Tied Together (The Cade Siblings Duology #1)

7. Alana

CHAPTER 7

Alana

I walk through the door of the restaurant and am assaulted by the smell of Mexican food and the sounds of snapping tortilla chips. The familiar environment of buzzing conversation and the comforting smell of good food immediately lifts my mood and I feel ten times lighter.

The multicolored bulb lights line the ceiling inside and the main lights are dimmed, giving the room a warm, colorful glow. It’s dark enough to be relaxing, but not so dark it feels dirty. Angel’ s is one of our favorite restaurants and one we frequent often. The restaurant is just one big open room with booths framing it and tables littered throughout. The bar sits over to the right and is pretty full given it’s dinner time.

Soft music plays over the speakers and it gives the space a friendly and inviting feeling.

I immediately spot Charlie in our booth in the back corner of the restaurant.

“Hey ladies, he’s already back there,” Sierra, the hostess, says in greeting.

We head back towards my brother, who slides out of the booth to give us each a hug. Cami sits on the bench on the left with Charlie and leaves the right one open for me, like she always does.

“Charles, how was your day?” Cami asks as she nudges his shoulder with hers.

Cami has been my best friend since we were awkward high school freshmen stumbling through the halls of Celebration High. I grew up in a small town in Florida and the summer before freshman year of high school, Cami’s family moved into the pastel yellow house beside our baby blue one.

We were instant friends and I was happy to have someone to navigate those years with. Charlie never really hung out with us until whatever happened with his friends junior year. Ever since then, the three of us have been inseparable.

We all had big dreams about living in the city, so when Charlie got a full ride to NYU for hockey it just seemed like fate. He started there after he graduated high school and we joined him the very next year.

Cami landed her job with Impress right after graduation. She knew what she wanted and she went for it. I, however, was still trying to make everyone around me happy, so I spent way too much time searching for a magazine I thought my parents would deem acceptable. I ended up in an internship for a smaller magazine and it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t what I wanted. After about four years I decided it was time to make a change and right about that time the editor position opened up at Impress . Cami had a big hand in recommending me for the job and hyping me up, and it has been the best thing for our friendship.

“Fine, Cassandra,” Charlie grumbles in that way of his. He pretends like he doesn’t like her jokes, but he still plays along albeit begrudgingly. This is a weird bit they do. Charlie’s name is not Charles and Cami’s name is not Cassandra, but for whatever reason they do this every time they see each other.

“I am so glad you demanded bestie time,” Cami says as she gets comfy on her side of the booth. “I was in major need of a margarita.”

“Oh, is that all I’m good for?” Charlie scoffs.

“Of course not,” she says dramatically. “But I would argue that it is a perk.”

“Can’t blame you there,” I reply, grabbing a chip and dipping it in the salsa.

We each pick up the menu and look at it like we don’t already know what we want. Almost every server here knows our orders. We end up here at least once a week to either catch up or talk through whatever problems we are currently facing. It’s been a busy month though, so we’ve missed a few gossip sessions.

James, one of our favorite waiters, sidles up to our table and puts on his most charming smile. He always shamelessly flirts with us, knowing it won’t go anywhere.

Actually, I take that back. I think he hooked up with Cami a while back, but she told me it was never going to happen again. Must not have been very memorable.

“ Hello ladies,” he says with a wink. “And gentleman. What can I get you?”

“The fact that you’re even pretending to not know what we want is cute,” Cami replies with an eye roll.

“Oh, so you think I’m cute?”

“James, come on,” Charlie says. “You know neither of them is going home with you.”

“Hey man, it doesn’t hurt to give it a shot.”

“I applaud your efforts. Three margaritas, on the rocks with salt, two orders of quesadillas, one order of chicken enchiladas,” Cami replies curtly, ordering for the whole table.

“Thanks,” I yell as he turns to walk away.

A few minutes later, James brings our margaritas and sets them down in front of us. I pick mine up and take a long sip, setting it back down with a sigh as the warmth of the tequila fills my body.

“Okay, fill us in.”

I spend the next forty-five minutes telling Cami and Charlie about the meeting with Heather and Ian. I tell them about our trip to Paris, which earns me a jealous glare from Cami, and how freaked out I am about the complete change in plans for the next month of my life. I tell them vaguely about the panic attack, leaving out how bad it was. I tell them I “freaked out,” but that was the extent of it.

I cringe at the half truth as it leaves my lips, but something inside of me keeps me from leaning on them fully in this area. I know they’d be so mad if they knew I was dealing with this on my own, but I don’t want to bring them into it. The less they know, the better. The less they know, the easier I am to love.

I tell them about Alex and how he was supportive through the freak out and all the bombs that were dropped today, and his new nickname for me. Charlie leans in with interest.

When I finally take a breath, I realize Cami is staring at me with her mouth hanging open and Charlie looks angry for some reason.

“That man is into you, Lan,” Cami says as Charlie picks his margarita up and takes a very large sip, setting it back down quite harshly.

“Shut up, no he is not. He’s just being a good friend. He’s always been nice.”

“ Nice,” she says the words with air quotes, “ doesn’t give you your own special nickname and make excuses to touch you. He is so into you, don’t be an idiot.”

Alex might have given me more attention today than normal, but that can easily be explained away by our new assignment. Even if he does like me, it wouldn’t last. Good men are extremely difficult to find these days, and the likelihood that Alex is hiding something is high. I don’t even know what it would be, but I know there has to be something.

An extreme hatred for dogs.

A disbelief in womens’ rights.

A toxic relationship with coffee.

A girlfriend.

A wife.

The possibilities are endless.

“Regardless, Cam, you know I’m not going to go there. I’ve sworn off men.”

“Yeah, yeah. You’ve been saying that for an entire year. Don’t you think it’s time to get back out there and date a little?” she asks.

“No, I don’t know if she’s ready,” Charlie quickly replies.

“You don’t think I’m ready?” I ask, clear hurt in my tone. Not that I think I’m ready, but I crave my brother’s approval.

“Lan, I think you can do anything, you know that, I just don’t want to see you get hurt.” He reaches over and squeezes my hand with affection. After a few seconds of tense silence he excuses himself to go to the restroom. He’s always been like this, needing a moment to himself when emotions get high. Or maybe he hasn’t always been like this, but he has since he joined our friend group.

It’s been a while since I’ve been on a date and if I was honest with myself, I would admit that it has been a little bit lonely. Sure there are times when I wish I had someone to take care of me when I was sick or cuddle with me when a nightmare startled me awake in the middle of the night.

I miss those things about my relationship with Brad sometimes. I know there was so much bad, and I truly would never be okay with the way he spoke to me or treated me in the end, but I couldn’t deny that it was nice having someone to lean on sometimes.

Even me, a strong independent woman, could admit that. Maybe not out loud, but I can admit that to myself.

Almost as if my thoughts have conjured the man himself, the front door chimes and I look up to see none other than my ex himself stride through it.