It’s been a month since I moved my brothers to New York City. I’m not going to act all cocky either and convince myself that the transition was a piece of cake, like I thought it was going to be. Sometimes I can be wrong, and this was definitely one of those times. Davey barely slept that first week, and I found myself up at various times throughout the night, consoling him as he shook and cried from some nightmare that I couldn’t understand, because he couldn’t tell me. It was bad enough where I was forced to work from home a couple of days, because I was so damn tired. Austin wasn’t helping, either. He hadn’t started school yet, and I was still working things out with Dalton. Until then he was going to have to sit tight. It meant I was stuck in the house with the two of them and Lucinda for most of that first week, and I could barely get any work done. It pissed me off, made me take it out on Austin since Davey couldn’t exactly talk back to me.
Austin and I have been fighting since the beginning, and it’s just getting worse.
“Don’t they have those military schools?” Trace suggested one morning that I’d managed to escape my place for an hour to have breakfast with him. “You could send the little shitter there,” he laughed.
I chewed my eggs and raised an eyebrow. For the smallest fraction of a second the idea almost seemed great, but then I thought about it some more and realized that...it was still a transitioning period for him. I didn’t like the fact that he was still grieving about his parents, though. I caught him crying sometimes, and I told him to man up, because it was in the past. “Nah, I can’t,” I said tiredly. “He’ll start school soon, and I gotta give him a little bit of a chance to snap out of this. But in the meantime, it’s like shit...I can’t get anything fucking done. It’s driving me crazy.” I rubbed my forehead harshly, and took a long swig of my black coffee.
“How about a nanny or something?”
I shrugged. One thing I hated, was strangers waltzing in and out of my house. Lucinda had come to me after careful thought and research, but I knew getting a nanny would involve even more effort on my part, and in all honestly...I just didn’t feel like doing all that work. “You never know where those people are really coming from though,” I sighed.
Then he got that gleam in his eyes. The one that said he’d just thought of something brilliant and I sat up a little bit. “What is it?” I smirked.
“What if you...like, advertised the job as something else? Maybe a marketing job or something else that will draw in a bunch of people. They’ll all be college educated, and once you offer them a good salary they wont’ be able to pass it up.”
I had to hand it to Trace, he came up with the most brilliant fucking ideas. Part of the reason I’m so fucking rich is because of his business ventures. It’s why I split most of the earnings with him. In truth, he’s just as rich as I am, but handles it differently. He’s more of a casual Friday kind of guy. He likes to take really extravagant vacations with his girlfriend and her daughter, go shopping, that kind of thing. I like to invest my money. I buy property, vacation homes, priceless works of art, cars...things that gain value over time. We’re really different...me and Trace, but we’re similar in so many ways too. It’s why he’s my best friend, the most trustworthy person I have in my life, and I guess that’s why I decided to go along with his idea. “Fine, but you get to take all the phone interviews,” I smirked. “I’ll do the one on one’s.”
He shrugged. “If it gets you back in the damn office, I’ll take one for the team, even if it isn’t in my job description.”
“You know how I feel about HR,” I muttered. “I’m about to fire all those stupid bitches down there. They’re pissing me off.”
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, Justin,” he responded. “But you can’t afford to do that right now. Quarterly reviews are coming up and you need them to do the dirty work.”
“I hate them all,” I muttered. “They gossip all day long, and sell their Avon shit in the hallway.”
“Do you want me to send out another memo?” He snorted. “Because I can. The last one seemed to put a firm stop to all that for about a week.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’ll take care of it after quarter reviews,” I huffed. “Maybe they’ll start singing a different tune, when I cut their pay increases down to one percent.”
Trace just chuckled and concentrated on his breakfast. He stayed true to his word though, posted the job opening and began conducting phone interviews right away. That was all I really could have asked for. A week went by, I was able to enroll Austin in Dalton and send him on his way. It was the first time I was able to breath since I’d been home, knowing Austin would be getting out of the house and doing something with his day. He was a kid, no matter how old he tried to act, and he needed that kind of stimulation. He needed somebody to tell him to sit down and shut up besides me too, and I figured paying thirty grand a year to send him to Dalton would do the trick.
