Everyone's a Winner with a Heart That Small

After an hour long skype session with her mother, Gigi got up from her bed and went down the hall to Ezra's room. When she swung his bedroom door open, she frowned. He was still asleep, hanging halfway off the bed but she could see a mess of blonde hair sticking out from the top of the blankets.

She quietly shut the door back and trudged back to her room, collapsing onto her bed. She knew that Ezra and Cora were in love with each other and she was happy for them; but at the same time, she felt an aching in her chest. She'd once had that but ended up losing it.

She reached over onto the nightstand to grab her phone, slowly scrolling through the contact list until she reached the letter J. Her finger hovered over the send button for a brief second before continuing through the names until she got to P. She hit send and waited as it rang twice before being answered.

"Gigi!"

She smiled to herself at his enthusiasm. "Hey, Pat"

"What's up?"

"I'm bored. Let's hang out"

He chuckled. "Alright, my place or yours? Well, Ezra's"

"Yours. Definitely yours," she responded immediately.

"Do you remember how to get here?"

"I think so. I guess we'll see"

"I'll see you soon then"

"Bye, Pat"

"Bye!"

Gigi quickly pulled on whatever pieces of clothing she grabbed first and slid her feet into her shoes. She picked up Ezra's keys from the table in the foyer on her way out, hoping he wouldn't mind but not really caring if he did.

With virtually no trouble, Gigi remembered the way back to the Kirch house. Pat had opened the front door and waved at her before she even got out of the car. When she made it to the front steps, he enveloped her in a tight hug.

"I feel like I haven't seen you in years! Where'd you disappear to last night anyway?"

She sort of didn't want to tell Pat because she knew what he was going to say, but at the same time she didn't want to lie to him.

"John and I went to hang out"

"Alooone?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows.

Gigi rolled her eyes and followed him into the house. "Yes, we were alone"

"What'd you talk about?"

"Nosy!"

He laughed. "Aw, come on. I've already decided that you and John are gonna date and get married and have a lot of Johno babies"

She shook her head. "You think that? Sorry to disappoint you, babe, but I don't think that's going to happen"

"Why not?"

She should've expected the question, but she was still caught off guard on how to answer it. "Well....for starters, we live on opposite sides of the country"

"So you move here. Next excuse?"

"Pat, I just met him!"

"Doesn't matter. I can tell he likes you a lot already. He might even love you"

Gigi almost choked on her own spit. "What?"

Pat held his hands up. "I'm not saying I know for sure. I'm just saying that he's never been like this with a girl before"

"Well, I'm not going to fall in love again. I can't"

"What do you mean?"

She sighed, looking away from his curious brown eyes. "Maybe this was a bad idea"

"No, no, Gigi, come on. I'm sorry. I won't talk about it anymore, I promise. Hey, let's go do something. Wanna see a movie?"

She smiled at his attempt to smooth things over in transitioning the topic of conversation. "Sure, let's go"

Because all the other movies were either cheesy romantic comedies or horror movies, they opted to see a movie that was technically geared toward 8 year olds. After the movie, they of course had to go eat.

As fate would have it, the two were seated directly next to a large family party of about fifteen people. Pat waved at all of them as he walked by their tables to the booth they were then seated at. The waitress took their orders and then Pat leaned closer, over the table top. "You know who those people are?"

She shook her head, smiling. "How in the hell would I know that?"

"Oh. Right. Sorry. Well, that's the O'Callaghans"

"As in-"

"As in John's parents, siblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, etc."

Gigi took another look at the people across the room who were talking and laughing. There were two boys at the end of the table who, now that she really looked at them, resembled John in some ways. Those must be his brothers.

As soon as she looked away from the table, her eyes caught a pair of green ones, staring at her from the front door of the restaurant. He grinned and waved and she couldn't help but smile back. He made his way over to the tables where his family sat and a tall blonde woman jumped up to throw her arms around his neck. He kissed her cheek and said something to her, motioning in the direction of Pat and Gigi's table. She nodded and he began making his way over to them, making sure to thump his youngest brother on the head as he walked by.

"Hola," he said as he approached their table. "Come sit with the fam"

Gigi instantly froze and looked to Pat, hoping that he would decline, but he was already getting up from the table. John held out his hand to Gigi and she took it, sliding out of the booth as well. She made sure to drop his hand before they reached his family's table, which he definitely took notice of.

"Family, you all know Pat. And this is Ezra's cousin, Gigi," John announced.

His entire family smiled and greeted her as they sat down at the end of the table with John's brothers. The older of John's two little brothers looked from her to John. "This is Gigi?"

Gigi raised her eyebrows as Pat snickered and John nodded slowly.

"Nice, bro!"

John gave him a harsh glare but he ignored it, giving Gigi a wide grin.

John cleared his throat. "Um, this is moron is my brother, Ross. And that's my little brother Shane," he added, pointing to the young teenager across the table from him. Shane waved and went back to talking to his Dad, who was on his other side.

The older brother, Ross, was sitting across from Gigi, grinning from ear to ear. She wasn't sure how much younger than John Ross was, but she thought she remembered him saying that he was two years younger. Suddenly, he gasped and muttered obscenities loud enough so that Gigi heard him, but not loud enough that his parents heard.

"What the hell?" he asked through gritted teeth, glaring at John. John just stared at Ross until he looked away. Pat started up a conversation and Gigi just sat there quietly between him and John as they talked and folded her arms over her chest awkwardly. Here she was sitting at a table with the entire family of a guy that she liked that, according to his friend, may possibly love her. Not to mention his younger brother was staring her down as if she were the most beautiful thing on the planet. She didn't quite understand that.

Her own name is what brought her out of her thoughts. "Gigi?"

She turned her head toward the voice, which was the woman that John had hugged when he first entered the restaurant. "Yes ma'am?"

John grinned, hearing her accent come out. "G, this is my mom"

"Nice to meet you, Mrs. O'Callaghan"

The woman smiled at her politeness. "Please, call me Jenny. So John told us that you're visiting Tempe for the summer?"

Gigi nodded her head, thankful that the rest of the family seemed to be enthralled in their own conversations instead of staring at her. John's warm green eyes staring at her was enough to make her nervous. "Yes ma'am. I'm staying with Ezra"

"I just love Ezra. He's just so polite. You and he are a lot alike actually"

John made a face, not wanting to think of the similarities between his friend and the girl he liked.

"We grew up together since he's only a few months older than I am"

The conversation continued Gigi and Jenny and by the end of the meal, John had decided that he liked her even more. The last girlfriend he'd had was a complete bitch to his mother but Gigi was perfect and polite. As soon as Gigi left with Pat, Ross congratulated John and his mother put her hand on his shoulder, giving it a light squeeze.

"I like her, John," she whispered, smiling.

Me too, Mom. Abso-fucking-lutely.