Chapter Three
Adam
Tuesday
What the hell did I say that for? What on earth was I thinking? Why didn’t I just keep my stupid mouth shut?
I paced up and down my home wondering what I was thinking when I said that stupid thing to my family. Sure, I was angry, admittedly I didn’t want Brandon to get another one over on me again, stupidly I hated being made to look foolish – but that didn’t excuse my behavior. I was an idiot, I burst out a lie in the heat of the moment, and now I needed to deal with it in whatever way I could.
The problem was after that moment, everything went from bad to worse. Brandon seemed to sense that I was lying, and he continued to make digs about it. I had to blow off questions about my mysterious girlfriend’s name, her age, her job, her looks, everything. He was searching for a way to humiliate me, and it took all that I had not to give it to him.
My father was just as bad. He was always looking for weakness within me, so he loved this. With his smirks and comments that it would be foolish not to bring her to the honorary dinner, I knew that I was stuck.
And then there was Mom.
I wanted to sigh loudly when I thought of Mom. She meant well, she always did, and of course I loved her, but she made it worse. Without meaning to, of course, she was the only one who didn’t know I was lying, but she made it worse of all. Since Helen was refusing to give Brandon any children for obvious reasons (mainly that she only wanted him for the money and the lifestyle, not because she actually gave a shit about him), Mom was always on at me for giving her grandchildren. She said it in a jokey, no pressure way, but I knew that it was her dream. Being a mother was everything to her, so losing me and Brandon to adulthood hit her hard. She wanted her second round.
Now, more than ever before, she presumed that she actually had a chance. She thought I was in a serious relationship which took her that one step closer. She persisted on asking me questions, and I hated shutting her down most of all.
I grabbed my cell phone out of my pocket and scrolled through the numbers in my contacts list. There had to be someone in there, someone that I knew well enough to make this work. It would have to be someone that I knew, that my family didn’t, someone that would be willing to go along with this crazy scheme at such short notice without thinking me too much of a freak. That wasn’t too much to ask, was it?
I had female numbers in my phone, but each one I passed didn’t feel quite right. There was always a reason for me not to drag them into my bullshit. The thought of having anyone that I knew around my father made me feel sick. The way that he always put me down and humiliated me was bad enough without anyone seeing it.
This was driving me crazy.
Fuck it. With a bolt of determination, I stuffed my cell phone into my pocket and stalked towards the front door of my town house. I couldn’t find any answers to this by myself, stuck indoors. I needed to get some advice from the only other person in the world who really knew me and understood my situation well.
And luckily, his barber shop was not too far away.
I grabbed my keys and slammed the door behind me, inhaling the wonderfully busy, polluted scent of New York. Not many people liked city life, some people found it overbearing and far too busy, but I relished it. It was all that I’d ever known, and I wouldn’t change that for the world. I spent a lot of my childhood on exotic holidays to wonderful locations, but that hadn’t done anything to change my mind.
The city was my life. I freaking loved it.
The steps towards Max’s shop did nothing to clear my mind. My head was still all over the place when I pushed the door open. This time the place wasn’t dead, but thankfully there was only one client in the chair and no line. That meant I could sit there, semi patiently, and wait for Max to be free.
“Okay, what is it?” he demanded as soon as he’d taken payment from another happy customer and we were finally alone. “You’re like a crazy rabid bear desperate to tear a chunk out of someone. What’s going on with you?”
I blew out a breath of air and dragged my fingers through my hair. “I did something stupid, Max, and I need to fix it.”
He placed his butt in one of the chairs and stared up at me with concern plastered across his face. “What did you do this time? Does it have anything to do with your family, by any chance?”
I let out a strangled sound that was supposed to be a laugh but it didn’t quite come out that way. “Am I that predictable?”
“Yes.” Max nodded fervently, confirming that I actually was easy to read. Maybe for him, but that was just because he knew me so well. “Now dish. What’s happened?”
“Erm, well, okay. Brandon was goading me…”
“Of course, he was. That’s what he does.” Max rolled his eyes. “What I will never understand is why you always react to it.”
Oh God, he was going to give me some shit when he found out how far I’d gone this time. “So erm, yeah. He was basically saying the usual bullshit about how I’m worthless and I haven’t achieved anything with my life. About how I can’t hold anything down, not even a relationship, which was extra hard this time because my dad has some dinner coming up honoring him for business, or something…”
“Urgh, of course. The business awards thingy. Of course, he’s being honored.”
