Free When Love Breaks by Kate Squires

“She was pretty and popular. I didn’t know why she was interested in me.” I snort, still not understanding her logic.
    “It’s not hard to figure out,” she says, as she climbs off the countertop. I look at her sincere face then quickly back at my hands. She folds her legs in and sits across from me on the floor.
    “Thanks, but you have no idea what I was like back then. I was this clumsy, wannabe jock. There was nothing special about me, other than the fact that I was Michael’s brother.” I look at her again. “Michael was a very popular football star. Me, not so much. I tried my hardest, but I was never as good as his reputation.”
    Her eyebrows lift slightly. I’m sure she doesn’t mean it, but I know that look well.
    “I’m so sorry, but I’m sure you were good at lots of other things.”
    I scoff. “Yeah. I was good at being put into the friend zone . I like you as a friend, Logan. You’re such a good friend,” I say in a faux female voice. “I heard that line dozens of times.”
    “Your ex didn’t do that.”
    “No. She didn’t. Although, I wish she had,” I mutter under my breath.
    She reaches out and covers my hand with hers. I stiffen, taken by surprise, and immediately, look at her again. She’s much more beautiful at eye level. Her sweet smile is warm and inviting. It calls to me to continue, though I’m not sure why she’d want to hear any of this. But, before I can, the phone rings, breaking the spell, and I’m relieved to halt this conversation.
    “Would you mind getting that? You’ll be quicker than I would,” I say, pointing out the obvious.
    She nods and goes off to grab the phone. When she comes back, she hands it to me.
    “Hello?”
    “Hey, douchebag,” Michael says. “Was that Elora who answered the phone?” I can almost hear his cheesy grin.
    “None of your business. What do you want?” I look up to see a look of concern on Elora’s face, so I tone down my irritation. “I mean, do you need something?”
    “Sheesh! She must be standing close enough to overhear you, eh?” He laughs, and I want to reach through the phone and punch him.
    “What can I do for you, Michael?”
    “Nothing. I just wanted to let you know I’m getting off early today. I should be home around four o’clock, so I’ll finally get to meet the elusive Elora.”
    I almost audibly snarl at him.
    “Great. Thanks for letting me know. I’ll talk to you later.”
    I don’t even give him the chance to respond before hanging up on him and reach up to place the phone on the counter. I look up at her, and she abruptly looks away, pretending she wasn’t watching me. I clear my throat.
    “That was my brother,” I say.
    “Oh,” she says.
    “He’ll be home earlier than usual tonight, so you can leave early too.”
    “Um, okay…although, I could stay if you’d like.”
    “No,” I say a bit too quickly. “It’s fine. We have plenty of food left over from yesterday’s dinner. You can go as early as three o’clock, if that’s okay.”
    She nods, but her expression tells me I need to lighten the mood, so I say the first random thing I can think of.
    “When my brother and I were kids, we had a cat we named Dammit. My mother and stepfather didn’t approve, but to spite her, my father let us do it. We’d go around the neighborhood yelling, ‘Dammit’ everywhere we went. When another parent would question us, we’d just say we were calling our cat.”
    She giggles.
    “You’re kidding?”
    “Nope, I’m not.”
    “Boys will be boys, I guess,” she says, shaking her head slightly.
    “Yeah,” I chuckle.
    “Well, you’ll be pleased to hear that my cat’s name was Tornado…for the same reason.” She smirks at me, but it takes me a few seconds to catch on.
    “Was it really?” She smiles and nods. “So, you’d go around yelling ‘ Tornado ’ when you were looking for your cat?”
    “Yep. At first, my neighbors looked at me weird, but they got used to it. It was great fun