ᴛʜᴇ ʀɪᴠᴀʟꜱ ᴄᴏɴᴛʀᴀᴄᴛ

₀₁₃

"I will." I step into the apartment when he steps aside, I forgot his name.

When the door closes behind me, I take in the apartment. And, wow. It's really nice. The apartment is like one big room. There are large windows acting as a wall, and you can see all of the city. The kitchen is to my left, and the living room in front of that. And floating stairs lead up to where i think are the bedrooms. And it's so clean.

"Oh, hi." I look toward the voice to see Rhys walking down the floating stairs. His hair is slightly wet, and he's wearing a t-shirt and gray sweatpants.

Normal. Normal and very attractive. Of course i've noticed his looks-i'm human-, but i've never noticed them when he was so normal. He looks like a whole different person. And that's when I realize how young he is-how young we are. College kid age.

"You're apartment is nice." I look around more and see a foosball table and a large gaming console in the corner of the large room.

"Thank you. Um, we can eat now if you want? The pizza's hot." Rhys walks over to the kitchen and I follow.

I sit at one of the stools and he grabs me a soda from the fridge. Then he hops up onto a counter in front of the island, his plate of pizza in one hand.

"I don't see a fluffy cat I need to escort out of the building. Did the cold shoulder work?" Rhys says from behind his pizza slice.

"It did. Puff was very angry. She started throwing vases at a cardboard cut out of your face." I bite my pizza.

"I would be offended but it makes me quite proud that you have cut outs of my face in your home." He folds his pizza in half, his eyes bright with amusement.

I shake my head and sip my soda. When I look up, I take in all the pictures on the wall near the fridge. There are pictures of both the blonde and Rhys, some together, some alone. And then there's a woman.

She's very pretty. Stunning even. Her smile is so bright it makes me want to smile too. She's holding a dog and even the dog looks happy to be with her.

"She's lovely. I love her smile." I motion towards the picture.

"I love her." Rhys says.

I look back at Rhys to see him chewing his pizza. He loves her. He is in love. I didn't know. I mean, not like I know a lot about him, but I didn't think he had a girlfriend.

"Oh. How long have you uh..."

"My whole life." Rhys nods and points at another picture.

"That's us at high school prom." High school? My God. It's really serious then.

"Oh and a wedding."

Wedding?! He's married. He's married?! Oh my fucking God. How in the hell didn't I know. That's surely something I should have known. I mean, i've looked at his hands before and didn't notice a ring but. Just wow.

"Young love? That's...great." I nod and chug my soda. The bubbles scratching the back of my throat.

"What?" Rhys says with a mouthful of pizza. "No. God no. We're not-that's not my-. She's my sister."

Sister. Sister.

I just made a fool of myself didn't I? Yeah. I did. Why was that even something I had to bring up? We're here to discuss work. Not our personal lives.

"Oh. I'm sorry I thought-i'm sorry. Didn't know." I chew more pizza, but suddenly loose my appetite

"It's alright. We don't look alike. We have different moms." He explains and I nod.

"I get it. I don't look like my brother either."

Rhys furrows his eyebrows. "You have a brother?"

"Yeah but, we don't talk." I haven't spoke to him since I was fifteen. Since he left me alone, with my mom.

"Why's that?" Rhys asks suddenly, like we've been friends for years and talk about our families regularly.

"Uh..." Because he's selfish, and an incredible liar. Because he told me he'd take me with him, yet I woke up one day and his shit was gone. Because I don't even know where he is.

"He's in the marines."

"Oh, nice." Rhys places his plate in the sink and opens his laptop.

"So I actually sent a few businesses..." I know I should have been listening, because that's what I came here to do, but now i'm thinking about my brother.

I haven't thought about him in years, and I won't start now. I won't do it.

____________________