Chapter Twelve

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Dominic

 

 

 

Seated in front of the security monitors in the control room, I gaped at Davis, who was calmly flipping through pages on his clipboard. “Are you fucking with me right now?”

He didn’t even look up. “Nope.”

“You’re really sending me to babysit her at a concert for three days?”

“You don’t get the whole concept of this bodyguard thing, do you? Where she goes, you go.”

“Okay, but I’m not the only one who could go. What about what we talked about a couple weeks ago?”

“What about it? Is that going to be a problem?” His voice sharpened with this, his eyes pinning me down. My expression didn’t change.

“No. I just think it’s funny that you thought it was necessary to say something about taking me off the job, and now you’re sending me on a fucking vacation with her.”

“Yeah, I also said there wasn’t time to move you off the job, and this wasn’t my decision. Thomas wants you because of your experience working concerts. And I’m going, too, so don’t even think this is going to be a vacation. Not for us, anyway.”

I exhaled. “Fine, but I want an actual vacation when she goes back to school. I’m talking like a couple of weeks so I can go home and see my family.”

Davis nodded. “Send me an email requesting it, and I’ll get Thomas to approve it. No problem. You should go home for awhile. How long’s it been?”

“Over a year.” I hadn’t gone home since before I started working for the company. I loved the job and was extremely thankful for it, but I was also starting to feel kind of burned out and maybe a little homesick. That few days off with Lucas wasn’t nearly enough. I missed Cory. I missed Luke and even my mom, as insane as she made me.

Slightly mollified, I listened as Davis gave me the specifics of the job, namely that we’d be driving to the concert site upstate and staying in an executive suite at the Presidential Inn. Leah’s friend Audrey Shelton, the girl from the party the other night, would be accompanying us. We weren’t under any obligation to the friend, but unofficially she’d be in our radar the same as Leah.

The concert was three days and two nights long. I already felt exhausted just thinking of it. Concerts had never been my thing, and working security for them had killed any luster they might have had. I was kind of excited for Leah, though, and somewhat amazed that her dad was allowing it. My first instinct was to text her or go find her, which obviously I couldn’t do after my recent attempts to put some boundaries between us. I was going to do the job and keep it professional, deliver her safely back to her father, and then go back to Chicago to forget about everything for a while.

I called home the next day before work, and as usual my mom didn’t answer her phone so I called Luke’s instead. After about four rings, the call picked up with some rustling and then the small, tinny voice of my sister.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Cory. What are you doing answering your brother’s phone?”

“I was using Luke’s phone so I could make a video for my YouTube channel.” She said this with a casual sincerity that tried so hard to sound grown up. Meanwhile, my eyes popped open in disbelief.

“Wait, hold on. You have a YouTube channel?”

“Uh huh. I was showing my new dress Mama got me.” She giggled. “And I was showing Lucas but he didn’t want to be on it. He was making funny faces.”

I swear I was about to lose my mind. “Could you put your brother on the phone for me, please?”

Luke took the phone from Cory, and before I could say anything, he said, “She’s not on YouTube. She’s just playing, she makes videos on my phone and acts like she’s talking to her subscribers. It’s actually pretty funny. She’s all, ‘Hey, guys. Click the button below to subscribe to my channel’.”

My brother’s impression of Cory normally would have made me laugh, but I was still too bothered by the whole thing. “You’re not putting them on YouTube? I don’t want videos of her online.”

“Oh, my God. I’m not posting videos of my little sister anywhere. Why would I do that?”

“What about Mom? Mom would totally do that.”

“Mom would have to be aware of anything the kid does first. Seriously, dude. She’s just playing around. They all do it. Mike’s little sister comes over and they watch all these dumbass YouTubers and then they make their own videos. You’d know that if you were ever around.”

“Well, I’m sorry that I have a life out here and can’t be there all the time. That’s why I depend on you to take care of her.”

“And I do. A little fucking appreciation would be nice.”

