Chapter 6: Dean

I smiled at the welcoming smell of food as soon as I walked inside the house. I wandered straight to the kitchen and loved the sight of my brother Dean armed with a spoon in hand, a potholder on the other and armored with the bright pink apron with an apple design.

"Sit down now, dear sister, for this will surely be up in a minute and prepare yourself for the battle of tastes inside your mouth", he said not even turning around to look at me. But instead of following his bidding, putting my things at the empty chair, I stood beside him and inhaled at the aroma of his cooking. Between the two of us, he was the better cook, I swore on our parents' grave, he loves nothing more than to invent and experiment different taste and food which of course I loved very much with my body and soul for I was born as the human tester of every food he could ever made. I could even bet on the flavors of them.

"What is it this time?", I happily asked him.

"I am not going to explain another recipe to you again but I will tell you the name of this dish after I thought about it. Here, have a taste", he carefully scooped a small amount of sauce from the pan, blow it coll for me and finally pointed it on my mouth. This guy was the sweetest thing ever and I love him.

"How is it?"

"The best", I raised two thumbs on him and he chuckled instructing me to set the table so we could eat. Though the both of us were very much capable of being independent, we chose to not live apart and it became a tradition for the two of us to have dinner and breakfast together whenever we could.

We prayed first and started eating casually sharing any topic under the sun. When we finished eating dinner, he returned waiting for his pizza for our movie night later while I did the dishes.

We decided to watch some episode marathon of "Blindspot" after I changed into my pajamas and we hanged out on the living room eating pizza.

"So, how's work today? Anything interesting yet after having a new boss?", he asked taking another big bite but still staring at the TV. My shoulder slumped remembering and analyzing my formulated strategy about telling him the trouble I called "Seth".

And as usual, being the closest person I have, he noticed the sudden change in me, he noticed my sudden silence and moved his eyes from what we were watching to my own set of identical sense of sight. His casual movement of his jaw and lips from chewing his food became slower, now, I had his full attention to me and it was making me nervous. He was two years older than me but he often took care of me like a father I missed and the mother I've longed for. He gave his all taking care of me and giving me everything I needed and the least that I could do was to not keep secrets from him especially when they were important.

That's the thing we agreed upon learning from our past mistake. Once, we had this fight and misunderstanding and it led to something really drastic and horrible. And from then on, we agreed on having an open communication like best of friends.

"I have to tell you something", I started and I was not really having a hard time informing him about my first love coming back to town, being my new boss, but I was thinking about his reaction and the aftermath for sure would be him trying to talk to me to into leaving the company and finding a new job and honestly, I just don't want that. Not now.

"About my new boss...", he remained silent waiting for every word I would reveal.

"Remember Seth?"

His forehead creased trying to get himself familiar with the name. When I did not get any sign that he recognized him, I took a deep breath and continued.

"The first and only boyfriend I've ever had. The one who left without any word. No explanation. No goodbye or just a simple bye. Remember him? Seth Esguerra?", his face fell onto the identification of who I was talking about and completely dropped his pizza on his plate, folding his muscled arms across his chest. And I always thought that he could definitely get any girl he wanted with his looks and muscles, he had this image of the town's bad boy with his tattoos running along his left arm, but the people who knew him would laugh at the social accusation.

"What about him?", his voice was sounding too calm for my liking and I knew he knew what I was trying to say.

"He's the new boss. He bought the biggest share on the company but promise I was more than surprised than anyone. I-I didn't know he will be there", I mumbled under my breath.

"Did he do something to you?", I could see his whole demeanor morphed into the "big brother" any guy would run away from.

"No. I mean, nothing. Aside from setting rules"

"Nothing yet? Really?", I nodded, hesitating while doing so and his eyes turned into slits. So I had no other choice but tell him what happened on the office this whole day.

And the moment the last word of my story was out of my mouth, he stood grabbing his can of beer from the coffee table, gulped a good one and muttered something on himself which was I didn't understand.

"Just leave fucking company, A", his nickname for me sounded sweet but the way he swore loudly like a thunder booming across the living room made me cringe.

"Sorry", he said realizing his mistake, "But seriously, leave. Find another job or we could put up our own small business and try it on our own", I knew it.

"I can't"

"Why? Still in love with that... sorry for the word but I will call him bastard", I giggled despite him being angry. Standing and reaching for his hand, I smiled sweetly.

"I am not in love with him anymore. That's the naive girl in the past and I'm all grown up now. I just can't leave because you know how grateful we are with the owner and they still are believing that I am the perfect one fit for the job of guiding and helping the new CEO. I don't want to let them down when they've help us so much", I displayed my puppy eyes and he pouted his lips pulling me in for the hug.

"I just can't let you have that kind of pain again. One of the worst feeling is being betrayed and what he did is another form of it. He broke your heart and no one is allowed to break my baby sister's heart", his whisper on my ear warmed my heart like always.

"He can't do that again. I won't let him again"

Are you really sure? Something inside me contradicted. And I remembered how I reacted and have been affected by him earlier and I know very well how I deserved a slap on both of my cheeks for behaving that way.

"Of course he can't because my little sister is strong, but always remember that men are men, they are vicious and drastic creatures so you have to be always on guard but don't worry, just tell big brother of he will even look at you in the slightest wrong way and I will teach him the lesson his teachers in school failed to give him, 'kay?", I nodded feeling his kiss on the top of my head before pulling us apart from our sibling moment.

"I trust you, A but know that I'm still not fully agreeing to this"

We went back to watching some TV show.

I wish I could trust myself that way, too.