“Gabriel’s staying for movie night!” Victoria announces as we walk into the kitchen.
“Awesome!” Alanna says, eyeing me speculatively. “I’ll get started on my famous Sangria.”
“I must be a lucky man,” I muse. “I get Victoria’s famous Chilli Mac, and your famous Sangria all in one night.”
“Well, it is true that everything we do is quite famous.” Alanna laughs. “But Toto is much more talented than I. I can only do drinks whereas she does actual food making things.”
“Toto?”
Alanna and Victoria look at each other and smile.
“It’s what Alanna calls me,” Victoria explains. “Kind of an inside joke. One night when she was drunk, she told me that she thought my name was too long and that I needed a nickname.”
“But not Vicki, because that just doesn’t suit her,” Alanna adds.
“So she started calling me Tori, and then Tor Tor. As she got drunker, she started slurring her words, and pretty soon it just sounded like Toto. So ever since then, it’s what she calls me.”
“I see.” I stare down at Victoria. “Well, I like her name, I think it’s beautiful.”
“You got that right.” Alanna winks.
“I’ll get the tv ready,” Trevor chimes in. “Where are the disks?”
Victoria shoots Alanna a panicked look and then glances at me nervously.
“Uh…” Alanna moves in front of the rentals she already has on the counter. “I couldn’t find what I was looking for at the shop, so can you just go through our movies and pick something good out?”
“Lame,” Trevor grumbles as he walks toward the tv. “I was really looking forward to my reality tv fix.”
***
We spend the night in front of the tv watching Team America. Victoria’s curled into my lap on one end of the couch, and I have to admit, it’s nice. The apartment is small and seedy, but it’s cozy. For the first time in a long time, I actually feel relaxed. Trevor and Alanna talk in funny voices the whole movie and don’t even mind when I kiss Victoria occasionally. I’m glad I decided to come here. This is what I needed, to be around normal people. To be around her. Wherever she is that’s where I want to be.
Chapter Five
Victoria
It’s past ten when we say goodnight and head back to my bedroom. Gabriel sits down on the bed, looking a little lost again. I still can’t believe he’s here, just hanging out with my friends. I’m happy, but something is obviously bothering him, and I don’t know what it is.
“Do you want me to stay?” he asks.
His expression is one of hope and sadness, and it tears me up inside. I can only imagine how lonely he must get in his apartment by himself.
“Of course I do,” I say, sitting down beside him. “I always want you to stay. You have superior fucking skills, but truthfully it’s your cuddling skills I’m really after.”
He gives me a soft smile and lays back on the bed, pulling me along with him. My head falls back on his chest, and he wraps his arms around me, holding me tight.
When I glance up at him, his brow is furrowed, his mind in a faraway place again. The sadness from earlier has returned to his face, and I squeeze him tighter in an effort to comfort him.
After our shower, I felt closer to him than ever, and I wondered if he felt it too. There was something there between us, and it wasn’t just sex. A part of me wants him to know that, so I decide to put myself out there, letting him know in my own small way.
“Gabriel…” I begin cautiously, “I don’t like seeing you so upset. Please talk to me.”
He looks down at me, searching my eyes. I don’t know what he’s looking for, but I can tell he is struggling with whatever it is.
“I want to help you,” I plead. “In any way that I can, even if it’s just listening. And whatever it is, you can trust me.”
He closes his eyes, his expression pained as he releases a shaky breath. I thread my fingers through his and wait patiently, knowing I can’t push him.
“This time of year is always hard for me,” he says. “This day, actually… April 1st. Every year my family gets together and spends the day sailing. It’s kind of ridiculous, considering that we try our best to avoid our parents during the rest of the year. But we do it for my brother Parker because that was his favorite thing to do.”
He pauses for a moment, scrubbing a hand over his face as he laughs dryly.
“Now that I think about it, he only ever went once, so I don’t know how it could have been his favorite thing to do. But I guess it was his favorite memory. We were all still young then, the four of us. My parents had planned one of their vacations without us. But the nanny got sick and they couldn’t find anyone at such short notice. They refused to let us spoil their fun, so they took us along with them. It was the only family trip we’d ever went on together.”