Chapter 21

Tyler

I woke up this morning and decided to go to the new office. I knew what I had to do, and I didn’t want to give Luke the chance to put his name on anything before I hit him with what was coming. He needed to know that his actions had consequences.

He couldn’t be a badass without ruining a few relationships.

I arrived at the office and had the agent with the paperwork meet me there. I explained to him what was going on and asked him whether or not he needed Luke’s signature on anything, and he gave it to me straight. He told me that, as of right now, Luke had no claims on the property. According to how we laid out this transition, I was the head of opening the LA department.

That meant Luke didn’t have to sign for anything, but it also meant he had no control over it.

I told the man that Luke would probably come by this morning and try to sign. I gave him the number of the lawyer I was using just in case he had any problems, but I didn’t even get out of the office before Luke pulled up. I asked the agent to please stay where he was, and I wouldn’t drag him into anything unnecessary.

And when Luke stepped out of the car, I could tell this was eating him alive.

“Tyler, good. You’re here,” he said as he jogged up to me. “Listen, man. I’m so fucking sorry for what happened.”

“You should be,” I said.

“What I threatened you with was wrong. But, I mean, you can see where I’m coming from right? How you treat women and shit? It’s not right, dude.”

“Opinion heard,” I said.

“Opinion? Man, I watched as you fucked some random girl in a red dress in the bathroom of a club the night before we flew out here. Who does that?” he asked.

“You do, apparently,” I said. “Or does the name Kelly not ring a bell?”

“You’re still mad,” he said.

“You’re damn right I’m still mad, so this is how it’s going to work. We can do this peacefully, or we can call my lawyer.”

“Lawyer? What fucking lawyer?” he asked.

“The way we split this up, I was going to be in charge of the LA portion of the business. So, we split it 50/50. Everything down the middle. The business stays the same as well as the operations, but you get whatever profits you garner from over there, and I’ll get any profits I garner from here,” I said.

“What the fuck?” he asked.

“The fuck is right. You don’t get to posture and puff out your chest the way you’ve been doing and there not be consequences. You want to know why I went into business with you?”

“Why?” he asked.

“Because you had morals. Standards. Did I fuck around with women? Yep. Did I slay some serious pussy? No doubt. Did you keep me honest about what I was doing? You sure as hell did. You were the model. The person I was aspiring to be one day when I found a woman who was worth it. But you’re pissed because instead of seeing the influence you were, all you can think about is the fact that the woman in this scenario is your sister,” I said.

“Holy fuck, you’re fucking my sister,” he said, raking his hands through his hair.

“Did you really not put that together until now? Did you seriously threaten this whole fucking company under the assumption that I was about to fuck your sister?”

The look he gave me blew me away. He hadn’t realized I was fucking his sister until now. He pulled all the asinine bullshit drama on only the assumption we were screwing around.

“Holy hell, you’re a piece of work, Luke. Get some damn help for your control issues. See if they have a fucking family discount for that circus affair you’ve got going on in town,” I said.

“Don’t you talk about my family that way,” he said.

“Or what? You’ll take the company from me?” I asked. “50/50. You go home and deal with what you’ve already grown, and I’ll grow what I’ve signed for here. The business can still be under the name we established, but they’ll operate off two separate bank accounts and heads.”

“I can’t believe you’re pulling this shit over some pussy, dude,” he said.

“I’m not pulling this shit over pussy,” I said. “I’m doing this because I love Amber.”

“Funny, she’s never said a fucking thing about loving you,” he said.

“Fuck you. Get the hell off my property,” I said.

“Are you seriously going to do this? Split the damn company over a fight?” he said.

“You can call my lawyer if you have any questions. Now, get the fuck off my property,” I said.

I shoved a piece of paper with the lawyer’s number on it before Luke scoffed and walked off. I turned back to the building and nodded to the guy with the paperwork, and I finalized the purchase before I put the down payment on it. I was putting more down than initially agreed on because I would need the much lower rent for the building to stay afloat doing things this way, but my head was already swimming with ideas.

I was going to be just fine, and I could still give Amber a space for her dance studio. If she was serious about it, that would help with rent and operating costs, too.

I took out my phone and called Amber as I stood in the entryway of my new life, but she didn’t pick up. I tried calling again, but the phone just rang and rang. She wasn’t shooting me to voicemail, so maybe she was just busy, but I got the distinct feeling that something was still wrong.

That’s when my mind began to whirl. What if I’d just lost my best friend? What If I’d just lost the woman I loved? What if she really didn’t feel the way I felt, and I’d just thrown away my chances at being successful in life? At sticking it to my parents?

Shit.

I jogged to my car and drove by Amber’s apartment, but I didn’t see her car. The lights were off in her place, and there wasn’t a shadow moving around behind the curtain. I headed back to the hotel room, white-knuckling the steering wheel as my head spun with all that had happened, and as I shoved my shoulder into the hotel door, a thought popped into my head.

Should I really be staying here in LA?

What was here for me if Amber wasn’t?

Sure, there was a business, but it was a business I’d have to rebuild. I wouldn’t be turning a profit for at least a year, if not two, and I’d be living above the business in some rusted out apartment. I wouldn’t be able to put the money into finishing the apartment until I was turning a profit, which meant I had to stare at exposed walls and sleep on an air mattress.

Amber wouldn’t stay with someone like that. Amber couldn’t love someone like that.

Hell, I couldn’t even love someone like that.

And as I caught my form in the mirror, haggard and sunken in from the stress of the past few days, I finally let my guard down. I allowed the tears of frustration to overflow my eyes in the loneliness of this hotel room before I sat on the edge of the bed and cried.

The bed that still smelled like her.