“Um, I just need my…” I point to the hook on the wall, and he grabs my jacket. Except he’s not just handing it to me, he’s holding it open to help me put it on. I’m charmed by this gesture, except it means I need to walk over to where he’s standing. It seems safer over here.
Jacob takes a seat on the couch while I turn around to tidy up my apartment and discreetly check that I didn’t leave any underwear on the floor. As I smooth the duvet and fluff the pillows on the bed, I’m hyperaware of his every move, and it leaves me flustered. For most of my life, I just kind of looked past Jacob without really seeing him. But now I can’t seem to stop noticing all the little details of him. The scar on his chin from when Owen crashed into him on a bike in sixth grade. How he ducks his head at first, and then raises his gaze to meet mine. The way his fingers are always tapping out a melody on his leg as if they can’t stop. Does he know he does that?
I’m saved from examining the warmth spreading over me by my brother’s arrival. He flops down on the couch next to Jacob at the same moment my new cat crawls out from under the bed and yells at them.
“Hey, when did you get a cat?” Owen asks.
“A couple of weeks ago.”
Jacob puts his fist down for him to sniff, and the cat pounces on Jacob’s fingers. Jacob smiles and playfully uses his hand to wrestle with the little guy. My cat rolls around on the floor in raptures, then gets up and runs across the room. He pivots, darting back to pounce on Jacob’s shoelace. Jacob lifts his foot so the cat can swat at the dangling string. “What’s his name?”
Despite the fact that I’m deeply devoted to him, I don’t have a name for my furry friend yet. “I don’t know.”
Owen squints at me. “You haven’t named him yet?”
I drop my hands to my hips. “It’s a lot of responsibility, Owen. I’ve been waiting for the perfect name to come along. Something that really captures his personality.”
“Giocoso,” Jacob murmurs, wrestling with the cat again.
“What?”
Jacob looks up. “His personality. Giocoso. It’s a term in music that means ‘playful’ or ‘joyful.’”
I look back and forth between Jacob and the cat. “That’s perfect. I love it. I’ll call him Giocoso, and he can be Gio for short.” True to his new name, Giocoso races back and forth across the room and then pounces on the shoelace again. I glance down at the couch to find Jacob looking at me with sort of a half smile on his face.
“Where did you get him?” Owen asks. We never had pets as kids. Our parents didn’t want the mess or responsibility of caring for creatures besides me and Owen.
“It’s kind of a long story. There’s a café where I’ve been doing some baking. An old lady there gave him to me.”
Jacob looks up. “Mrs. Kaminski?”
“Yeah, how did you know?”
“She calls you Sadie the Cat Lady.”
I guess Jacob did notice Mrs. Kaminski muttering at me that one day. “Yeah, that’s uh… a long story, too.”
Owen looks back and forth between me and Jacob. “Who is this Mrs. Kaminski? And how do you two know her?” I realize this must come as a bit of a surprise to my brother, who has no idea that Jacob and I have even had a conversation when he wasn’t around, other than a bit of small talk at my parents’ house at Thanksgiving.
Jacob ignores Owen’s question, sitting up straight in his seat. “Wait, you’re the new baker at Higher Grounds? Their scones are amazing now.”
I smile shyly. “Thank you.”
Owen shakes his head. “So, you’re baking at some café now? What happened to Xavier’s?”
“I’m still working at Xavier’s.” I turn around to look for my purse. “This is just a side gig.” I returned to Xavier’s for my shift the day after the Rob incident, and nobody seemed to have noticed that I’d taken off early the night before. Xavier hasn’t asked me to help out as a server again, and if he does, I’ll have to fake an illness and go home. Actually, I won’t have to fake it. I will actually be ill.
“Why are you doing this?” Owen asks. “For your Someday Bakery fund?”
“Every bit helps.”
“Well, if you’d let me invest a little, it would help a whole lot faster. And you wouldn’t have to work two jobs.”
I sigh because I am both moved and exasperated by this offer. In the tech world, a guy with Owen’s skills is in high demand, and with all his bonuses and promotions, he’s recently found himself with more money than he knows what to do with. Other than his expensive hoodie habit and penchant for pretentious cocktails, he’s not really a spender. It’s not the first time he’s offered to help me out, but I’d rather bake Twinkies for the rest of my life than take money from Owen. “Thanks, buddy, but I can’t.”
It’s his turn to sigh in exasperation. “Why not?”
“Well, first of all, what would Mom and Dad think if I took my little brother’s savings to fund my cupcake hobby?”
“Who cares what they think?”
I roll my eyes. “Easy for you to say, Golden Boy.”
“Whatever. Work your two jobs, then. Where is this Higher Ground place, anyway?”
“Bedford Avenue,” Jacob says. “Past that liquor store you like.”
“So…” Owen points at Jacob. “You’re hanging out at the café where Sadie is working?”
Jacob shrugs. “They have good coffee.”
I’m not sure what the look Owen gives Jacob is about. It’s sort of an eyeroll and headshake all packed into one. Jacob just shrugs again.
We head out for breakfast at the Buttered Biscuit, Owen’s and my favorite diner. It’s such a dive that even the Brooklyn hipsters don’t ironically hang out there, but the pancakes are thin and crepe-like with crispy, butter-fried edges, and the eggs are perfectly cooked. Growing up, breakfast at Owen’s and my house consisted of sugar-free Muesli with skim milk or low-fat yogurt. So, in adulthood, we’ve both developed a thing for greasy, fried hangover breakfasts, and we try to meet at the Biscuit every month. Despite the fact that I find my little brother generally annoying and gross, I also kind of adore him, so it’s nice to have this time to catch up.
I ask about the robot he’s building at work because I’m still trying to grasp the intricacies of AI and computer vision. Owen eventually gives up trying to explain and tells Jacob and me about an idea he has for a video game design instead. I know as much about video games as I do about robots, but it sounds like a good idea, and Jacob agrees.
Now that I’m paying attention, I notice that Owen and Jacob’s friendship is actually very sweet. Maybe it’s because they’ve known each other since they were nerdy little boys, but there’s none of that manly bro-stuff happening here that I’ve seen with other guys. Alex and his friends might talk about real things that are important to them, but I’ve never witnessed it. Mostly, it’s a lot of shit-talking and one-upping each other.