The first nanny I hired arrived in my office the following Monday morning, right after my board meeting. Stocks were up, which had put me in a somewhat pleasant mood, and I guess I must have been nicer than normal to the girl, because she was smiling and laughing all through out our interview. She seemed nice enough, a little dim, but I expected that. If Trace had sent a marketing genius walking through my door, I probably would have hired her for the actual position. I think the thing that sold me on that girl the most though, was that she didn’t bat an eye when I told her what she would actually be doing. She was too busy staring into my eyes, like some stupid, love sick, teenager.
I hired her quickly, and sent her to get me lunch from my favorite restaurant. She did...but she also got herself something too, which completely pissed me off. I mean, who does that their first day on the job? It was completely unprofessional. “It’s my lunch hour, not yours.” I grunted as she handed me the styrofoam carton. “I’ll take that out of your paycheck.”
She started at me for a moment, not quite sure what to say. “I...sir...I...”
“You better get moving,” I snapped as I opened the container. “Austin gets out of school soon.”
I arrived home around nine that night. Lucinda was there, yammering angrily to herself while she wrapped leftovers, until she noticed me. I glanced around, and when I didn’t see the boys anywhere, I became slightly concerned. “Lo que paso?” What happened?
She turned around. “Que la niñera se quedó dormido en el sofá.” That nanny fell asleep on the sofa. “Yo no despertarla, pensé que le diría más tarde, pero ... Austin, tomó las tijeras y cortar la cola de caballo mientras ella dormía.” I did not wake her, I figured I would tell you later, but...Austin, he took the scissors and cut her pony tail off while she was asleep.
My eyes widened. It was probably better that he was hiding out in his bedroom, as I was sure he was. Otherwise, I probably would have killed him for fucking up my agenda.
“Yo no sabía hasta que fue demasiado tarde.” I did not know until it was too late, she sighed. “Ella se fue, yo no creo que ella va a regresar.” She left, I do not think she is coming back.
“God damn it.” I gritted my teeth and slapped a hand down on the counter. “Gracias,” I nodded and kissed her cheek lightly, before she went on her way. I stood there for a moment more, hating the fact that I was going to have to call Trace up and tell him to do another batch of phone interviews. It infuriated me that it hadn’t even been a full damn day and the little shit had fucked the nanny plan already. “Oh, Austin!” I called as I made my way upstairs.
I looked in on Davey as I made my way down to Austin’s room at the end of the hallway. He was out cold, which was good, because I didn’t want him to hear me screaming at his brother if I could help it. I burst through Austin’s door a couple of minutes later, found him sitting on the edge of his bed playing with the X-box I had gotten for him that first week. He snapped to attention immediately, gasped and dropped his controller when he saw the expression on my face. I looked up towards his pillows when a flash of bleach blonde caught my eye. There, on his pillow, rested a large clump of blonde hair. It was Austin’s trophy, I realized. I slammed the door closed and stormed over to the bed so I could snatch it up. “What the hell is this!” I yelled at him.
He ignored me and picked up the game controller again.
I yanked it out of his hands and threw it across the room. “I asked you a question!”
“She was a bitch.”r32;
I cocked my head to the side. It was weird hearing him talk like that, but I figured he was such an emotional mess that it was to be expected. “How so?” I grunted.
“I dunno, she was trying to act like she was my mom or something. I hated her. I wanted her gone, and Davey just hid the entire time she was here. It’s better that she’s gone.”
“That didn’t give you the right to pull this!” I shook the hair in his face. “Do you know what could happen to me? I don’t need her going to the papers and yapping to them about how I have a delinquent for a brother!”
“That’s your problem.” He flopped face down on the bed.
I felt like slapping him around, but I knew I couldn’t. It just wouldn’t have been right, so instead...I did the next best thing.
“W-what are you doing! Hey!”
He yelled it at me as I yanked his X-box from the wall and began to walk out of the room.
“No!” He latched onto my waist and tried to prevent me from leaving with his precious toy. “Let it go! Give it to me!”
I whirled around, and tucked the machine under one arm, while pushing him to the floor with my free hand. “I told you that I’m not about to take your crap,” I snapped at him as he gazed up at me from his position on the floor. “Try this shit again. Go ahead. There’s going to be another nanny coming really soon, and if you keep pulling this crap, I really will send you away to reform school.”
