But Brendan had a new family now. In fact, all my brothers had women they were committed to. None of them would be glad to see me banging down their doors early in the morning.
So Nolan was my only option right now.
“We need to talk,” I said. Almost threateningly.
Nolan shrugged while he grabbed a carton of orange juice off the counter.
“Shoot.”
I looked back at the naked chick who continued eating her cereal.
“You need to leave,” I snarled at her.
“Is that absolutely necessary?” Nolan asked.
“Now. You need to leave now,” I added.
The girl looked at Nolan for support but he just shrugged in response.
She rolled her eyes again and then got off the table and walked away.
“What’s going on with you? Ever since that chick started living with you, you’ve been acting up,” Nolan said.
Well, maybe he did know more than I thought he did. He’d hit the nail right on the head.
The chick in Nolan’s apartment seemed to take ages to put on her clothes and leave. As she was going, she went over to Nolan to try to hug him or kiss him or something, but my brother grabbed her by the elbows and led her in the direction of the front door.
“You have good timing. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get rid of her,” he remarked once he shut the door behind her.
“You’ll figure out ways,” I said.
“So what do we need to talk about? I’m surprised you want to talk about anything with me,” he said, grabbing the orange juice again.
Nolan always had a way of turning everything into a joke, but I sensed he was probably being serious about this statement.
“What are you talking about, man?”
He shrugged. “I’m usually left out of the conversation. Nobody wants to bother me with anything half-serious,” he commented.
“You’ll get there in time.”
“You’re not that much older than me, if age is a factor.”
He got me there.
“Okay, I’m here now.”
“And what’s the problem? Your bike needs fixing or anything else equally trivial?”
Nolan looked pretty darn serious now and I just realized he’d given this some thought. Maybe this was a grievance that’d chipped away at him over the years.
“Hey, man, none of us ever did it intentionally. We never tried to make you feel left out of the circle.”
“So you admit I’ve always been left out of the circle.”
“You have a bone to pick with me in particular?”
“I don’t have any bones to pick,” he snapped.
I glared at my brother, trying to work out what I was doing there at his apartment in the first place. I should’ve just waited a while and gone to Brendan, who would’ve given me some real advice.
“Anyway, you’re not here so you can listen to me bitch and moan. Tell me what you’re here to say.”
“I need some advice,” I admitted.
I wasn’t sure Nolan would know what to say, but I was here now and he expected to hear it.
He dusted his hands together. “I’m all ears.”
“I fucked her,” I admitted.
“Her? Who? The Harlow chick? Elsie Harlow?” Nolan’s first reaction was complete shock, yet he grinned like he was about to burst into laughter. Then he caught the expression on my face and knew I was serious.
That was when he put the juice carton down and drew in a deep breath.
“Well, I can’t say I’m totally surprised. We all saw it, even though we didn’t gossip about it behind your back. You made the decision to trust her and believe her story from the moment you met her. You were protective of her. You wanted to keep her safe like she’s a little wounded bird. So I’m not surprised by the fact that you wanted to bang her too.”
Even though I didn’t want to admit it, Nolan was right about everything.
I’d decided on Elsie from the moment we met. There was something about her that drew me in immediately. And it was more than just her big brown eyes and olive skin. It was more than the fact I wanted to claim her.
“So what is the problem? You fucked her. It looked to me yesterday like she wanted to fuck you too.”
“I don’t know what she wants. I don’t know what she really wants.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
I glared at Nolan who looked at me suspiciously. Then he understood what I was trying to get at.
“You think she’s hiding something?”
“I don’t know.”
“Has she done anything? Slipped up?”
“No.”
“Then why don’t you buy her story?”
“I don’t want to believe her because she seems to be just too good to be true.”
Nolan tried to work it out in his head.
“Is this about the Christie chick?” he finally asked.
“Maybe, yeah, I’ve been thinking about her lately. Ever since Elsie came into my life. I don’t want to fall for that kinda bullshit again.”
“Bullshit?”
“I don’t want to be an idiot.”
“You were a kid, and they manipulated you. You were too young to know what you were up against.”
“I don’t need a lecture on that. I know I was a kid, but the lesson I learned from that isn’t something to be taken lightly.”
“And what lesson is that?”
“No beautiful woman can be trusted.”
Nolan breathed in deeply. At first I thought he was just getting impatient with me, but then he came over and put his hands on my shoulders. He looked straight into my eyes and I had no idea what he’d say. There was a part of me that realized my brother had grown up and maybe I didn’t have him figured out at all.
“I’m going to tell you two things, and you can take it or leave it.”
I waited for him to continue.
“Firstly, not all beautiful women in this world are going to be bitches like the Christie chick who tricked you. They’re not all going to try and get you nabbed. Most importantly,
