Chapter 1
Emily looked at the stack of paperwork on her desk and frowned. She sighed when she saw the time on the bottom right hand corner of her screen. It was almost half past seven and she was not even halfway done. She rubbed her temple and found herself playing with a strand of her hair as she looked through file after file after file. She was just about to pick up another file when Cadence walked into her office.
“You are still here?” she asked. Emily shrugged.
“This new retail chain launch is killing me and it has to be perfect considering we are looking at the first real competition to the likes of Target and Best Buy.” She took a long deep breath. “It has to go well,” she added. Cadence raised an eyebrow over the other.
“First of all, the likes of Target already have real competition. I mean, ever heard of Walmart?” she started before she shook her head. “I’m not sure about Best Buy but you are a stock manager not a flipping PR agent. You need to take it easy,” she added. Emily shook her head. “Seriously, Carter. Remember what happened last time you over exerted yourself? Things didn’t work out so well,” she added. Emily looked at her and then at the stack of files on her desk.
“I still have all these…” she never got to finish her sentence. Cadence walked up to where she was and took the file she had in her hand.
“You know what, Carter? You can only do so much,” she said before she walked round her desk and shut down her computer.
“Hey, I wasn’t finished with that yet,” she said. Emily was frowning as she looked at Cadence.
“Go home, Carter.” The tone in Cadence’s voice was commanding, almost as if she was the one in charge of Emily and not the other way around.
“Send an update email to Chase. Tell him…” Emily started before Cadence shook her head.
“I know exactly what to tell him,” she said as she handed Emily her handbag and laptop bag. “Go. You’ve been her since six in the morning for God’s sake. You need to rest and by the way people have assistants so that they don’t have to stay late,” Cadence added with a smile. “I must be the only under worked assistant in here,” she said as Emily took her keys from the desk.
“Good night Cadence,” Emily said shaking her head. Cadence was smiling as she watched her boss walk out.
“Good night Carter,” Cadence called out.
Emily was yawning as she rode in the elevator. It wasn’t until then that she realized just how tired she really was. She was just about to walk out of the elevator when she heard her phone ringing. She reached into her bag and rummaged through until the phone stopped ringing. She sighed and walked to her car before she heard her phone ringing again. This time, she managed to grab a hold of her phone before it went off. She pulled it out of her bag and looked at the screen.
“Alex,” she said when she picked up.
“Emily? Are you okay? You sound a little out of breath,” Alex said.
“Yeah, my bag had swallowed my phone. I had to dive in and get it,” she said. She could almost picture him smiling.
“Where are you?” he asked.
“At my office parking lot,” she said as she set the Bluetooth device in her ear and then buckled herself in.
“Emily,” Alex sounded disappointed. “You are supposed to be taking it easy,” he said. She shrugged as she put her key in the ignition.
“I just have a lot on my mind, Alex. That’s all,” she said as she began backing out of the parking lot.
“Ems, I don’t want to sound like I’m bossing you about but if it comes to that, I will do it,” he said. Even though his tone was gentle, there was seriousness in his voice that made her know that he meant business. She shook her head.
“Alex, you are not my dad,” she said.
“Well, if you keep on acting like a child then maybe you need someone to be an adult.”
Emily smiled as she began driving down the street.
“I’m fine, Alex. I promise. And I know for a fact that I will have a nice nourishing meal when I get home.”
“Why? Did you get some Thai takeout?” Alex asked. Emily laughed.
“To you Thai takeout qualifies as a nourishing meal?” She was now maneuvering the last corner heading to her street.
“Actually you are the one who considers any kind of Asian cuisine healthy. You told me so,” Alex pointed out.
“I did? When?”
“That’s not important. Do you want me to come over tonight?”
She held the steering wheel with both hands and wondered what the right thing to say was. April was back in town for her new clients and she was spending the week at her place. And that wouldn’t have been a problem if she had actually told April about her and Alex but she hadn’t.