“Watch your mouth around her, would you?”

“Go fuck yourself.” He made sure to say this nice and loud.

I took a steady breath, reigning in my temper. Beneath it, I was realizing I’d probably overreacted a little just now, which only made me more annoyed. “Look, you can’t keep giving me attitude because I live out here. You could come live out here after you graduate if you want it bad enough.”

“First of all, I give you attitude, as you call it, because you’re a dick. Second, how the fuck would I come out there? Or anywhere? Who would take care of Cory?”

I didn’t even have an argument to that, because he was right. And it pissed me off. She shouldn’t be Luke’s responsibility, but she was. Mom sure as hell wasn’t doing the job. And Cory’s dad, as far as I knew, had never expressed an interest beyond his designated weekends.

“Look, you’re right. And I know it sucks. Now that I’ve been with this company for over a year, I’m going to start taking more time off. Maybe come home for a few long weekends throughout the year.”

“Don’t do us any favors. We do fine without you. Your guilt is all on you. Maybe you should do something about that, like, I don’t know. Get a girlfriend or something.”

“I’ll get right on that,” I said flatly. “Anyway, even though you’re a little shit, I do appreciate you watching out for Cory. I know you do a good job. I just hate that it’s all on you.”

“Because you don’t trust me.”

“I trust you, it’s just…”

“You know that’s bullshit. Don’t even lie. You don’t trust me with her.”

“No, it’s just that you’re too young to be having to raise Mom’s kid. Mom’s the one I don’t trust. Believe me, I’d feel more comfortable with Cory under your watch any day. I’m glad you’re there for her. I just wish you didn’t have to be.”

“She’s my sister.” For once, there was no bite to Luke’s voice. Just a quiet ferocity that kind of took me by surprise. “I like being with her.”

I felt like even more of an asshole then. Luke was right. I hated the entire situation back home and took it out on him, when he was the one holding it all together. Yeah, he fucked up sometimes, but who didn’t? No, he wasn’t parent of the year, but he wasn’t Cory’s parent. And he still probably did a better job than most of the actual parents in our neighborhood. His constant attitude toward me made it really difficult to give him props, but I went ahead and gave it my best.

“I know. I do appreciate you, Luke. She’s lucky to have you.”

His response was a long belch in my ear, and I heard Cory crack up with laughter in the background. “Eat me, fuckwad.”

I’d walked into that one, really. “Alright. Let me talk to Cory again.”

Ethan came in the front door just after I hung up from Cory. I hadn’t seen him for a couple days, which wasn’t unusual. I saw him more often now that I was working nights, but he usually stayed over at Sean’s and, at most, I saw him for an hour or so before work.

“Hey,” he greeted. “You headed to work?”

“Yeah, here in a bit.” I noticed right away he seemed kind of anxious and exhausted, like he hadn’t had much sleep. His curly black hair was sticking up all over the place, and he looked even paler than normal. Watching him hover in place and fidget with his hands, I briefly wondered if he was high.

“Do you have a minute before you go? There’s something I wanted to tell you.”

I hated when people opened a conversation like that. Don’t tell me that you have something to tell me, because I immediately get a dozen half-formed possibilities swimming in my head, and none of them are ever good. Perching on the arm of the sofa, I narrowed my eyes and gestured for him to go ahead.

“Okay, first…” His hands clenched together in front of him, like he was holding in his excitement. “Sean and I are getting married. He asked me last night!”

Well, that was good news, not what I’d been envisioning at all. I got to my feet and went to give him a brief hug. “Congratulations. I always knew you guys were meant for each other. Seriously, dude, I’m so happy for you.”

“Thanks. We want to do it next spring. I’d go to the courthouse tomorrow if we could, but he wants all his family there with a whole big thing, so that’s that. Like, I don’t care so much about the wedding, I just want to be married and go on a sweet honeymoon in Costa Rica – I already have that picked out, by the way. He gets the big wedding, I get the honeymoon to Costa Rica.”

