Sugar and Spice by Kat Baxter
Chapter 6
Sam
A week later and I’m still carrying Isabel’s note she left in the hotel room around in my pocket. I pull it out and read it periodically to remind myself that she was real. That meeting her and loving her body had truly happened. Otherwise, I might convince myself that it had all been a dream.
“Oh Cookie,” I whisper to myself. I’ve got to snap out of this funk. We’re days away from the first big game of the season. Normally all I can think about is football. Right now though, I can’t think of anything but those brown eyes and that sassy mouth.
“Why the fuck aren’t you answering my calls?”
I jump at the sudden voice intruding into my thoughts and my house. I look up to find my sister glaring at me. “Nice to see you too, Stell.” I turn my back to her and grab a bottle of water from the fridge. “Help yourself if you want something.”
Her eyes, ones so similar to my own, narrow. “What is going on with you?”
I walk past her and head into my living room where I collapse on my big sectional. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
She comes and sits next to me, practically on my lap.
“What the hell, Stella. I have plenty of room, get off me.”
Her elbow jabbed into my side. “Nope, I’m not moving until you talk to me.”
“This is why I was so small when we were born. You’re a bully.”
Her blue eyes roll. “Oh yeah, I can see you’re really struggling to survive. Tell me what’s wrong, or I’ll call mom and tell her you have the flu.”
I feel my own eyes widen. “You wouldn’t dare.”
She pulls out her phone and holds her finger over our mother’s contact info. “Oh, but I would. Remind me how long she stayed with you the last time you were sick?”
“You are evil.” I lean my head against the back of the sofa. “I met someone.”
“The pretty one that tagged you in that picture in New York?”
“Oh yeah, I’d forgotten about that. I hardly ever log in to that thing.”
“I did all kinds of stalking on her after I saw the picture. Even ordered some of her chocolate, which is amazing. Did you have some?”
I shake my head. “No, I never got a chance.”
“Okay, so I’m assuming you’re all woe-is-me because you did something to scare the poor girl away?”
“The opposite. She one and doned me.”
“So?”
“So what?”
“So…” Stella draws out in that voice she uses that implies I’m a moron. “Go find her and tell her you want more than one.”
“You think I didn’t think of that already? I tracked her down to her tiny town in Massachusetts, I saw her hugging some guy. So she’s clearly not who I thought she was. She did not seem like the kind of woman to cheat, but…” I lift my shoulder in a shrug. “You know now that I think about it, that’s probably why she freaked out when I tagged myself in that picture. She didn’t want her boyfriend to know she was with me.”
“I told you to be careful. You’re such a big softie and you’re just asking for a heartbreak. Still, you just met the girl, it’s not like y’all were in a relationship.”
I shake my head. “She was different. There was a definite connection.” I lean my head over on my twin’s shoulder. “Stell, I thought she was the one. That’s what it felt like to me.”
“And that’s why you went to see her in her hometown?”
“Yeah, because she checked out of the hotel without saying goodbye.”
“Okay so you went to see her and you caught her with the guy. What did she say when you asked her about him? What did he say?”
“I don’t know, I didn’t talk to her. I saw her across a parking lot and she was hugging this guy and smiling. So I just turned around and left.”
“You didn’t ask her who the guy was?”
“She was in his arms.”
“We hug. And I hug Ben.”
I turn my body so that I can see my sister’s face better. “Ben’s your best friend’s brother. And I’m your brother.”
“Wow, thanks for clarifying that. Maybe later you can draw me a chart in case I get confused.”
I pat her on the head. “Why are you like this? Who hurt you, Stellaluna?”
“Get your giant bear paws off me. Okay, did you tell this girl that you liked her? That you thought she was your one?”
“I was very clear about the fact that I don’t do one night stands.”
“And then you slept with her,” Stella says.
“I’m not discussing my sex life with you.”
“Oh my God, you’re such a dumbass. You’re like one of those really lame heroes from a 1980’s romance novel.”
“I feel like I should be very offended, but I don’t know what that means.”
She exhales slowly and turns her body, folding her long legs up. “So romance novels used to have the same basic plot lines back in the days. They were awesome, I’m not dissing them, but they all had these great misunderstandings. It would break the couple up because the men were too damn stubborn to use their words and say what they wanted and what they were feeling.”
“What does any of this have to do with me?”
“Don’t be that guy, Sam. You’re a modern man in touch with your feelings. Hell, you’re more sensitive than I am.”
I stare at my sister wiling her words to make sense, but I still feel lost. “I need you to break that down for me because I don’t know what you’re saying.”
She holds up one hand. “One, you made some random mysterious comment about one-night-stands and expected that to communicate something to this woman.” She ticks off her fingers as she goes. “Two, you went to find her and made a giant assumption based on a random display of non-romantic affection.”
“Hugs can be romantic.”
“If they weren’t naked, it’s not conclusive information. And I think we can both agree that if she was naked and hugging a man in public, she’s definitely not for you. And three, you truly believe she’s your one and you’re just giving up? That’s not the man I know. You’ve been waxing poetic about meeting your soulmate our entire lives. Then you think you find the one and you just walk away? Don’t be such a pussy.”
“I get tackled by three hundred pound men for a living. I’m not a pussy.”
“Then stop acting like one and go get your girl!”
Her words are like a call to arms to my heart. I can feel the blood pumping faster through my veins. I stand from the sofa. “What do I do?”
“Call her or go back to her tiny ass town and ask her actual questions. Use your words, big guy. You’ve got a half-decent vocabulary.”
