Page 67 of Discord
My heart jumped to my throat when I caught the tension in his muscles. His eyes raked over me in quick appreciation before he shot me a silent,It’ll be fine. Clean, rainforest smell drifted over as Brandon sat next to me on the couch, his dark green t-shirt brushing against my bare arm. The move didn’t go unnoticed by Milo, and Raven liked it even less. Her gaze landed on the minuscule space between us and the ambush dawned on her.
Raven gave me a head shake, pleading with me not to do this. She was upset and understandably so. I had promised to break things off, or at least take a year off to reassess my feelings.
Instead, I hid the relationship from her.
Neither Brandon nor I was naïve enough to believe this would go well. In preparation for the fallout from this conversation, we had already taken several precautionary measures.
“Did we have a meeting today?” Milo asked, perplexed by Brandon’s unannounced visit. He unlocked his phone, most likely to check his calendar.
“No.”
“Brandon, can I get you a drink?” Raven stood next to Milo, trying to delay the inevitable.
Brandon shook his head as Milo wrapped his arm around Raven’s waist. “What’s going on?”
“You might want to sit down,” Brandon suggested.
“Why?” Milo narrowed his eyes, unmoved.
Brandon stood with a relented sigh when Milo refused to sit. It did nothing to diffuse the thick daunting atmosphere. The home clothes—sweatpants and a t-shirt—should make Milo more approachable, but he was as intimidating as ever.
Brandon mirrored Milo’s stance and went in for the kill. “Mia and I are together,” he declared without any build up. There were no pretenses or excuses such as,It just happened.Brandon’s message was short, direct and to the point.
Time stood still.
Not another word was uttered in the deafeningly silent room. My eyes were glued to Milo, expecting a volatile reaction. Though he was on a better path, things could always go south.
Milo said nothing. He stood like a statue, and for a moment, I wondered if he heard Brandon’s declaration.
Brandon cleared his throat, his general façade morphing into an emotion resembling compassion. Compassion for the tumultuous emotions Milo was experiencing.
When he spoke again, Brandon’s voice was loud and clear. “I love her.”
Raven closed her eyes. Of everyone, I had lied to her the most. Brandon flew out to meet me while I visited Milo in California earlier this year. When Raven found out, she became paranoid of his intentions and sent me a barrage of texts and emails to verify things were indeed over between us.
In panic mode, I made up a crazy story that he was seeing someone else and they were in California for their own reasons.
Raven was the only one who had found out about us prematurely and I had lied to her at every turn since then. However, her body language remained warm. She might be angry with me and disagree with my choices, but she still had the rare ability to empathize even while on opposing sides.
In a starkly clear layout, they stood across from us—the two people whose opinions mattered the most. The same thought crossed Brandon’s mind as he watched me out of the corner of his eye, searching for reassurance. On shaky legs, I rose from the couch and took my place next to him.
“I love him, too,” I whispered.
* * *
Brandon
The room reverberated with a deathly noiselessness.
Everyone expected Milo to charge at me. He could take his best shot, a few punches, in fact. After all, I did defile his younger sister.
What none of us expected was Milo’s silence.
This reaction was worse. Quiet men calculated and thought of ways to leave behind more destruction in their wake than a few broken ribs. I should know.
Milo recovered. “All this time and right behind my back,” he spoke calmly. A little too rationally for my taste.
“I’m so sorry,” Mia whispered. “We didn’t want to upset you until we figured things out and knew for certain. It’s real between us.”
