Situationship [Complete]

7 | Smash-terpiece

Summer garden parties are the worst, with or without breakups.

Dread consumed my entire morning, and now that I've arrived, I'm still sitting in my car trying to work up the nerve to go in. It's my fault for giving into my parent's desires and dating Lenny. Never again will I agree to date anyone related to anyone remotely connected to my inner circle.

I mean, Heath is my inner circle, but a contractually obligated sex schedule is as far from dating as you can get.

A day after my dick appointment with him and I still smile when I think about it. The sex was good. So, so good. It was the kind that makes your head spin and your brain turn to mush.

As nervous as I was to do it, Heath gave me a reminder of what Lenny could never do for me. I needed a little proof that I made the right decision. Especially before this.

I pull my finger from my mouth. There is a spot of blood on my cuticle left by my nervous chewing. Damn dirty habits.

Finally, I climb out of my car into the glaring sun. New York is hot as hell in the summer, and that doesn't include the humidity. The heat today is oppressive. The threat of a distant cloud gives me hope that I won't be a sweaty mess by the end of this.

My parent's house looks like it could fit on a college campus. A two-story brick behemoth with a stereotypical winged layout, white-framed windows, dormers, and an interior clad floor to ceiling with mahogany. All it's missing are columns and Greek letters on the front.

In the backyard, fifty or so people mingle on the concrete patio, each group doing their best impression of a Ralph Lauren summer collection advertisement while holding glasses of a wine and taking shade beneath the story-tall manicured Italian Cypresses. I walk up to the gate and take a deep breath. To my undeserved luck, I only take a step inside before I find my two loves. I wave to my brothers and smiles of relief light up their faces.

Levi wheels his chair over with excitement, Rowan walking after him. I lean down and squeeze Levi into a hug. He returns it with equal fervor. "Finally, you're here," he says into my shoulder.

I pull away and press a kiss to his cheek, then reach out for Rowan. I wrap my arms around his narrow waist, stretching up to kiss his cheek as well. The six-foot-three, timid baby of the family.

No one sees a Black woman with two Asian men and thinks "siblings" first, but I'm the luckiest person alive to have brothers like them.

"How's the party going?" I ask.

"It's great," Levi says with as much sarcasm as humanly possible. He has his hair slicked back into a folded-over bun. His wrinkled, white oxford is lacking the customary tie and jacket Rowan has on. He wants to be here about as much as I do. "Mom and dad have asked where you are, like, five million times. They want to show you off to all their associates."