My Boyfriend Traveled with My Bestie novel · Chapter 3 of 24

Chapter 3: The Lake Thing

Susanna visits her brother Toby, sees a beach-ready duffel and hears the lie about a camping trip; she pays his phone bill for the last time and copies his landlord's contact; leaving, she overhears him on the phone: 'She believes everything.'

On Monday I took the bus to Toby's apartment with a box of his favorite donuts.

He lived on the third floor of a brick building in Fremont, above a laundromat.

I knocked twice and then let myself in with the spare key.

"Sue?" he called from the bedroom. "Give me a sec!"

The living room looked hit by a small storm.

There was a clean duffel bag open on the couch.

Inside it were two swimsuits, a pair of reef sandals and a bottle of sunscreen with the price tag still on.

I set the donuts on the counter and stared at the sunscreen.

It was the kind you only buy for a beach.

Toby came out in a T-shirt and boxers, rubbing his eyes. He was twenty-four and still looked about fifteen when he was surprised.

"You didn't text," he said.

"I brought donuts."

He lit up and grabbed the maple bar, which is how I knew he wasn't going to ask more questions.

"Going somewhere?" I said, nodding at the duffel.

He glanced at it and then at the ceiling.

"Oh, that. Yeah. A few of the guys from work are doing a lake thing for the Fourth."

"A lake thing."

"Camping. Boats. It's not your scene, Sue. There's no bathroom."

He had said that exact sentence before.

It was what he said about Cape Cod, and about Charleston, and about the Disneyland weekend.

I used to laugh and say I hated camping anyway.

"Right," I said. "It's definitely not my scene."

He chewed his donut and looked relieved.

I wanted to grab him by the shoulders.

He was my little brother.

I had taught him to ride a bike in the church parking lot when I was ten and he was seven.

I had cut his hair for prom because he couldn't afford the barber.

I had signed my name as his guarantor on this apartment when he was twenty-two and nobody would rent to him.

I looked at his open, sugary, guilty face and could not find one single word that I was ready to say.

He asked if I was eating enough, and if I was sleeping, and if Colson was treating me right.

He was always good at the questions that cost him nothing.

"I need your landlord's email," I said instead.

He stopped chewing. "Why?"

"The guarantor paperwork renews this summer. I want to get it done before I forget."

"Oh." He shrugged. "Sure. It's on the fridge."

It was a business card held up by a magnet shaped like a pizza.

I took a photo of it with my phone.

"Also," Toby said, wiping sugar off his fingers, "my phone bill came up. Can you cover it this month? I'm a little tight."

His phone was on my family plan.

I had paid for it for three years.

Every month, he was a little tight.

And yet his rent had always been paid on the first, on the dot, without a single late fee.

I had never once asked him how.

I looked at my brother and thought, this is the last one.

"Sure," I said. "I'll take care of it."

"You're the best, Sue."

He hugged me, and for one second he smelled like our old house, like dryer sheets and cheap shampoo.

I held on.

Then I let go.

"Have fun at the lake," I said.

"Yeah. Thanks. I will."

I picked up my bag and walked into the hallway.

I was waiting for the elevator when I heard his phone buzz inside the apartment.

The door hadn't latched.

I heard him answer in a low, easy voice, the one he never used with me.

"Yeah, she just left," Toby said. "She's fine. Relax."

A pause.

"No, she believes everything. She didn't even ask about the duffel."

The elevator dinged.

I stood very still with my hand on the strap of my bag.

Then I stepped inside, pressed the button for the lobby and didn't look back.

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