“Anyway, I don’t know why, but as a heat of the moment thing I blurted out that I do have a serious girlfriend, so I can hold stuff together.”
Max knitted his eyebrows together and he stared at me in confusion. “Why the fuck did you say that? That’s not true, is it?”
I offered him a one-shouldered shrug. “I don’t know. I couldn’t lie about having a job or anything because that’s an easy lie to track. I just had a red mist of rage so I just said something… Only now Dad wants me to bring my mystery girlfriend to the dinner, which I can’t do because she doesn’t exist.” I stood up, then flopped down again helplessly. “I don’t know what the fuck to do.”
Max shook his head in disappointment. “I don’t know why you cave to it, man. It’s silly. Why the fuck do you even care what they think? Your mom is awesome, so why do you care what Brandon and Daddy think? Why don’t you just leave them to their own bullshit world and you carry on living your life?”
“I don’t know.” I sighed loudly, wishing it could be that simple. “I really don’t. I just hate being criticized all the time. I just said it for some peace. But now there isn’t any peace because I don’t know what I’m going to do.” My head fell into my hands. “Now I’m going to be even more of a laughing stock when it turns out that I’m a liar. Mom will be pissed, too.”
“Of course.” Max nodded knowingly. “She wants grandkids. Even if you’re a playboy who’s nowhere near ready to settle down, all hopes lie on you.”
I chose to ignore that last remark because I couldn’t be bothered to argue it out. “I know, so what do I do, Max? There isn’t anyone I can think of who would be willing to play along with this bullshit. I’ll have to hire an actress or something.”
I chuckled, trying to prove that it was all just a joke, but Max’s expression turned serious at my suggestion. I cocked my head to one side and examined him closely, trying to work out what the hell was going on in his head.
“Actually, I do have an actress friend. She might be willing to get involved with this. She’s good, too. She’s a great actress.”
“You actually went to see something that she was in?” I groaned. “Does that mean she’s a specific type of friend?”
Max shook his head and smiled at me. “You and your filthy mind. She’s just a friend…now, anyway.” I laughed along with him. Talk about me being a playboy. “I’ll go and give her a call now, see if she’s willing and able.”
“But not too willing and able,” I insisted. “I don’t want your sloppy seconds.” I stopped him just before he went into his office. “Oh, and tell her that I’ll pay good money. I know this job is a bit…unusual.”
“Will do.”
As Max disappeared, I shook my head at what had happened to me. Was I really about to hire someone to be my girlfriend just to shut my family up? It was crazy, I knew I was acting like a crazy person, but it was far too important that I stop being the failure. Of course it would make my father much prouder if I started working with him and Brandon, but that was never going to happen. That just wasn’t me. This was all I could do.
What the hell is going on in there? I asked myself, growing impatient as Max seemed to take forever. I hoped desperately that he hadn’t forgotten what he’d called this girl for and he was just arranging himself a hook up, instead. Should I poke my head around the corner just to remind him?
In the end I decided not to, but only because I didn’t want to overhear something that wasn’t for my ears. Max was really going to have to sell this, and to be honest, after everything that I’d heard said about me by my family, I didn’t want to hear things from Max. I was just going to have to wait.
“Okay.” I wasn’t sure how long Max took in the end, but it felt like forever. “All sorted.”
My heart stopped dead in my chest, I froze to the spot and shot him a confused look. “Sorted? What do you mean, sorted?”
“I mean it’s sorted.” He said that so matter of fact, it made me wonder why I couldn’t just accept that information and process it properly. Why did it feel like he was saying something unusual?
“So, your friend said yes? She’s coming to the dinner? Don’t I need to meet her first, to let her know more about the crazy situation? Aren’t there arrangements that need to be made?” There were so many questions spinning through my mind, I didn’t know which one was the biggest priority.
Max chuckled and patted me on the back. “Didn’t I just tell you? It’s all sorted. I’ve arranged a meeting and everything. Of course it’s going to cost you, but you already knew that.”
I nodded nervously, trying to pull myself together. At least I had someone now, this was better than trying to make it work with anyone that I knew. Now I just had to fill this poor actress in on why my family was crazy, try to learn more about her as she did me, and then try to convince my family that we were in a serious relationship.
Easy, right? Nothing to worry about here. I just needed to dial the panic down and everything would be fine.