Stephan(20)
“He wasn’t chatting me up.”
“Yes he was.”
“Well he spoke to me first. I was busy admiring your kitchen.”
“You like the kitchen?”
“I love your kitchen. It’s like my dream kitchen. Baking and cooking is my thing. I like making things.” I’d learned at a young age the best way to stretch money was to make everything yourself. I borrowed every cookbook they had at my local library.
“Is that what you are going to do when you finish school? Become a chef?”
“No. I’m going to go to Uni. I want to become a kindergarten teacher or group leader at a childcare center. I love kids. They are so much fun.”
We were quiet again and I continued looking through his iPod til I found a group I liked and plugged it in, filling the car with tunes.
“Aren’t you going to ask what I’m doing after school?”
I didn’t want to know any more about Stephan. I was already having trouble resisting him. My guard crumbled last night and I needed to keep it up around him.
“What are you going to do?” I couldn’t help myself, as much as I didn’t want to. Stephan seemed to be my kryptonite.
“I’m glad you asked.” I could hear the happiness in his voice. “I’m going to go to Uni to study business. When I’m done I’m going to work with my dad. My goal is to take over when he retires.”
“What does your Dad do?”
“A bit of everything. He owns a bunch of apartment and commercial buildings and he rents them out. He also owns some fast food chains around Australia. Plus he is a big investor.”
“Sounds like he is into a bit of everything and I’m sure he runs them all differently. Will the business course be enough?”
“I’ll learn from my dad and uncles. My brother, Dustan, did it too, but he ended up moving to America to help run things there.”
“You never mentioned Dustan before. I didn’t even know you had an older brother until Cassie told me.”
Stephan shrugged. “Dustan is eight years older than us. Mum had some problems conceiving again after Dustan. They were about to look into IVF when Mum found out she was pregnant with us. The rest as they say is history.”
“You don’t want to go to America?”
“I like visiting, but I don’t want to live there.”
“Does Derick want to do the same thing as you?”
“Nope. Derick wants to be an architect. He’s awesome at sketching. He already has plans drawn up for his house. Mum and Dad have said we can build on our part of the land once we graduate from school. Mine is to the left of the main house and Derick’s is to the right. Dustan has a huge section next to mine. I don’t have a design for mine yet. I want my wife to help me with it since we’ll both be living in it.” He glanced at me and I turned away looking back out the window.
I was surprised he and his brother were so organized. I didn’t expect him to have his life so planned out. “Where are your parents?”
“They’re in their apartment in Melbourne. Dad’s closing on a deal but they’ll be back by Wednesday.”
They had an apartment in Melbourne? The more I learned the more I found out they were richer than I could ever imagine. I was so out of my element. I was the poor little girl with the druggie mother who died of an overdose and a grandpa who sells drugs and owns a shitty little dive bar, even if I was interested in Stephan he was way too good for me. I sat quietly and focused on the scenery.
“What’s your favorite color? Mine’s orange. I like the orange as it covers the sky at dusk.”
He kept surprising me. Who knew he would like orange for that reason. “Blue.” Wait, no it wasn’t, I loved pink like a girly-girl, why had I said blue? Stephan smiled. Ah, as I looked into those eyes I knew exactly why I’d said blue. “Blue like the deep ocean.”
“What’s your favorite thing to do? Mine is to play sports. I like staying active.”
I remembered rugby practice. Yeah, I liked sports too, at least I did if it involved seeing the Silverman brothers shirtless. “Watching a storm. I like sitting on a chair with a blanket and watching lightning crack across the sky. I used to do it all the time with Mum. It was the only thing we bonded over.” One of my positive memories of her—the two of us sitting on chairs snuggling together and watching the skies. I closed my eyes and let the memories bombard me.
“I didn’t mean to make you cry. I just wanted to get to know you better.”
I touched my cheek, and was surprised to feel the wetness. I didn’t realize I’d started crying. “You didn’t make me cry. You made me think of some really good things me and Mum did together. Thank you for being so sweet.”