“Sebastian, go hang out with the guys, Ysabelle and I can clean up,” Julia suggested.
Please don’t make me look bad…
“Ysa, you okay with that?” he asked, looking over at me.
Damn it.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” I nonchalantly responded.
“See! Go!” she insisted, patting his chest.
Dinner was eye opening to say the least. They shared so much of their lives together, as children and now as adults. It was hard to watch the familiarity of the way they spoke and acted around each other. I thought I knew him pretty well, but I realized that I barely knew anything. She had his past, and in a way, she would have his future, too. Christian tied them together for life, and part of me knew that it wasn’t just Christian. There’s this history between them that I will never be able to touch or even come close to, realizing that was a brutal awakening. They shared a love for each other that I couldn’t begin to understand.
“Ysabelle,” she said, taking me away from my thoughts.
“Yeah, I’m sorry, did I zone out?”
She smiled. “Yeah, you okay?”
I nodded, grabbing the plates off the table. “Thanks for helping me clean up, but you don’t have to; I can handle it.”
“Oh no, I know what it’s like to have to clean up by myself.”
Of course, you did. You had him first.
“Sebastian tells me that your bar is amazing. That’s inspiring that you started it from nothing.”
“It wasn’t really that hard. Tropical Island, vacation spot, alcohol, food, girls…it brings them in the door.”
“Your bar was voted top three places to visit in the Caribbean–that’s not nothing.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” I responded, loading the dishwasher.
I was confused when I saw her look under the sink.
“Do you have any cleaning supplies so I can clean off the table?”
“Oh yeah…umm…I keep them in the laundry room…but yeah, I should probably keep them under the sink. It would probably make it easier for cleaning the kitchen.”
She smiled. “I’ll go get it.”
Way to go, Ysabelle, you don’t even know where to put cleaning supplies. This is why Sebastian thinks that Anthony is a lucky man.
“Did it take you long to find this house?” she questioned as she wiped down the table.
“It’s actually pretty random. His parents were looking at properties and we sort of stumbled upon this house.”
“Oh, that’s right, Mom did tell me that.”
“Your mom?” I asked without thinking.
Her eyes caught mine and she looked like a deer in headlights. “No…I mean Sebastian’s mom, I'm just so used to calling her Mom. We’ve been calling each other’s parents Mom and Dad since we were kids. It’s silly really.” She lowered her gaze to the table, continuing to wipe it down and I returned to loading the dishwasher as if I didn’t feel like I just took a bullet. “It’s a beautiful house. It must have cost a small fortune.”
“It did but we split it so it would have been a lot worse if it was all on him,” I informed, wanting her to see that I wasn’t a gold digger, that I had my own money.
“Oh…and Sebastian was okay with that?”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s just always been the provider and he takes that role really seriously.”
Fuck…was I wanting to buy the house together making him feel like he wasn’t a man? Had I fucked that up, too?
“I’m just surprised is all…not that it’s a bad thing or anything. I’m not saying that at all,” she mumbled and it was the first time I saw her nervous. “I mean…I think it’s awesome that you’re an independent woman. Sebby definitely needs a woman like that.”
“Why do you call him Sebby?” I asked, trying to change the subject.
She laughed. “Our parents said I couldn’t pronounce Sebastian when we were babies. I started calling him that and it’s just stuck. I should probably stop doing that. He hates it.”
“You guys have shared so much of your lives together.”
She nodded. “We have. He’s a good man, Ysabelle. You’re very lucky to have found each other.”
I couldn’t tell if she was being sincere, but it didn’t stop me from hoping that she was.