"HENRY IS DATING AS WELL."
She chuckled, "So, you really was the uncle one, hm? The eldest. The only single out of the five. They must have mocked you so much."
I rolled my eyes annoyed, "I stayed single by choice. But yes, they did. Although they were always on my toes for it." Then I grinned mischievously at her, "And you can't say much, you hypocrite. Out of your 9 siblings you are also the single one. And opposite to me, you are a aunt already."
Thays blushed and played with her hair, "I'm the richest aunt, okay? The kids love me and my presents."
"Still the single one," I mocked back.
"Also by choice. And it's not my fault, okay?! I'm sapiosexual. I only feel attracted to intelligent people, which is quite hard. Besides, I didn't want a boyfriend, I like to be single," she avoided my eyes again. "So, who is Henry dating?"
"Nishiyama Sakura. Japanese-Australian. Her mom is from Sydney, while her father is from Tokyo. Moved to New Zealand in the second year of highschool, she's a year older than him. But they only began to talk in college, although she's a Law student. They met and straight up flirted, liked each other, and began dating. So, they have been together for a little more than two years now."
"I see that two of your brother's prefer older girls. New Zealand, Canada, India, Japan, Australia. You all being half British and half Welsh. Well, your family is going to be quite the mixed bunch, hm? And will all of their girlfriends and boyfriend's families go to the private Island on the holiday too?"
Waiting until the next red light, I turned to her, "Yes. All of them will be there. It'll be a lot. Although none of them have as many siblings as you do!" I chuckled. "You win on that."
She blushed, "How big are their families?"
"Nithya's family is as big as yours," she seemed surprised. "Her parents, her four younger sisters of 23, 22, 20 and 19 years old, and her youngest brother who's 12 years old. Only the 23-year-old dates a med-student who's her age. Then there's her father's only younger brother and his wife, plus daughter. Her mom's older sister, her husband, and her twin sons who are 15. Her mom's youngest sister, her husband, her 19-year-old daughters who are triplets, and her two youngest son's who are also twins and 9 years old. 22 at total."
Thays grinned victoriously, "I still won. Really close, but I won." She's as competitive as I am, that's another thing that we always fought about. But I confess it's incredibly charming. "Well, I expected it to be a big family, since Indians usually all have big families."
"True. Well, comparing Nithya's family to Emma's you can see a big difference. Emma is the oldest daughter of a family with four boys. They are 23, 20, 19, and 17. All single. Then there's her parents. Without her, they are only 6."
"Also the oldest!"
I nodded, "Yeah."
"What about Ethan's Canadian boyfriend?"
"Bradley's family is made of his parents, his two younger twin sisters who are 17, and his older brother who's 32. Plus his brother's wife, and no kids yet. His only uncle, his wife, and their 19 year-old son. 8 without him."
She pressed her lips together, "And Sakura's?"
"Only daughter. Her parents, maternal e paternal grandparents. No uncle or aunt. 4 at total. 5 with her."
That seemed to amuse her, "Great. I still won."
"My only sibling-in-law who has a big family is Nithya. They are very energetic and proactive, you will see. Already planning how will Luke and Nithya's marriage be in the future. It's quite funny, because they always get embarrassed for it."
"14 with you. 23 with Nithya, 7 with Emma, 8 with Bradley, 5 with Sakura. 57 at total. What about your cousins?" She clenched her jaw softly and avoided my eyes.
"4 in-laws from Arwyn. 11 in-laws from Madoc!" I made sure to keep it short, not to make her uncomfortable with Nicole.
"72 then. Now adding the other 26 with me, it'll be 98 people," she gasped, staring at me. "Is there anyone else to come?"
"My two best friends. Teodor Mescovici, born in Romania, moved to France at 7 and was raised there. I met him on Yale, and he's a business lawyer. 2 years older than me, so he's 30. And Daniel Vidal, born and raised in Spain, and I also met him in Yale. He's a civil engineer. A year older than me, so he's 29. They date each other since I met them, and got married two years ago."
"100 people then. Damn, that's a lot," she seemed genuinely concerned. "It'll almost be like acting in a theater by this amount of people who will be there."
"Apprehensive?" I asked as I stopped on the last red light before arriving in the building.
"Just slightly anxious," sigh. "200 books. 200 books. It's more than 200 books," she mumbled. "It'll be worthy. More than 200 books will be worth all of this."
And we stayed in silence until we reached the underground garage of our building and I parked on my place. Getting out of the car, I went to her door and opened for her, but didn't let her get off. "Thays?" I called feeling bothered since the lunch.
"Yes?"
"Do you have any eating disorder?"
She turned pale and her eyes widened, and her lips were pressed on a thin line, "Excuse me?" Thays growled suddenly on the defensive.
"You mom… she mentioned it yesterday and today," I held her chin and made her look at me, but her eyes were full of hostility. "Thays, I need to know. That's definitely something I need to know."
Avoiding my eyes, she pushed me away with all her strength and jumped from my car. "We should stop here, Vaughn-Solomon!"
I arched my eyebrows, "What?"
Still not looking at my face, she took her bag and phone, "We need to draw another linha, Aaron. Let's not get attached to each other, that's a recipe for desastre. So, don't mind my business and I won't mind yours," oh, she definitely has something going on, and for some reason I felt like panicking. "Do not ask me such invasive questions. It's not because nós nos beijamos that we are intimate. Let's not lose ourselves on this facade." When she finally turned to me, she had her jaw strongly clenched, "Do not, for even a second, esqueça that this is all fake. Nada will happen between us, so, do not butt in minha vida further than you already had. Lying like this to my família is already too much. Opening up with… you, is definitivamente out of the list!"
Seems like I touched a sore point accidentally. "Thays," I tried to get closer but she stepped away from me.
"We made a mistake today. That won't happen again, okay? Desculpa for starting it. So, don't get in my way and I won't get on yours. I don't want you getting even more envolvido in minha família than you already are and will have to be because of our deal. Don't worry, when we need, I'll act accordingly, as we agreed on. But let's refrain from anything other than that. We aren't adolescentes anymore, we can control our hormones for the rest of the month!" Then she turned around in the direction of the stairs. "Take all of that to your apartment, as we agreed on. I don't have espaço sobrando on mine." Seems like she shifts to her native language more when she's shaken.
And just like that, she left.
Leaving me here, beyond dumbfounded.