“Emily?” Alex said when she got too quiet.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” she said in a low voice.
“Why not?” Alex sounded as surprised as he was shocked. Emily took a long deep breath.
“April is back in town. She had some business to take care of…I told her she could stay over at my place so we could catch up and everything,” she said. There was a long silence from Alex’s end of the line before he finally spoke up.
“I still don’t understand why I can’t come over,” he said. Emily took a long deep breath.
“I haven’t told her about us, Alex,” she said in a low voice as she pulled up in front of her building.
“Should I be concerned?” he asked. She drummed her fingers on the wheel and shook her head.
“Do you think you should?” she asked. Reverse psychology always worked with her.
“I will talk to you tomorrow, Emily. Sweet dreams.”
“Speechless, Mr. Brewer?” she heard him sighing through the phone.
“No. I am never speechless, Emily. You know that.”
Emily unbuckled her seatbelt and grabbed her bags before she got out of the car. She locked the car and walked up to the front door.
“Then what is going on if you’re not speechless, Alex? Because you’ve been quiet for almost three whole minutes,” she said.
“I’m quiet because the way you are talking is making me think of having you in ways that I don’t think you are ready for just yet,” Alex said.
Emily felt herself blush as she walked into her building. She could feel her heart pounding hard in her chest as she began making her way up the stairs.
“Things like what?” she asked in a low voice.
“I told you, Emily. I don’t think you are ready for it just yet.”
Emily ran her fingers through her hair. The more he held out, the more she wanted to know what he was on about.
“Alex…” she started saying as she got to her door.
“Emily, if I tell you what I want to do to you I will have to come over and get you. And I will punish you for making me so damn horny,” he said in a cold almost harsh tone.
Emily pictured herself bound to his bedposts ready for whatever he wanted to give her and she felt a wetness in her panties. She wasn’t sure she was ready for ‘whatever’ he had in mind but she most definitely wanted to experience it.
“Now is that what you want?” Alex asked in a low tone. She was breathing hard and deep. “Emily, if that is what you want, tell me and I will come right over,” he said again. She took a long deep breath.
“I would love you to come over but…” she couldn’t finish her statement.
“Never mind that. What’s for dinner?”
“I’m not sure. April’s cooking.”
There was another long silence before Alex finally talked.
“I will see you tomorrow, Emily,” he said in a soft voice.
“See you tomorrow,” she said before she hang up. Emily exhaled loudly. Her cheeks were hot and she had half a mind to go right back downstairs, get into her car and drive to Alex’s place. She pulled out the Bluetooth device and put in her bag before she opened the door. She could immediately smell something delicious cooking.
“Emily! Is that you?” Emily heard April calling from the kitchen.
“Who else would it be?” Emily asked as she put her stuff on the couch before she kicked off her shoes. She was smiling as she walked to the kitchen. “Damn, that smells really good,” she said as she walked to the simmering pot and looked inside.
“Go wash up. We are having mashed potatoes and beef in red wine,” April said as she poured two glasses of wine. Emily was just about to walk out when April raised an eyebrow. “Wait a minute,” April said.
“What?”
“What were you up to today?” April asked.
“What are you talking about?” she asked as she looked at her cousin.
“Something’s different about you,” April said as she crossed her arms over her chest. “You’re glowing…or is it that you are blushing?”
“You’re crazy,” she said as she began walking back to the living room. She picked up her stuff and walked to the bedroom. But April was not giving up so easily.
“Seriously. What happened?” she pressed.
“Nothing. I just had a lot of work to do. That’s all,” she said as she began taking off her pant suit and put on an oversized t-shirt. “But it’s not like working late made any difference. I still have a ton of paperwork to get through,” she said as she pulled on some slacks. April watched her as she held up her auburn hair and then took off her earrings and necklace. She leaned against the doorpost and then walked over to the bed.
