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“So,” Reid prompted, looking a little more awake with the delicious scents wafting through the restaurant, “when are you seeing your family?”

“I was thinking about going tomorrow evening,” I said with a smile. “Vitoria has classes until late in the afternoon anyway.”

“Do we have anything scheduled for tomorrow?” she asked, dragging her fingers through her hair. “You mentioned we have an early start.”

I frowned. Reid didn’t look up for much else than a late morning and an uneventful day.

“No, I got my days mixed up,” I lied, making a mental note to reschedule our remote meeting with a new startup. “We can rest up tomorrow and go sightseeing on Saturday. What do you think?”

“I think that sounds marvel- oh my God, that smells amazing.”

The waiter set Reid’s food down in front of her with a smile and she immediately started eating.

“Obrigada,” I told him.

We ate in relative silence, the only sounds coming from our forks on the plate. I wouldn’t admit to anyone that my first dish on Brazilian soil was a carbonara of all things. But it was easy and tasted good, and I didn’t have the energy to truly savor anything else.

Reid swallowed the last of her own pasta and groaned in satisfaction.

“Better?” I asked.

“Once I sleep for the next ten years, I’ll be twenty years younger,” she chuckled.

I rolled my eyes at her.

Reid always said that a decade of sleep was the only cure to most things in life, and on nights like tonight, I was inclined to agree.

“If I slept for ten years I wouldn’t get to see my family tomorrow.”

“True.” She nodded, sobering up a little. “Does she know about the marriage? Your mom?”

I shook my head. “I only told my sister.” I sighed. “My mom is really old school. It was enough that I came out early on in life, I don’t think springing a marriage on her like this would be a good idea.”

“Then we should probably take the rings off when we visit her tomorrow.”

I nodded absently before the words dropped into my subconscious like tiny pebbles in a pond.

Plunk plunk plunk!

“You want to meet my family?” I asked, warmth crawling up my neck.

Reid blinked once before realization crept over her face.

“I didn’t mean- obviously only if you’re okay with that?” she said quickly, her cheeks turning bright pink, and I blamed the fatigue. The alternative was too much to consider just then. “You’ve always talked about them. I feel like I know them already.”

“I’d actually love that,” I admitted, hoping my voice didn’t betray the tiny flutter in my chest.

Without an alarm to drag us out of bed, we both woke up a little after ten in the morning.

I’d booked adjacent rooms on the top floor after Reid refused to stay in a penthouse suite in a nearby hotel.

“How am I going to experience Brazil if I’m stuck in the lap of luxury?” she’d joked.

I didn’t have the heart to tell her that our rooms cost more than what most people made in a year.

We ate breakfast together in the restaurant downstairs before going back up to the rooms to get ready. Vitoria had called ahead to let me know her classes were canceled for the day and Mom would be making lunch for us, meaning we could spend most of the day with my family.

I practically vibrated with excitement in the car ride over to Mom’s place, something Reid always teased me about.