The Odds of Happily Ever After (The Reyes Siblings #2)

Chapter 43

chapter forty-three

luna

Luna

Guess what???

Ate

GABE?

Luna

YES

Ate

FINALLY!!!

Luna

I still can’t believe it. We’re taking things slowly but AHHHH!!!!

Ate

I’m so happy for you two!

Are you going to tell Lonzo?

Luna

Ugh

I’ll do it after finals. I don’t need the extra stress right now

Ate

Understandable. Also don’t forget—safety first!

Luna

OMG

In the days that followed, I heard lots of speculation about Gabe’s resignation. Some students wondered if he’d gotten tired of the college scene, but there were others who whispered about him knocking up a student or getting fired for sexual harassment.

Then there were those who somehow knew I was the student in question. For the most part, I ignored the whispers. Only a handful of people knew the full score, and that was how I wanted it.

Meanwhile, Kai apologized again when I caught him ending his shift. He admitted he’d been jealous and that he needed time to get over his feelings for me. Though I regretted losing our easy friendship, I hoped we’d get back to some semblance of it one day—a sentiment he also shared.

As for Kriz and Chloe? They alternated between hyping me up for standing my ground and convincing me to get together with Gabe already. In the week and a half since Gabe resigned, though, they shifted more and more toward the latter.

“I still can’t believe you guys haven’t sealed the deal,” Chloe said as we walked across the quad to the parking lot after our exam. “The suspense is making me horny.”

Kriz snorted. “To be fair, it doesn’t take much.”

“Bitch,” Chloe said without heat. “I’ll have you know I haven’t gotten laid in weeks.”

“Why is that, again?”

“I think Luna’s rubbed off on me.”

“I don’t think celibacy is contagious,” Kriz deadpanned.

Maybe it wasn’t, but Kriz’s laughter sure was. Even Chloe joined in.

“Seriously, Lulu,” she told me. “I don’t know how you can take it. I’ve been without for like a month, and already I’m going batshit crazy. Meanwhile, you’ve got a perfectly bangable dude, and you’re letting him go off for two weeks without getting off?”

“We’ve been busy. It is finals week and he had to prepare for his trip.”

“All the more reason you should have done the deed,” Kriz said. “Multiple times, in fact.”

I gaped at her. “Not you too.”

“It’s been three years of you pining over that guy. Talk about slow burn.”

Chloe chimed in. “I could never hold out that long—and with your man? He totally gives off that proper, polite man in the streets but a beast in the sheets kind of vibe.”

I groaned. She might have shown me her sensitive side, but that didn’t mean she didn’t march into inappropriate territory most of the time.

“Not just in the sheets,” Kriz added.

Chloe nodded enthusiastically. “And the ass on him?—”

“Guys,” I said. “Can you please not talk about him like that?”

“ Fine .” Chloe rolled her eyes. “God. A girl falls in love and suddenly you can’t check out the best men anymore.” Her wink told me she was kidding, but I sighed anyway.

“What time is he arriving in Rio?” Kriz asked.

“Past seven a.m. tomorrow.” Even though his plane had taken off less than an hour ago, I checked the flight tracker again.

“He’ll be fine, Lulu,” Kriz told me. “That’s, what, half the time it takes you to get to Manila?”

“I know. I just wish I could have gone with him to the airport.” If it hadn’t been for my finals, I would have skipped class to see him off.

“At least you have that vibe to keep you company,” Chloe said.

I choked on my saliva.

“I still haven’t gotten a thank you, by the way,” she grumbled. “And here I gave you the gift that keeps on giving.”

“Chloe!” My phone pinged, and I forgot what I was going to tell her when I saw the message was from Gabe.

Gabe

Thank God for plane wi-fi.

Is it too much to say I miss you already?

Luna

THANK GOD!! And it’s not too much. I miss you too!!

gabe

For the first time in two decades, I stepped back in the country I’d come from. I hadn’t made it out of the airport yet, but when I saw the posters with Bem-vindo ao Rio welcoming me to the city, something shifted within my chest. Maybe it was just my imagination running wild with the concept of a homecoming. Whatever it was, I couldn’t deny the anticipation that sang in my veins.

On a whim, I stopped in front of a welcome poster and took a quick photo with it in the background. I had never taken a selfie in my life, but this seemed like the perfect moment for a first. I sent it to Luna and trailed the people from my flight to the immigration area.

If only Luna could have gone with me. The fourteen-hour trip would have been more enjoyable, and I might have been less anxious about seeing my father again.

I’d sent him my flight details, and he offered to arrange a pick-up. I’d refused because I was more than capable of getting a cab, but when I walked out into the arrivals hall, I saw my father front and center.

My steps faltered. This was the first time I had someone I knew waiting to greet me in the airport. He even had a cardboard sign marked Bem-vindo, Gabriel, reminding me of Luna and Tala’s favorite Christmas movie.

“Gabriel,” his voice rang out, deep and gravelly.

The sound of it took me back to my childhood days when he called out to me upon coming home from work. Our house had been so small that I could hear him wherever I was. Right now, he could’ve been hidden in the back of the crowd, and I would have immediately recognized his voice.