“That’s not it, Em. There is something else…I just can’t quite place my finger on it but it’s written all over you,” April said with a faraway look in her eyes. It was almost like she was reading Emily’s mind and Emily hated it. She felt like she had to justify herself in front of a parent or something.
“I really don’t know what you are going on about April,” she said before she walked to the bathroom and washed off her makeup. April was still wearing that weirdly annoying look when Emily walked back into the room.
“Why are you being so weird right now?” Emily asked as she walked out of the room. April sighed and shook her head.
“Remember when we were little and you and Alex would take off to the woods together without telling me?” April asked as the two of them walked into the dining room. Emily reached for one glass and took a long sip as April served up two plates of food. “You have the very same look now as you did back then,” she said in a soft voice.
“We only took off without telling you because you could never keep a secret, April,” Emily said as she sat down. April looked at her and shrugged.
“I was a little tattletale back then. Wasn’t I?” she asked as she set the plate in front of her.
“Yeah you were,” Emily was smiling. April sat down across the table from her and looked at her.
“Sweetie, why didn’t you tell me that you were given a mandatory bed rest because of working too hard?” she asked.
“How did you know? Who have you been talking to?” she asked. She wasn’t annoyed, she was just pissed off.
“That doesn’t matter. What really matters is that you are working yourself a little too hard, Em. It’s not healthy,” April said. Emily shook her head and shrugged. “You know exactly what I’m talking about. You have always worked yourself to the bone and what happened on that day was your body telling you…no screaming at you to take everything easy,” April said.
“Everything I do…I do it hard and you know that. I don’t know how to work any other way,” Emily said.
“Actually you know how to work smart sweetie. I think you just choose not to,” she said. Emily looked up at her and shrugged. “And you know what I found really strange?” April started as she took a bite of her food.
“What?” Emily asked. She took another sip of her wine and April raised an eyebrow.
“First off, you know that wine is just a mere accompaniment, right?” she asked. “Eat your food before it gets cold,” she added. Emily wanted to roll her eyes. Why was everyone giving her orders today? She took another sip of her wine and put her glass down sending a message to April to go on talking. “I talked to your assistant and honestly, I didn’t even know you had one given how hard you work,” she said. Emily smiled. “You do know the point of having an assistant is so that you don’t have to work so hard, right?” Emily laughed.
“You are the second person to say that to me in a span of two hours,” she said as she took a bite of her food and then looked at April, impressed.
“This is amazing,” she said in a low voice.
“I’ve been hanging out with this chick at the office. She took me to a gourmet cooking class.”
“I think you should both move out here,” Emily said as she took another bite. “I may never go to a restaurant again.”
“Wait until you taste my sirloin beef,” April said with a smile. “Perfection is an understatement,” she added almost proudly as she took another bite.
Emily smiled as she took another bite. She closed her eyes as she felt the flavors busting in her mouth.
“Seriously, you should move out here,” Emily said again.
“I guess we just have to see how this expansion goes. Maybe if everything goes well my bosses in Baltimore will let me make the move,” April said as she took a long sip of her wine. “But that will be kind of weird because…” her gaze fell. She looked at her cousin and smiled.
“What? Why will it be weird?” Emily asked.
“Well, I have kind of been seeing this guy back in Baltimore,” April said, her light cheeks flushing a bright crimson.
“What? Seriously…and you have been holding back on me all this time?” Emily asked excitedly. April looked at her and smiled.
“I’m sorry…I didn’t want to just come in guns blazing with this news. I had to be…subtle about it,” she said as she took another bite. “Especially since he is going to be coming into town in a couple of days.”
“He is coming here?” Emily asked surprised. “Oh come on, tell me about him. Tell me what he does, his name…everything!” she sounded like an overexcited teenager. April looked at her and laughed.
“Okay, one question at a time missy,” she said as she took another bite of her food. Emily followed suit and looked at her. “His name is Jake and he is a lawyer,” April started.
“Are you sure you are okay with losing every argument from here on out?” Emily asked with a smile. April nodded and then grinned widely.
“But that would insinuate that I wouldn’t be putting up a fight and you know very well that is not the kind of person I am.”
“You are crazy,” Emily laughed as she looked at her cousin.
“Crazy enough to date a lawyer, yes,” April said as she circled her finger on the glass rim. She looked up at Emily and shrugged. “You know, for the first time in a long time I can honestly say that I am happy. I am really, really happy,” she said with a smile.
Emily could hardly believe what she was hearing from April. The one person the entire family knew as emotionally handicapped. April was the kind of person who met someone and after a few dates of what she called great sex, she would just walk out of the relationship for something as silly as not liking the cologne the man wore. So, to have her admit that she was crazy about this new guy she had met…it was kind of a big deal.
“So, why exactly is he coming here?” Emily asked.
“Well, apart from you and great aunt Catherine, I have no more family and great aunt Catherine lives a few hours away and you are here….” April’s voice trailed off and Emily’s eyes grew wide.
“Are you telling me that you are bringing him here so that I can meet him?” Emily asked as she looked at her. April was toying with her fork as she nodded. “Oh my God,” Emily said in a low tone. Nothing was making sense. She was looking at her emotionally handicapped cousin who looked like she was actually and completely whooped.
“Is that going to be…a bad idea?” April asked as she looked at Emily who was just smiling.
“Are you kidding me? This is amazing!” Emily said excitedly. She looked at her cousin and smiled. “Just wondering by the way. This ‘woman’ you have been taking cooking classes with? Could it be Jake?” she asked.
“Come on, I actually did make friends in Baltimore,” she said matter-of-factly.
“Well good for you,” Emily said with a little more enthusiasm than she hoped to.
“Hey, I’m a human being not some dog that just came back with a ball you threw. So get rid of that tone,” April said waving her fork around. Emily thought that she kind of looked like her mother when doing that.
“I’m happy for you cuz,” she said as she looked at April.
“Thanks. Jake is…I don’t know, different,” April said in a low voice. She had a dreamy look in her eyes and at that moment, Emily saw her window. If she wasn’t going to tell April about her and Alex now, then she would probably never get a chance to.
“Since you have been so liberal with your good news, then maybe I should also tell you my own good news,” Emily started as she took a big piece of beef in her mouth.
“Okay,” April said in a low voice.
“I kind of have been seeing someone too,” she said in a soft voice. April’s eyes lit up, as if they were not already bright enough.
“Now who’s been holding out on who?” she asked excitedly. Emily looked at April and took a long deep breath.
“This is all relatively new. It hasn’t been long,” she started. “Just a month really,” she added.
“Come on Em, you are killing me with all this suspense. You are worse than watching an episode of Scandal,” April said as she drummed her fingers on the table.
“Yeah and the twist is going to be just as crazy,” she thought as she looked at April.
“Who is this mystery guy you have been seeing? Come on, pray tell.” April was begging. Emily took a bite of her food and then a sip of her wine before she put the glass down. “You need liquid courage to tell me who the new guy in your life is? How shocking is this going to be?” April asked as she looked at her cousin.
“You can’t hold out forever,” Emily thought as she looked at April. She took one last deep breath before she looked up at April. “I’m seeing Alex,” she finally said. April’s jaw almost dropped.
“Alex Brewer?” she asked and Emily nodded. “Your brother?”
“Stepbrother,” Emily pointed out. “Which doesn’t even count anymore because our parents divorced years ago…and by the way my mom is not his mom and his dad…well you get the gist,” she added. April smiled widely and then laughed as she shook her head.
“Maybe I really should have stayed back here. A whole lot is happening,” she said with a smile.
“So, that’s it. That’s all you are going to say?” Emily asked. April shrugged as she took a long sip of her wine.
“What’s there to say? You are happy. That’s all that matters,” she said. Emily smiled and took a sip of her wine. This had gone so much smoother than she had expected it to.