“I hate you!” He screamed at me, as he began to cry. “I wish...I wish you had died instead! I wouldn’t have cared if you did!”
“Yeah, great. Do you think that phases me, Austin? It’s nothing I haven’t heard before,” I rolled my eyes and opened his door to leave. “Sweet fucking dreams.”
I left the room and closed the door behind me, hearing something loud and heavy thud against it right after. I didn’t acknowledge it because I knew that was what he wanted me to do. Instead I went to my own master bedroom, and hid the X-box high up in a closet where he wouldn’t be able to find or reach it easily.
It’s still up there.
“You’re kidding right?” Trace said to me the next day when I called him into my office. “She quit?”
I chuckled softly and shook my head. “You wanna know why?”
“Oh,” he smirked. “This is gonna be good. I can tell.”
“Austin chopped her hair off with a pair of scissors. Granted, the little bitch fell asleep on the job, but still. She hasn’t called you has she?”
Trace only answered me once he was able to regain control over his laughter. “Nah, she hasn’t. She probably ran far, far away. I gotta say man, you have your hands full with those two kids. One doesn’t talk, and the other one is just a little terrorist in the making. Girls are easier, if you can believe that.”
I just shrugged and gazed out my office windows for a moment. “I’m going to need you to find me somebody else ASAP. As it is, they had some kind of thing at Austin’s school today and I had to send Lucinda. I’m sure they’ll be thrilled about that when they realize she doesn’t speak English.”
“Man, and you put me down as a reference on the Dalton application,” he frowned. “You know, if this gets back to Sydney she’ll hang me by my nuts.”
I rubbed my forehead and laughed a little. “Hey, what was I supposed to do?”
“Send Cheryl?” He said stupidly.
“What, and have to handle every incoming call myself? No, screw that. It’s just a school. They’ll live.”
He grew quiet for a very long moment. “Did you ever think that maybe...you should have gone?”
I looked at him like he’d gone crazy. “What,” I chuckled. “Me? Like I have time for that.”
“Well you could have made some time. I would have covered for you,” he suggested. “Maybe if you did that more, the kid wouldn’t act out so much. He probably thinks you don’t give a damn about him.”
“That’s not why he acts out,” I said, defiantly. “Would you please just get on the interview thing? I don’t have time for your after school special heart to heart.” I rolled my eyes and began to click the stocks on the computer screen with my mouse.
“I hate to be so blunt,” he said softly. “You know you’re like a brother to me J, and I’ve always supported whatever decisions you’ve made in your life, but I think this thing with your parents has you more fucked up than you realize, and your brothers are taking the heat for it.”
I pretended to be focused on my stocks and profits, but in reality my emotions were burning inside. His words stung. Out of all the people in the world, the only one who could ever effect me with his words seemed to be Trace. “I’m over it,” I muttered.
I heard him laugh sadly. “Okay, Justin.”
The door clicked closed softly. I swallowed the lump in my throat, sniffled, and continued to focus on my work, as always.
Trace did find me somebody else, only three days later in fact. Wanda walked into my office sternly, her head held high. We exchanged a professional handshake and I was sure she was all about business, just like I was. When I told her about the actual job, she was silent for a few moments. I knew it wasn’t what she was expecting at all, and in all honestly I expected her to walk out. She seemed too good for a nanny gig...right from the beginning.
I should have known better.
She said that she would take the job, so she could “show me what she could do”. I guessed she thought there was room to grow. I didn’t give her an answer either way, even though I knew I had no intention of hiring her for marketing. She started that very day, ran a few errands for me that she actually didn’t fuck up. She seemed like a great pick. She even got the boys in and out of their baths without incident, because Lucinda told me so. She was like my little spy in a way, and I was glad to have her around. I knew she would never lie to me, no matter what happened when I wasn’t around.
A week went by without incident. Austin wasn’t speaking to me, but according to Wanda he was being civil for her, so I figured all was well. It was only one night in particular when I saw a bruise on Davey’s face, that I felt a strange feeling come over me. I’d left work at five that night, surprisingly enough. I don’t really know why. Usually I was at the office until at least eight, but I had felt like eating dinner with my brothers that night. Home had been less stressful that week. I felt good setting foot inside of it again.
