Tyler
I stand leaning against the wall as Hunter and Angel sealed wedding invitations and argued over who were really coming to the wedding.
"Just put a fake address in that one. We can say it was a typo." Hunter mumbled sliding an ink pen over to Angel.
"A typo on a written invitation?" Angel asks raising an eyebrow at him.
"Well..." He thinks about it. "Write sloppy. Point is, he shouldn't even be invited. He never brings gifts and he's gonna rsvp with the most expensive meal."
"Then why invite him at all?" I laugh glancing down at my wrist watch.
"Because he's our uncle, Tyler." Hunter says looking over to me. "Do you really want to cause problems between Mom and her brother because he didn't get invited to the one wedding that's gonna top any royal engagement?"
"Asked and answered." I roll my eyes.
"Why are you even here?" Angel asks looking over to me.
"Well, Conner is coming to meet everyone Today and with everything that's happened between Danielle and I, I couldn't have him over at my house." I shrug.
"So you gave a stranger our address?" Hunter looks up from the invitation he was writing. "Really?"
"He's only a stranger to you. I know him and he's alright." I wave him off.
"Yeah because you're just so good at reading people." Angel mumbled turning back to the invitations.
"Don't patronize me, Angel." I point at him. "I mean it. Conner isn't a bad guy and you'll never guess what else I found out about him."
"What?" Hunter asks.
"He's Justin's older brother." I laugh.
It's as if my words caused them to freeze for a moment before they both looked over to me with wide confused eyes.
"Justin? As in Amari's Justin?" Angel asks.
"Great. Another person whose gonna want Tyler dead." Hunter mumbled to Angel shaking his head. "At this point, I might as well handle him myself."
"Honestly..."
"Would you two calm down? He doesn't know about my history with Amari or that Justin and I don't necessarily get along." I shrug. "And I doubt Justin is going to tell him."
"Why wouldn't he? They were brothers first."
"Because Justin is busy trying to make up with Amari. Why would he cause more drama just to spite me?" I ask just as there was a knock at the front door. "Now, behave and don't bring up anything that connects me to Amari romantically."
"Sure because the minute he sees the little boy run out that room and noticed exactly who he looks like, he's gonna know." Hunter says.
"No he's not because Kyler is asleep." I roll my eyes. "And don't go wake him either."
"No promises." Hunter and Angel speak at the same time as I pull the front door open.
Conner stood there typing a message on his phone for a moment before looking up and giving me a friendly smile.
"Hey! Come on in!" I greet him stepping aside.
Conner steps in looking around the house studying the interior decoration before his eyes landed on Angel and Hunter sitting on the floor up close to the coffee table watching us.
"And you must be Hunter?" He asks pointing to Angel.
"Nope but he is." Angel shakes his head pointing over to Hunter who looked equally amused and tired already.
"Sorry. The blonde hair, I just assumed..." He laughs. "It's nice to meet you both. I'm Conner. Your brother, I suppose."
"So I've heard." Hunter mumbled squinting his eyes. "What do you do for a living?"
"Hunter..." I start but he cuts me off.
"What? It's a seriously question." He defends himself looking from me back to Conner. "Do you like Tyler so far?"
"Well, I work as a Graphic Designer for a video game company. I design the virtual landscapes and things like that." Conner explains. "And yeah. Why not? He seems cool."
"Oh, that won't last long at all."
"Do you get first pick at new games?" Angel interjects placing his hand over Hunter's.
"Sometimes, yeah." Conner nods and Hunter hits Angel's arm.
"Pass me a blank invitation..." He mumbles picking up his pen again. "We can sit him right up front in Tyler's seat. Tyler can stand in the back on the alter."
Amari
I step out of my car and look around letting my eyes skim the park. There were kids running around on the playground and people walking dogs, but my eyes searched for Jake. I had decided to reschedule our little 'catch up' and instead of the coffee shop, I insisted on the park. Between my doctor wanting me to take it easy and try to be as gentle with my body as possible without just laying around and Justin being overly worried about my health and the baby, I couldn't even breath. I just needed to get out of the house and taking a walk around the park seemed like a good idea. Jake had asked me to meet him at the north entrance of the park and when I finally found him sitting on a park bench tying his shoes, I walked over to him.
"Ready to walk?" I ask.
"Ready as I'll ever be." He smiles standing up and grabbing his book bag off the bench. "Let me know when you get tired. I have some waters and a few granola bars."
I nod my head and we begin walking. For a moment, we walked quietly just admiring the scenery laid out in front of us, but as we passed the noisy playground filled with children laughing, Jake spoke up.
"So, who is the lucky guy?" Jake asks looking over to me.
Instinctively my hand rests against my stomach and I smile a little.
"His name is Justin." I say. "I met him in college."
"Well, congratulations." He smiles. "So, I assume you and Tyler aren't close anymore?"
"That's an understatement." I nod my head. "We're not necessarily friends anymore."
"What happened there?"
"We grew up and grew apart." I shrug. "He found Danielle and I found Justin. Nothing really 'happened', per se."
"Yeah? Then how come you never called?" He asks and I look up at him only for him to look away again. "I mean, it's not like I've been waiting by the phone for you, but... Amari, it did hurt a little when you chose Tyler over me. I know you had strong feelings for him and you two had a long history and all, but even a blind psychopath could see that you two simply weren't going to work out. Why'd you choose him?"
"Jake, I really don't feel like delving into our past." I sigh looking away. "I already have enough to deal with in the present. So please."
"I understand." He nods his head. "I'm just curious. That's all."
"Curious?"
"You never called because you weren't romantically attracted to me, I get that. But as a friend?" He asks.
He didn't sound angry or hurt. He just sounded like this was something he had been holding in and now that he finally had to chance to say it, he would.
"You know, Lana and I reconnected." He added quietly.
"Reconnected? I didn't know you two were ever officially connected." I raise an eyebrow at him.
"Well, we weren't." He reassured me quickly. "Not when you and I were. I mean, I ran into her maybe two years ago at a mutual friend's wedding. She was friends with the bride in college. We talked, had a few drinks, danced together, and..."
"Please spare me the details of you two hooking up." I scoff earning a laugh from him.
"We didn't hook up. Believe it or not, I stayed true to my morals even throughout college. I'm simply not the kind of guy to have a one night stand." He laughs as he places his hand on my lower back carefully guiding me out the way of a passing bike rider. "I was going to say that we exchanged numbers and have been keeping up ever since."
"Really? She never mentioned talking to you." I say.
"Yeah, well... I asked her not to." When he sees the confused look on my face, he quickly continues. "Like I said, you never called. I thought you'd find it weird that I had made friends with your friends or that you'd assume I was keeping tabs on you. Either way, I thought you didn't want to hear from me so I asked her not to mention me to you. I didn't want to upset you."
Even after all these years, he was still so well spoken. He still had manners I could only pray I'd be able to teach my children to have. Even though his background wasn't the best, his aunt did the best she could to raise him and she certainly didn't fail.
"Well, that was two years ago." I say urging him to continue the story. "What about now? Any romance blooming?"
Jake wasn't for me. Don't get me wrong, he was a nice guy and any girl would be lucky to have him, but he wasn't my guy. However, if not having him meant that Lana could have him, I'd be okay with that. She deserved good things.
"Not necessarily." He shakes his head rubbing the back of his neck. "I uh..." He laughs nervously. "I asked her out the other night. We went to a bar and danced a little. Flirted a lot. But she's... Different."
"Careful. That's my best friend you're talking about." I warn pointing at him.
"Different in a good way." He says grabbing onto my pointed finger and holding it to his chest before letting go. "A weird way, really. I don't see her being my girlfriend or my... Whatever. She's just fun to be around and she clearly doesn't see me in any romantic way."
