Page 63 of All That We Are Together
“It’s not true!” I shouted. “I went to bed late.”
Everyone got up to say hi, starting with Bega and ending with Axel, who was the last one to come over and give me a kiss on the cheek.
Then I took my usual seat. Next to him. In front of my brother. While Georgia set out the plates and pushed everyone to eat more, I thought about the discomfort that might await us, because it was the first time Axel and I had been together in my brother’s presence since he found out about us. But Oliver didn’t look tense, he wasn’t tapping his fingers on the tablecloth; instead he was calm, with one arm around the back of Bega’s chair.
“Couldn’t sleep?” he asked.
“You must have been nervous,” Bega said.
I nodded and grabbed a roll. I couldn’t help but feel strange sitting next to Axel in front of his family, my family, ours. If I didn’t know him so well, I’d think he was invulnerable, as usual, but it wasn’t true; I could see how stiffly he was moving.
“Oliver, what we’re all asking ourselves is”—Axel looked at my brother with a mischievous smile on his lips—“how the hell did you manage to trick this woman into agreeing to marry you?”
Daniel laughed despite Georgia’s sour expression, and Justin did the same as he picked at his salad. Oliver smiled back at Axel. There was something in that silence full of words only the two of them could perceive that moved me.
“If I’m honest with you…no fucking idea.”
Bega nudged him sweetly.
“He’s gentler than he looks,” she said.
“I know. A true gentleman, this one.” Axel swallowed the bite of food in his mouth. “You want to hear some stories from when he was a kid? I could go on for days.”
“Axel, drop it.” Oliver tried to kick him under the table, but he missed. And in a way, it was like they were boys again, the same two who’d promised they’d never separate before they even knew what that meant. “I know some shit about you too,” he warned.
Georgia exclaimed, “Young man, watch your mouth!”
It was funny to watch my brother look straight down into his plate, even if he was now far from a young man.
“Don’t leave me hanging,” Bega said.
“A woman who knows what she wants. I like that,” Axel said.
“I’ve got the dirt on both of them,” Justin said malevolently. “Those two little angels there, Bega, have been arrested no fewer than three times. Twice for being plain idiots.”
“Cool!” Max and Connor said in unison.
“What?” Georgia brought her hand to her chest.
Justin looked at Axel and raised his eyebrows.
“Mom didn’t know?”
“We didn’t want to upset her,” Daniel added, but then turned meek when his wife glared at him as if ready to tear off his head. “Honey, it was for your own good. Douglas and I thought it was best. And we did chew them out for it, didn’t we, son?”
“You bet you did. I still remember it today.”
Axel frowned when his mother got up to take some plates to the kitchen and Daniel scurried after her. Then he bent over and whispered to Bega:
“Actually we got arrested for fighting, they bailed us out, and we were out with them all night until dawn.”
Bega and I laughed to ourselves while Oliver smiled, apparently remembering that day as he stared at Axel. When the elder Nguyens were back at the table, we returned to less controversial topics like the exhibition, Oliver and Bega’s life in Sydney, and their plans for the near future.
“You haven’t considered moving here?”
My brother seemed uncomfortable with Georgia’s question.
“It’s complicated. Work, you know. Bega is director of the company, her role’s important, and she has a ton of responsibilities.”