“What happened to you?” I asked Davey, as we ate dinner.
Naturally, he didn’t answer, but the fact that he practically buried his face in his plate alerted me that something was going on. “Austin? Do you know what happened?”
He looked down at his lap.
The first thought that came to my mind was that he’d done something to his brother, and I felt my emotions flare up. “What the hell did you do?” I barked at him.
“I didn’t,” he muttered.
“Don’t lie to me!” I yelled at him. “Look at your brothers face!”
“I...I didn’t do it!” Austin yelled back at me. “Wanda...Wanda got mad yesterday morning,” he whimpered. “I...I tried to stop her but she...she wouldn’t listen.”
“What...” I trailed off, horrified. I knew he wouldn’t have been lying to me at that stage. By this time, I’d learned to differentiate between Austin’s lies and his truths. “She hit him?”
He just nodded.
God, I felt like such a dumb fuckin’ asshole. How could I not have known? How did I miss her attitude or the way she treated the boys? I guess I’d just been so happy to have somebody around who could handle the situation, I didn’t bother to take a closer look. Immediately, I left the table and walked up the stairs, bursting into Wanda’s bedroom with a harsh knock. She’d been yacking on the phone, but quickly hung up upon my entrance. “Mr...Timberlake,” she said slowly, getting up from the bed.
“Did you slap Davey?” I said, through clenched teeth.
She laughed a little nervously. “Oh that bruise? Davey was running around yesterday afternoon and smacked his face into the wall. I meant to tell you...”
I walked right up to her, cutting her speech short, and pressed her up against the wall. “I should have you fuckin’ arrested,” I seethed. “I want you to get your shit and get out of my house, right now.”
She didn’t hesitate, because she knew I didn’t believe her. She was packed and out within a fifteen minute time period, and I told the door man that if he ever saw her lurking around again, to call the police.
“I don’t want to hear it,” I groaned when Trace asked me about her a couple of days later.
“This isn’t working out too well,” he said, gruffly. “I can ask Syd if she knows anybody...”
“No.” I said gruffly. “I want to do this my way.”
“Well your way sucks,” he laughed. “Come on Justin. Give me a break.”
r32;“I want you to do it again,” I ordered him. “I don’t care if you think it sucks.”
“Meanwhile, I have to put everything else I’m working on to the side, right?” He grunted, a little angrily. “You know, there comes a point where you have to settle for another option. I’m not your fuckin secretary.”
“All right,” I sighed. “If it doesn’t work out this time, we’ll try something else,” I said, calmly. “Deal?”
He rolled his eyes and crossed his arms as he leaned back in his chair. “The shit I do for your ass.”
As luck would have it, we both seemed to get our way. A girl called about the open interviews that very afternoon, and Trace jumped on the opportunity, telling her to come in for an interview the next afternoon. That, is how Abbey Feldman came to walk into my office, and as much as I tend to forget her name, and annoy the shit out of her, I can’t deny that she hasn’t fucked up anything yet. Davey seems a lot calmer with her around too. She has a calming presence about her, which is the biggest reason I hired her in the first place. She doesn’t seem like she’s dumb as rocks, either. In fact, she seems like she’d be a really great person to have in my office...
But I need her for other things.
I understand why she had to yell at me that first night. I mean, she was stressed out and I guess I may have given her a little bit too much to do, although I would never admit that to her. She did it though, all of it. She got her stuff out of her apartment, made all the stupid cupcakes, and still managed to get Austin up for school the next day.
I’m not worried. I think she’s going to work out just fine, and bonus...Lucinda can’t stop telling me how much she likes having her around.
“Are we ready to order?”
I smirk at her from across the table as she takes a sip of her wine. “We’ll both have the lamb, and another bottle of wine. Make sure not to overcook it. Last time it was dry, Albert. You know how I feel about that.” I hand him back the menus with a short, tight smile, as I place my gaze back on Danielle.
“Of course, sir.”
We’ve been dating for a few months now. We met at some benefit that one of my board members threw together. I liked her from the beginning because she’s like me, business orientated. She’s one step away from being the editor of Vogue. She’s strong willed, doesn’t take any shit, and doesn’t beg me to take her places or her buy her things. She can handle all of that herself, and that’s the kind of woman I need. I’m not big into dating needy bitches who are only focused on my money. There’s more to life than that.
“So,” she smirks as she reaches her hand across the table and takes mine. “Sydney was saying something about going to the French Riviera next month with Trace. She said I should talk to you about the two of us joining in.”r32;
“Yeah,” I say, unfazed. I hate vacations. Especially vacations in which I’ll probably be expected to take “the next step”. I have no intention of taking the next step with this woman, or any woman. We’re just having some fun, and I’ve made that clear from the beginning. “I’ll have to see. It depends how the market is.”
She rolls her eyes. “We’ve never taken any time for ourselves, Justin. It’s been nearly three months.”
I chuckle slightly. “What’s that mean?”
“Well...it would be nice, you know, to spend a little more time with you.”
I finish the rest of the wine in my glass, and a waiter immediately comes over and refills it. “We’re spending time together now.”
“God, don’t you want to just...get away for a long weekend?” She huffs. “You have the nanny now, and it’s been going okay, according to you. Your brothers are nearly settled in. What’s the problem?”
I shrug. “I guess I have more on my mind besides getting drunk on a yacht.”
She groans harshly. “You’re unbelievable, you know that? I’ve been killing myself, trying to open you up, and the minute your parents passed away, you seemed to get even more distant.”
I sigh and let go of her hand. “Can we not do this now?”
“When can we then?”
I just drink my wine. She stops asking me questions, and when dinner arrives, we eat in silence. It sucks. I can’t commit to a woman because I’m too worried about what will happen to the firm if I take my focus off of it. I’ve seen what can happen. When the previous CEO got married, he was so busy fucking his twenty something wife, that the firm started to take a nose dive. I had to kill myself when I took over, to get it running properly again. I didn’t do all that to let somebody like Danielle distract me.
“This isn’t going anywhere is it?” She murmurs. “I mean, no matter what I do, you’re not going to commit. Do you really expect me to continue doing this with you?”
“Come on, baby.” I flash her my best, most seductive smile. “Nobody is saying that.”
“Hmph.” She guzzles her wine.
“Come back with me tonight,” I whisper as I lean in closer to her. “C’mon.” I smile a little bit more.
“I really can’t stand you.”
But I know she doesn’t mean it, and a little less than an hour later, we’re laughing together as we burst through the door to my place, tipsy off the wine. The lights are off, and I quickly feel around for the switch on the wall while she’s kissing me so I can turn them on. Somehow I manage to do it, and we crash onto my couch. She’s stripping off my clothes, and I’m relishing the moment. Man, I haven’t fucked her since before I left for Tennessee. I need it. I need it bad.
I’m sucking on her tits and pulling down her panties when I hear it. A soft rustling coming from behind the sofa. I freeze.
“Why...Why are you stopping,” she says, breathlessly.
“Do you hear that?” I whisper.
“Huh?”
I hear it again, and I know she does too, because she’s glancing over her shoulder. “Kids?”
“I dunno.” I gently push myself off of her and pull my boxers on, making sure to toss her a blanket before going around to see what’s making the noise.
What I find makes me groan loudly. “Shit...Davey...”
He’s staring at me with wide, frightened eyes and I have no idea how much of that he just saw.
“Oh god,” Danielle hisses, obviously mortified.
“Hold on,” I grunt, as I lift him into my arms. “I’ll get him back to bed.”
“It’s okay.” She gets up and begins to pull her clothes back on, doing her best to conceal herself with the blanket. “I”ll go.”r32;
“Dani...come on, just go in my bedroom.”r32;
“Justin look at him!” She points to Davey.
I glance at him, his head is buried in my shoulder and I’m sure if his shrink knew about this, she wouldn’t be happy. Lucky for me, Davey wont’ tell her about it. “He’ll be okay.”r32;
“That’s your penis talking.” She grabs her purse. “I’ll call you, okay?”
I frown and my shoulders sag in defeat. “Yeah.”
Then she’s gone. I hate this. Hate it. Where the fuck was Abbey? Why wasn’t she making sure the boys were sleeping? I told her that I was going to be late, and that I might not be alone. She didn’t fucking listen. Damn it, I can’t even have a night of peace...of fucking my girlfriend.
