My Brother Gave Her My Place, So I Stopped Coming Home novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: You Can Find Your Own Ride
The family car is gone and the calendar says Janie has it. Sasha walks into the client meeting and takes back her chair, and a calendar ping says her room has been reassigned too.
The car wasn't there.
At 8:40 I was standing on my parents' porch with my laptop bag and the Beacon House drawings rolled into a tube.
The black SUV Dad keeps for client days should have been at the curb.
I had booked it on the family calendar four days ago and checked it again last night.
I opened the app.
My entry was still there: Sasha, Beacon House site walk, 9:00, SUV.
Right under it, added at 7:52 that morning, was a second one.
Janie, Beacon House, 9:00, SUV.
The pencil icon said my brother had made the booking.
I called him.
He answered on the second ring, with an engine behind him and a woman laughing in the passenger seat.
"Where are you?" I asked.
"Almost at the highway. Dad moved Janie onto Beacon yesterday. She's presenting at nine."
"Beacon is my project. Kirk Rask is expecting me."
"Kirk's going to get a great presentation," Dylan said. "You can find your own ride, Sasha."
He hung up.
The front door opened behind me.
Mom came out in her robe with a travel mug and the smile she wears when something is already decided.
"Oh, honey, Dylan told me. It's only one morning."
"Janie has had a terrible year, and you're the one who can handle anything."
She put the mug in my hand and kissed my cheek.
The coffee had exactly the amount of honey I like.
"Take a car service," Dad called from the kitchen. "Put it on the firm card."
He didn't come to the door, and he didn't call me kiddo.
He had called me kiddo since I was four. Sometime this spring he stopped, and I never asked why.
"Mom, did anyone think to ask me first?"
"We knew you'd understand," she said, and went back inside.
I booked a car service from the porch.
It came in twelve minutes, and the highway was jammed all the way downtown.
Janie had lived in our guest room since May, when her mother died.
Mom called her family. I called her sweet and quiet, and I liked her.
Last week she had asked me for the Beacon schedule and what Kirk takes in his coffee, so she could help.
I had sent both with a smiley face.
In the back seat, my phone buzzed.
Janie: "Sasha, I'm SO sorry about the car!!! Dylan said you were fine with it. Your drawings are the only reason I'm not throwing up. I'll make it up to you, I swear."
Under it was a coffee cup and a heart.
Then the family group chat lit up.
Dylan had posted a video. Janie stood at the head of a long table in a blazer I had never seen, smiling at the camera.
Dylan's caption said: "Our girl's big day!"
Mom answered with three hearts.
Dad answered, "That's my kiddo. So proud of you."
I read it twice.
Then I put my phone face down on the seat and watched Vine Street come up the window.
Beacon House has brass doors that I had spent a year talking Kirk out of painting.
I could see the whole lobby through them.
Kirk's project team sat on one side of the table. Janie sat at the head, in my seat, with a printed name card in front of her.
Dylan stood behind her, filming.
I pushed the doors open.
"Sasha!" Janie was on her feet. "Oh, thank God. Everyone, this is the one who drew all of it. I just carry the tubes."
She hugged me, hard, with a coffee in her free hand.
It was oat milk. It was the right order.
Kirk stood up at the far end of the table.
"Ms. Klingenberg," he said. "We were about to start without you."
"Janie's leading today," Dylan said. "Dad signed off."
"Dad isn't my architect," Kirk said.
I picked up the name card.
Janie Lang, Lead Designer.
"Who printed this?"
"I did," Dylan said. "Sasha, not in front of the client."
"In front of the client is fine," Kirk said.
I set the card face down in front of my brother.
"Janie, I'm sorry," I said. "This is my meeting. Can I have the head of the table?"
"Of course!" She moved at once, and pulled her chair out for me.
Dylan lowered his phone.
I ran the walk-through, all nine floors, with Kirk beside me and my brother behind us not saying a word.
None of it went into the family chat.
At noon I was back in the cab, and the app buzzed in my hand.
A new entry, added by Dylan at 11:48.
Moving day: Sasha's room to Janie, 4:00 p.m. Sasha's things to the garage.
I looked at it for a long time.
Then I told the driver to take me to the hotel on Fourth Street instead.
I wasn't going home tonight.
Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend