Lola

WITH A GRUNT, I tossed my phone to my feet at the other end of the couch and fell back on one of the toss pillows that littered my fluffy couch, returning the bag of frozen peas to my nose. After the abuse from that stupid glass wall earlier that morning it still hurt like a mother.

“Who are you texting?” Sophia asked, pushing my feet off the couch so she could sit down. I lifted the frozen peas just long enough to shoot her a killing look and prop my legs across her lap.

“Nobody,” I answered sullenly.

She hummed. “Doesn’t look like nobody to me. Who’s Lord Voldemort?”

Okay… yes, I was a total nerd who was in love with Harry Potter — so sue me. I was a hot chick with enough boobs and ass to guarantee my obsession with fantasy novels wouldn’t hinder my chances of getting laid. I was golden. “So, there are these books about a boy wizard who travels to a place he never knew existed by way of a hidden portal in a train station so he can attend this magic school called Hogwarts, all the while never knowing he’s being hunted by an evil, sinister—”

She smacked my leg to shut me up. “I know who Lord Voldemort is, you ass. I’ve seen the movies.”

I shrugged and tossed the bag of peas onto the coffee table. “The books were better.”

“Wouldn’t know,” she said casually, lifting one of my wineglasses full of my wine to her lips — the bitch. “Only reason I saw any of them was because someone said that hot dude from the Twilight movies was in one of them.”

I sucked in a gasp of outrage as I shot up, snatching the wineglass from her hand. “Blasphemy! This is mine and you can’t have any.” I chugged the rest of the wine and held it out for a refill, waving it around haughtily like Sophia was my servant and she needed to fetch me more.

“Get your own damn wine,” she laughed, slapping my hand away. “I meant who’s the person you have saved in your phone under Lord Voldemort?”

I let out a frustrated sigh as I stood from the couch, walked over to my kitchen island, and refilled my wine. “He’s our bastard of a boss who conned me into dating him at the threat of losing my job. Remember?” I spouted off as I pulled a second wineglass from the built-in rack next to my state-of-the-art wine fridge beneath the marble countertop of the island. I filled it to the rim for Sophia — because I was a good friend like that — and made my way back to the couch, handing one of the glasses to her before sitting back down.

“You really think it’s smart to call your boss an asshole?” she asked with a quirk of her perfectly sculpted ebony eyebrow.

Tucking my legs beneath me, I turned my body to face Sophia straight on. “I gave it serious consideration, then decided to go with my gut, and my gut said, ‘Call the bastard an asshole, Lola!’”

“I don’t know.” She shrugged casually. “This might not be such a bad thing. I mean, he’s really hot. You could do a lot worse.”

I let out an indignant snort. “You’re kidding me, right? The man’s the devil! He forced my hand! I was under duress.”

Sophia rolled her eyes at my dramatics. “This isn’t a court and I’m not a judge. You don’t have to try and defend yourself to me. All I’m saying is that it doesn’t hurt that he’s pleasant to look at. Better than being stuck on the arm of an uggo. Oh, don’t give me that look,” she chided when my face scrunched in anger. “I know you, and I know you think the guy is gorgeous. That’s why you’re so pissed about this whole thing.”

“You… I can’t even… that’s so not….” She gave me a smug look when I couldn’t form a proper argument. “Ugh! You’re such a bitch. You know that, right?”

“I do. That’s why you love me. Besides—” She took a long sip of wine. “—I saw the way he was looking at you. He’s totally interested.”

I paused. I actually paused. I hated myself for feeling a twinge of pleasure at what Sophia had just said. “You think? Really? Wait… no! I don’t care. I don’t. He’s stupid and a jerk and… yeah, he might be totally gorgeous, but he’s… he’s….”

Sophia had the nerve to laugh at me. “An asshole?”

“Yep!” I gulped down my wine in a very unladylike fashion.

She laughed again just as I lowered the glass from my lips and let out a satisfied “Ahhh.” She’d just opened her mouth to say something else — undoubtedly something that would piss me off for her own amusement — when the sharp trill of my cell phone sounded from its place on the coffee table. Sophia’s eyes darted to the screen, her lips curling like she got an awful whiff of poo or something. It made her look positively feral as she let out a curse at the name on the display.

“That’s my cue to leave,” she snapped as she set her glass on the coffee table and stood.

“I’m sorry,” I said softly, understanding how even seeing his name was enough to hurt her, but hating that I’d spent years stuck in the middle of two people I loved, all because my brother was an epic prick.

Sophia leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to my forehead. “Don’t worry about it, babe. I’ll see you tomorrow, okay?”

“’Kay. Good night,” I called just as she opened the door to my apartment, pulling the strap of her purse higher onto her shoulder.

“You too, sweets.” Then she was gone.

I let out a huff and slid my thumb across the screen of my phone. “Dominic,” I answered smartly. “To what do I owe the pleasure? Bail money? Need help finding the name of a good attorney who can fight your latest paternity suit? No, wait… I know. You’re calling to tell me someone gave you syphilis and it’s slowly deteriorating your brain.”

“Always so colorful, little sister,” his deep voice reverberated through the line. “I’ve missed you too.”

A twinge of guilt pierced at my chest. No matter how angry I was at Dom for having broken Sophia’s heart years before — and no matter that I’d sided with her because Dominic had been wrong, so very, very wrong — I still loved the bastard. It was a curse to love the men in my family, even though I didn’t necessarily like them because of the shitty choices they’d made.

“I have missed you,” I sighed. “Sorry for being a bitch. It’s been a rough day.”

“No worries, I’m used to it,” he chuckled. “Let me guess, Sophia’s with you?”

My eyebrows shot up. “She was… until she saw your name on my phone. How did you know?”

“You have a tendency to be short with me when she’s around.”

I hadn’t realized he’d ever caught on to that. Not that I should’ve been all that surprised. For someone who could be extremely selfish when it came to other people’s feelings, Dominic had always been good at reading moods. He just had a nasty habit of not caring enough.

“Can you really blame me?” I asked, a hint a venom in my voice.

“No, I haven’t blamed you for years. Why start now?” He went silent for a few seconds before asking, “So how is she? Sophia, I mean. Is she… good?”

“Oh no, you don’t. Nuh-uh. We don’t talk about her, remember? That was the deal to keep my sanity intact. I don’t discuss you with her, and I don’t discuss her with you.”

He let out a weary sigh that floated through the receiver and had my back stiffening in discomfort. It wasn’t normal for Dom to sound so melancholy. “Fine. I won’t ask about her.”

“Thank you,” I replied, still on edge at the tone of his voice. “What’s going on with you? What’s wrong? You don’t sound like yourself.”

He sighed again. “Nothing. I’m good, just….”

“Just what?” I pushed when he stopped talking.

“It’s nothing. Don’t worry about me. Tell me what’s new with you. Mom already got on my ass today about bearing her grandbabies. I’m guessing that means you already got the lecture from her first?”

I laughed and reclined into the plush cushions of the sofa, resting my head on the arm. “Oh yeah, I got that call yesterday. Not sorry at all to admit I threw you under the bus, big brother. After I stomped all over her dreams of me popping out little baby Abbatellis.” Dom’s full-blown laughter rang down the line when I admitted I might have hinted that he was her only chance.

“Poor Mom,” he chuckled after a few seconds of uncontrollable laughter. “Between you and me, the likelihood of her ever holding a grandbaby is slim to none. Think she knows that?”

“Oh, I’m sure somewhere deep, deep down she does. She just refuses to accept it.”

“True.”

I found myself smiling at the humor in my brother’s voice, though there was an undercurrent of something I couldn’t quite read in him as we continued to talk. I couldn’t remember the last time we’d just talked, had a conversation that had no purpose other than to fill the other in on our lives. He told me of the stress he was feeling at the office. Apparently, working for our father wasn’t all it was cracked up to be, and he found himself running around, cleaning up after Dad and preventing potential sexual harassment suits rather than doing his job. He talked about desperately needing a vacation and how he’d been thinking of coming to Seattle to visit me.

I told him about the show and the fiasco with the “In the Act” segment. He laughed his ass off when I told him all about the deal with the devil I’d been forced into with Grayson Lockhart.

“Grayson Lockhart, Lola? Seriously?” Another round of raucous laughter.

“You know him?”

“I know the name,” Dominic replied. “Hell, most people around the country know his name. His father is only the founder of one of the country’s largest broadcasting companies ever. They have stations in almost every state, New York and Seattle being two of their biggest. What I can’t believe is that you didn’t know any of this. What, have you been living under a fucking rock? The guy’s your boss! Grayson Lockhart and his father make Dad’s company look like nothing more than a lemonade stand.”

“Well how was I supposed to know?” I defended. “It’s not like I pay attention to this shit. You know my attention span’s always been small.”

“Oh, baby sis,” Dom snickered. “Congratulations. You just landed yourself one of the country’s most eligible bachelors. And all you had to do was publicly humiliate him.”

“Don’t be a prick,” I snapped.

“Who knows, maybe Mom’s hope for grandkids isn’t dead in the water after all.”

I was going to murder my brother. As I had a nasty tendency of doing when I felt backed into a corner, I spoke without thinking. “The likelihood of that ever happening is lower than Sophia forgiving you.” I instantly regretted the words as soon as they left my mouth.

Dominic remained silent for so long I began to worry that I’d truly offended him. When he spoke, it was with a question I certainly hadn’t expected.

“You really think she’ll never forgive me?”

I closed my eyes with a heavy sigh, reaching up to rub the spot between my eyes. “I honestly don’t know, Dom. Could you blame her if she didn’t? I mean, you cheat—”

“I know what I did,” he interrupted, his voice short. “You don’t have to remind me.”

“Look.” I let out a guilt-riddled breath. “I don’t want to fight with you, okay? It was wrong of me to even say that. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it, shorty. You know I can’t stay mad at you.”

Usually, his nickname for me grated on my nerves. I was aware I was height-challenged. It was why I lived in high heels. But I didn’t mind it so much just then.

Trying to change the subject to something safer, I asked, “Are you serious about coming to Seattle?”

“I….” He paused, seemingly giving my question serious thought. “Yeah, I am. I need a break, a change of scenery. You think you could put me up for a bit?”

I found myself smiling at the thought of some quality time with my brother. Truth was, when he was out from under our father’s thumb, he wasn’t so bad. Where I’d spent my life subjected to my mother’s dramas, Dominic had always felt the pressure to follow in our father’s footsteps… even in the worst ways. “I think I have an old sleeping bag and air mattress around here somewhere,” I joked.

“Good to know.” He chuckled, and I could tell by his lighter tone that all was forgiven. “It’s getting late, and I’m beat. We’ll talk about it more later, yeah?”

“Yeah. Love you, bro.”

“Love you too, shorty.”

We hung up and I went about my nighttime ritual of getting ready for bed. I turned out all the lights in the living area and headed for my room, stripping out of my dress in exchange for one of my soft, silky nighties. I twisted my mass of long dark hair into a knot on the top of my head, washed and moisturized my face, and brushed my teeth before turning out the bedroom light and slipping between my sheets.

I snuggled down into my cozy bed, ready for the Sandman to take over, but just as I started to doze, Grayson’s tantalizing smile and twinkling greens popped up behind my eyelids, and I felt my skin break out into goose bumps.

Damn it. That sexy, sinful jerk was even screwing with my REM. All the more reason to hate him.