I carry Davey back to his bed, and make sure he’s somewhat asleep before I close the door. Then, I make my way to Abbey’s room, and even though its two am and she’s probably sleeping, I barge in on her anyway.
“What! What!” She wakes up when I flick the lights on, panicked.
I stare her down, angrily. “Do you remember when I said I’d have company with me when I came home tonight?”
She stares at me, probably confused as to why I’m like...half naked. I probably should have put my shirt back on at least. Oh well.
“Uh I guess...”
“Well, Davey just witnessed me in the living room with that company. Fuck, I can’t even enjoy myself in my own house! You’re supposed to be on top of the kids, Abbey!”
She stares at me, but it’s not a frightened stare. It’s stare that’s telling me I have a hell of a nerve, and all its’ doing is making me angrier. “Oh, I’m sorry Justin,” she says, with a bright, sarcastic smile. “Next time just let me know that you’ll be fucking somebody in the living room. I’ll make sure I lock the kids in the bathroom or something.”
“You really should watch that attitude,” I mutter.
“Whatever you say.” She waves me off with her hand and lays back down, pulling the covers over her head. r32;
“Hey...I’m not done,” I grunt. “Abbey!”
She doesn’t answer.
Infuriated, I storm out of her room and head to my own. I pace for a few minutes, trying to calm myself down, but it doesn’t seem to be working. Who the hell does she think she is? She thinks she can just snap and talk back to me whenever she wants to! Well...well she can’t. I’m her fucking boss, and maybe...maybe this just isn’t working out like I thought. Yeah.
That’s it.
She’s finished.
It’s Saturday morning, and I usually go for a run through the park but not this morning. This morning I’m eating breakfast at the table with my brothers and Abbey, trying to figure out the best way to tell her I’m letting her go without upsetting my brothers. I mean, it’s only been two weeks but Austin has been behaving slightly better. Just slightly, but...it’s a big improvement. Davey has been smiling a little bit too. It’s amazing, and I don’t know what she’s been doing to make them act this way.
I’d ask her, but I’m too fucking angry.
“So do you guys want to go to the zoo?” Abbey smiles as she refills Davey’s glass with juice.
She won’t look at me though, and I know she’s still just as pissed about last night as I am.
“The zoo is boring,” Austin mutters as he moves his eggs around his plate.
“Oh come on, it is not,” Abbey smirks. “The Bronx Zoo is one of the biggest in America, and you’ve never been. I heard they’re letting people pet the boa constrictors today and everything.”
Davey looks at Abbey with wide eyes.
“Don’t worry,” she reassures him and rubs his shoulder a little. “They can’t hurt you.”
“I guess...I guess if they’re doing that I’ll go,” Austin decides.
“Well thank you your majesty,” she laughs and eyes me a little bit. “Hurry up then and eat so you can get ready.”
She gets up from the table and I take my opportunity to follow her into the living room. She’s watching the weather man discuss how nice it’s going to be today. It would be the perfect day to take my boat out actually, and I make a note to call Trace after I do this and ask him if he wants to go. “You made a big mistake last night,” I tell her softly, as I stand next to her.
“You were out of line.” She changes the channel and doesn’t look at me.
“I’m your boss. It doesn’t matter if...if I’m out of line. Which I wasn’t, by the way,” I grunt.
“So what?” she chuckles. “Are you going to fire me, Justin?”
She walks away, towards the place on the wall where Austin’s knapsack is hanging up, and begins to dig through it.
“Maybe,” I say, coming up behind her. “I mean, I think I should, don’t you?”
She shrugs. “If you want Austin and Davey to become even more messed up, sure.”
“You’re not the only answer,” I shake my head with a smirk. “Get that ego out of your system.”
“Fuck, I don’t have an ego.” She grunts and stops playing with the knapsack. “That’s you.”
“Excuse me?”
She walks ahead of me.
“I’m fucking talking to you!”
She stops and whirls around. “You know, with the way you’ve treated me this past week, I think you should be thankful I’m even here!”
“I had you do your job.”
“My job is to take care of the boys,” she tells me. “Not to...run your errands, bake...cupcakes...god, pick up your damn dry cleaning, Justin! You’re a selfish, spoiled asshole, you know? I don’t care if I’m not supposed to tell you that. I’ve only spent two weeks with those kids, and the only thing that Austin ever tells me is that you're going to teach him Spanish and enroll him in soccer when you “have time”.”
I scoff. “He doesn’t talk about me that way.”
“Really?” She laughs. “Funny, I might have a hearing problem or something then.” She turns back around.
“So sign him up for soccer!” I call out to her.
“He wants you to do it with him,” she mutters as she reaches the staircase. “I’m here to help and thats fine but you need to step in and do things with them too. Do you think that Davey will ever talk again, if you stand by and let me try to make it happen? He needs you. He needs to know that you care. They both do.”
r32;She’s right about so much, but I can’t admit it to her. I have too much pride. “And I have a career...a fucking firm to run. I can’t...that’s the priority right now.”
She snorts and shakes her head. “Right.”
I watch her ascend the stairs, hating myself for not being to fire her, for letting her talk to me that way. Nobody does that. Nobody, unless they want to be fired, I mean, yeah, Trace is the exception...but he’s the only one.
So what’s preventing me from tossing this girl out on her ass?
There’s something about her. At first I just thought she was gentle, had a good personality for kids. But there’s something else. Something I can’t quite put my finger on. It’s like...she’s strong willed. She seems like the type of woman I usually go for. One that’s successful, definitely doesn’t take any shit, and likes to do things on her own without help. Why is it that she couldn’t find a job? I read her application too. Trace had her fill out one through email. She’s from Colorado. Colorado and she came all the way out here after college. I mean, I’m sure there are more job opportunities in Colorado, right? What happened?
I can’t ask her. I shouldn’t care. She’s nothing, vermin, working under me for pennies.
My cell rings.
“Timberlake,” I say, glumly.
“Hey man, about that stock...”
I can’t escape work, ever. Not on weekends, not on holidays. One year I got a really bad case of the flu, and I was still doing meetings via Skype even though I was sick as a dog. It got so bad, in fact, that I ended up in the hospital with pneumonia. They told me I should have come in right away, but I was too concerned about missing work. It’s what I wanted though right? Success, money, power?
Sometimes I’m not sure. Sometimes...I almost wish I could live a life like Abbey’s. A calm one. One that helps me to remember what’s really important.
But I wanted this, and I have it now. I’m living my dream, so I can’t have any regrets.
“Come on boys!”
I hear her a few minutes later, phone still stuck to my ear. I look up and see her descending the stairs, with a backpack slung over her shoulder. “Let me call you back, Dennis.”
I hang up on him, as he continues to talk.
The boys come wandering into the living room next, ready to go. Shit, I can’t even get them to put their sneakers on, but all she has to do is say the word and they’re ready. Shit, it’s only been two weeks. What am I not doing? There’s gotta be an easier way to get them on my side too.
“I called Quincy,” Abbey informs me. “I hope that isn’t a problem for you, oh wise master of the universe.”
I glare at her. “Whatever you want.”
“Abbey.”
I stare at Davey, because I’m not sure if that really just happened. He’s staring at Abbey, a thousand questions written on his small face.
Abbey covers her mouth with her hand, and kneels down in front of him, glancing at me slightly as she strokes his hair. “Yes, honey.”
“Why...why can’t Justin come too?”
I look at Austin quickly. He’s looking at his brother, shocked that he uttered a full sentence. I think...I think it’s the first time he’s done that since mom and dad died.
“Maybe you should ask him, Davey,” Abbey says, so gently, as if she’s trying to make sure she doesn’t send him back into silence again.
“Justin.”
His voice is small, and weak, but I try not to let my emotions show as I gaze down at him. “Yeah, bud.”
“Will...will you come to the zoo?”
And I forget my aggressions. I forget about Danielle and the fact that she probably won’t call. The only thing I can focus on is the fact that my brother just talked...just had a breakthrough, and the one person that played a part in making it happen...is the same person I’m ready to get rid of.
“Yeah,” I nod slowly. “Yeah of course.”
I look at Abbey. She smiles, just a little.
It’s a start.
Story Tags: triangles justinandtrace executivej
