“Is that him?”

“Yes, it is,” she said without offering more.

“Kind of ballsy, no?”

“Mm,” she said. “Well, I made fun of him for not having a Facebook, so I think this is his way of trying to catch up quickly. Maybe socking it to me a little.”

She wasn’t sure why she was trying to justify Leonardo’s actions. It just felt so good after meeting him and telling Sydney about it that maybe this relationship with her brother would finally at least begin to feel normal. Even her mom seemed pleased with how Sarah told her things had gone. She didn’t want Leonardo’s lack of creativity or “ballsyness” when commenting on her photos ruining the momentum in trust both Angel and Sydney were beginning to show.

“Yeah, but—”

“Social media is new to him apparently,” Sarah said a little too haughtily, so she toned it down. “Obviously, he’s not up on the etiquette. Maybe he doesn’t even know that everyone else can see his comments or something.”

All right maybe that was a stretch, but it wouldn’t be unheard of. Her mother was a perfect example, and Valerie was right. God knows she regretted creating a Facebook page for her mom last year. Sarah would now be removing that comment, one she’d obviously missed when doing a clean sweep last year when she first let her mom run amuck on Facebook. The woman commented on every one of her photos. She even had something to say about the inside jokes Sarah posted to her status.

Sydney was quiet for a moment, and she wished to hell she didn’t know him so well, because she knew he wasn’t buying it.

“Okay,” she conceded as she removed her mom’s comment and skimmed through her photos to see if she’d missed any other of her mother’s embarrassing comments. “Maybe I’ll have to give him a quick and dirty lesson on the do’s and don’ts of social media like I had to do with my mom. What he commented wasn’t so bad,” she said even as she hid a few of Leo’s “beautiful” comments and the one of him agreeing with her mom.

Angel wouldn’t even get it at this point since she’d deleted her mom’s comment. Even if he did notice, which was highly unlikely, Angel wasn’t a big fan of Facebook. As much as she’d made fun of Leonardo, Angel was just as bad about social media. But at least Angel had had an account for over a year now. He just didn’t get on there much. Still, she wanted to avoid any unnecessary conflict.

Just then an instant message popped up on her screen.

Leonardo: I wish we’d taken photos. I could’ve added them to my Facebook page. Next time I see you, we’ll have to take a few.

Crap!

He was going to be like her mom. The thing was, even if Angel didn’t check his Facebook frequently, she often had the page wide open on her laptop when Angel was around. She had nothing to hide from him and still didn’t, except maybe some innocent comments that could be interpreted as inappropriate. Not wanting to start bad habits and have Leonardo think she’d respond immediately to his Facebook messages, she decided she wouldn’t until later that evening.

Sydney agreed that giving him a heads up about how everyone can see what he’d commented on and that people tagged in photos would automatically be notified was a good idea.

She and Sydney spoke for another half hour with Sydney giving her a little more insight on his new roommate, his job, and some of the people he’d met so far out in Los Angeles. Sarah was glad but not surprised that Sydney had settled in quite nicely. What she was surprised about was how final his breakup with Carina was. She hadn’t asked in a while, so she decided to now.

“Sydney, so things are really over with you and Carina? You two don’t even talk or text?”

“Nope,” Sydney said coldly. “I called her once only because I’d heard she’d taken the semester off. I was worried about her. She assured me she was fine, that she just needed to take a breather from everything so she’d taken the semester off but would be back to school in January.”

Sarah couldn’t even imagine the heartache Carina must be going through. Well, she could. She’d lived through thinking it was really over between her and Angel once, but they’d been together less than six months when that happened. After all these years together, she’d be devastated if he suddenly dumped her just like that.

“And you’d tell me the truth if you were still hurting about this in any way, right? It’s okay to miss her, you know. You two were together for a long time.”

“I do miss her, Lynn,” he said to her surprise. “I miss her a lot. But what I don’t miss are the arguments. The constant tension and stress from all the bickering was just such a life suck. Seriously, as much as I miss her, I’m so much more at peace now. I’m good; don’t worry.”

After hanging up, she jumped in the shower and then worked on her paper for a while. She was glad after a few hours she’d made a major dent in it. Her phone rang just as she walked into the kitchen. “Of course,” she muttered, rushing back to her room. She caught it just in time and was relieved since it was Angel.

“Hey, babe,” she said with a big smile as she started back to the kitchen.

It was the weirdest thing. On any given day when she wasn’t around him all day because he was at work and then practice or whatever not seeing him all day, she didn’t feel so bad. Now, knowing he was so far away and would be for days, she missed him terribly after only few hours.