To see there are more fish in the sea and all that. Not that you’re fish for him. He’s straight, but what I mean is?—”

“What?” he asks after I clam up.

“Just please don’t ghost me because of this? I really want to get to know you better, and it feels like a good sign. How all of this happened, you know? I mean me knocking on your door, our rooms having basically the same numbers, the fact that we’re both from Chicago...”

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