I gave my father a genuine smile for the first time in over a decade, and the corners of my lips wouldn’t stop lifting. They only spread wider when I recognized his younger brother, Tio Santi, standing beside him with Tia Carla, who was flailing her arms in the air.

Raising my hand in a brief wave, I headed toward them. My father met me halfway, catching me in a bear hug that knocked the breath out of me in more ways than one. He felt frailer than before, his stomach more prominent and soft, but he still smelled of the spearmint candy he used to chew to mask the scent of his favorite tobacco.

I’d forgotten about that—until now.

“Welcome back, Gabriel,” he said as he thumped my back twice.

“Olá, Pai.” I breathed in but couldn’t smell cigarette smoke on him. My mother had nagged him to stop smoking and he’d tried to multiple times only to pick up the habit again. Had he finally quit? “Do you still smoke?”

“I quit four years ago. Had to stay alive long enough to see my only son again.” Another thump came, heavier this time.

“Mission accomplished.” I took in his face, more weathered than before with creases around his eyes. His hair had turned a shade of silvery gray that carried over to his beard, and the tattoos I remembered marking his forearms had multiplied, covering more skin than it left bare.

A pang of sadness hit me as I realized just how much I had missed out on due to my own stubbornness. If I had given him a chance sooner, I could have supported him as he conquered his addiction. I would have witnessed the other life changes he’d made since moving back to his hometown.

At least I had time. I was here now, and I had to make this visit count.

“You look good,” I told him.

“Your father, he is still popular with the ladies.” Tio Santi clapped my shoulder.

“Tio Santi.” I grinned back at him. I couldn’t remember much of him from my childhood, other than him launching me in the air and my mother scolding him to be careful.

He stood a few inches shorter than me now, but he remained built like a brick. “Cesar, let go of your boy.”

My father released my right side and Tio moved in, enveloping both of us in a tight embrace.

“Glad to have you back,” Tio told me. “You are even prettier than Cesar.”

“My good looks are perfected in him,” my father said.

Tia Carla joined in with Portuguese words that came too fast for me to decipher. She shoved her two brothers aside and clasped the sides of my head. “Gabriel. Finalmente.”

“Olá, Tia.” I had even fewer memories of her than I did my uncle, but something about her made my throat thicken. It could have been the way she held me, like I was a present she had been waiting for, or how she looked at me so intently, as though she could read every emotion that churned within me.

Or maybe it was how she reminded me of another Brazilian woman I hadn’t seen in years, who used to treat me like I was the most special boy in the world.

A heavy arm rested across my shoulders, the weight of it both familiar and new. “Are you ready to go home, son?”

I didn’t know if my father’s home would automatically feel like mine as well. Perhaps that didn’t matter. Perhaps the fact that he was here and I was, too, and we were both trying at the same time, could bridge the gap of time and differences between us.

“Lead the way.”

luna

I sat at my kitchen table, eating dinner while reviewing my notes on global merchandising. It was my last day of finals, and I couldn’t have chosen a better class to end the semester with. After spending the past couple of days trying to absorb as much of my management lessons, studying fashion merchandising trends felt like a treat.

My phone rang, and I smiled at Gabe’s face on the screen.

“Look at you requesting a video call,” I teased him as soon as the line connected.

He smiled back at me, and my heart squeezed tight, but it was the good kind of tight. “I suppose that’s what distance does to a man. I don’t know how Tala and Jason did it.”

“Me neither.” Gabe was only an hour ahead. Ate and Jason had dealt with a full thirteen hours and an ocean between them. “So, how’s the reunion going?”

“As good as can be expected.”

In the past, I might have taken his brief response as a brush-off, but I understood that he needed time to process his thoughts. “I’m glad they picked you up at the airport,” I told him.

“Yes, that was a surprise.” His brows pinched together the way they always did when he considered his words. “It’s been going well, actually.”

I nodded and kept silent, giving him space to share what he felt comfortable talking about.

“I told you my aunt and uncle came too. They all live together in the family ancestral house along with my three cousins, a dog, and a parrot.”

“Wait—a parrot?”

“You can imagine how quiet the place is.”

I laughed, and his face softened.

“I miss your laugh.”

“Just my laugh?” I basked in the giddiness his words sparked and flirted with him outright because now I didn’t have to second-guess myself. It felt effervescent.

His lips pressed together in a suppressed chuckle. “Do I need to list everything about you that I miss?”

“You could, but I have an exam to study for. Next time, for sure,” I told him. “By the way, you should definitely post that selfie.”

“No one needs to see my face on their feed.”

“Hello? What about me and the rest of your fan group?”

“You’re the only one who matters, and you already have the photo in your camera roll.”

We grinned at each other, and it struck me that we had found our way to becoming a we after being two stubbornly divided people.

As he told me about the stories his family shared and the food they forced on him, I had a vision of us five years from now. We’d run our own businesses and come home to each other and talk about our day. Though I couldn’t predict how our story would unfold, I knew there was no other person I wanted to do life with.

That meant I had to work up the courage to introduce him to my family.