"Why do you think that?"
"Well, she treats me the same way she treats all of her friends. I've seen her interactions with other male friends and her interactions with men she actually want. I know which category I fall under."
I nod my head in understanding and we fall silent again. The hot Arizona sun shining down onto us and the slight unnoticeable breeze being the only thing keeping us going as we pass the gated duck pond.
"Does Justin treat you well?"
"He does." I say quietly as I watch the ducks in the water flapping around racing to the bird seed being tossed onto the ground surrounding their pond.
"Do you treat him well?"
"I think so."
"You think so?"
"No."
We stop walking and Jake grabs onto my hand as we move over to the park bench beneath a big tree shading us from the sun.
"As a friend, I can talk to you, right?"
"As a friend? Yes." He nods his head.
"Jake, I feel like Justin might just be another you..." I mumble.
"Another me?"
"Another guy I hurt because I'm selfish and can't get over myself long enough to realize how great he is."
"Over yourself or over Tyler?" He asks. "Amari... You don't still have feeling for Tyler, do you? Not after all these years?"
"No. Absolutely not. I don't think so?" I shrug. "Jake, I really do love Justin. More than anything, but I just think we're damaged."
He watches me for a minute as if waiting for me to continue, but nods his head.
"You don't want to go into too much detail. That's fine." He says. "Listen, I don't know the guy, but from what I do know about you and Tyler, I think it's time you moved on. You two were toxic and everyone knew it but you. Hell, you probably knew it and just didn't care."
"But that's weird, right?" I ask. "I spent years being his best friend and we were fine. There was no toxicity and everyone wanted us together, but the minute we got together, everything went to shit."
"I mean, yeah..." He leans back against the bench opening his bag and handing me a once frozen water bottle that was now thawed before pulling out one for himself. "But maybe that's just because you two had different intentions? Tyler wanted no consequences and you wanted something serious. Are you really torn between choosing Tyler or Justin?"
"Choosing? Tyler is married. Not even an option. And I'm with Justin. There's nothing to choose from."
"Amari, if you're just settling for Justin until Tyler becomes available again, don't. Just call it quits and be on your own until you get your chance. It's really not that hard."
"I'm not settling for Justin. I really do love him and I want to be with him." I say. "It's like no one hears me when I speak. I don't love Tyler. I don't want to be with Tyler. I just don't know how to convince Justin of that and I don't know how to let go of the fact that Tyler was my best friend at one point and time. I see what everyone else saw, but I keep convincing myself that he's just misunderstood because I had never been on the receiving end of Tyler's wrath. So I constantly defend him to everyone else and I constantly undermine Justin, but I can't help it. Defending him is like second nature to me!"
"Then why are you working with him if you know all of this?" Jake asks opening his water before drinking some keeping his eyes trained on me.
"Because I'm a professional and it's strictly business." I roll my eyes. "Well, I thought I was professional enough, but even when I realized I probably couldn't handle it, I let my pride get the best of me. Justin was nagging me about dropping the contract and Tyler was being an ass about what would happen if I rushed the construction, so I simply stayed in the deal and tried to steer clear of Tyler but so much came up..."
"Didn't Justin know about your pass before you signed the contract?"
"No. I didn't want to tell him because I didn't need another person on the outside peering in through the windows of Tyler and my's past. And when I finally did tell him, I wasn't completely honest."
"Why not?"
"I tried to preserve his feelings and instead came across as a liar and ruined everything." I begin to rant, but take a deep breath and shake my head. "Sorry. This isn't a therapy session. I shouldn't be putting all of this onto you."
"Amari, it's fine. As a friend, you can rant to me whenever you'd like." Jake shakes his head reaching out to gently touch my arm.
"Thank you, but I really shouldn't." I stand up. "Besides, I have some important phone calls to make Today. I should be heading back home anyway. Thanks for Today."
"Anytime." He smiles standing up as well. "Come on. Let's get you and the baby out of the sun."