“I’m kind of envious over here,” I said with a chuckle. “Of the vacation, I mean. Not the wedding.”

Ethan smirked. “Figured that’s what you meant. But, yeah, I’m super excited, and I kind of wanted to toss some ideas around with you.”

“With me?” I asked, somewhat confused. I wasn’t sure what I had to do with their wedding or honeymoon.

“Yeah. No plans have been made exactly, not yet, it’s still so new, but since you’re my roomie I want to make sure you’re included in any discussions.”

“Um, that’s okay, that’s not really my…”

Business, I started to say. Ethan interrupted me, obviously seeing my confusion.

“The apartment, I mean.”

Oh. That. “You’ve talked about moving in with him, so I guess I figured that’s what you’d be doing.”

“Yeah. That’s probably not going to happen, and here’s why. Sean sublets from his sister Jane. We recently found out Jane is pregnant and needs the apartment back. There’s a whole weird mess with the baby daddy, I didn’t really want to ask too much about it.  She said we could stay there with her, but I don’t know. Living with a baby isn’t really how I want to start my marriage off.”

“No, of course not.” I couldn’t blame him there. And this was his apartment. We were both on the lease, but he lived here first. Fuck, this had the possibility to really suck. “So you want to move in here.”

“I mean, not until after we get married. And we haven’t made any definite decisions. But it might be looking that way, and I just wanted to give you a heads up. Of course, you could still stay here if you wanted. I’d never just kick you out.”

But I doubted they wanted to live with me any more than they wanted to live with a crying newborn. Which meant I’d most likely need to find a new place to live, either taking my chances on another roommate when I’d been ready to leave the roommate situation behind, or finding a place of my own that was affordable and bigger than a closet. In Brooklyn. Which meant I was probably fucked. “Thanks,” I said. “Don’t worry about it. We’ll figure something out.”

 

 

Leah had been keeping her distance from me ever since our talk, even during outings when I was driving her around and following her ass everywhere. She wasn’t a bitch, just distant, like I was any other guy her father employed. It was what I wanted, and what I hated, all at once. I knew her too well for this by now. She wasn’t a cold rich girl who looked past people like they weren’t there. She was a cute, awkward smart ass who was too sweet and friendly for her own good. I found myself wanting to snap her out of it, because she was taking it too far. She could act like a damn human being with me without crossing the line.

The only hint of recognition I got from her was the weekend before we left, when she was on the phone working out the details of her trip. I came in on the tail end of the conversation, and from the few sentences I heard, I assumed she was talking to Audrey Shelton. I’d already been given a full briefing of Ms. Shelton, on top of the research I’d done on my own. My research mostly consisted of stalking her online, but I’d gotten a feel for her. She was blond and tiny with a wide smile that showed no insecurities or doubt. She was a journalism major at Boston University. Photos online showed her traveling to exotic places and binge drinking. Davis was already calling her “T” in private, short for Trouble.

“Hey,” Leah greeted me as she ended her call. She smiled for about two seconds, warm and friendly, before her face clouded over. “Do you need something?”

“What time are you wanting to get to the hotel on Thursday?”

“I’m not sure. Maybe by seven? That way we can get all settled in and go get dinner somewhere before we head to the festival on Friday.”

I nodded. “We’ll leave here by three-thirty, then. Any chance your friend can meet us here so we don’t have to drive in to Manhattan to get her?”

“It would be easier for her if we could go get her. I mean, she’s paying for my ticket, it’s the least I can do.”

I sighed. It had been a long shot. “We’ll leave here by two-thirty, then. Be ready, okay?”

She nodded, and then a hint of that smile from before heated her face, like she couldn’t keep it down. I lingered for a minute just to stare at her.

“I can’t believe your dad’s actually letting you go,” I said. I’d barely heard her the night she told me about it, brushing it off as an impossibility and focusing on putting some walls between us. Something that I now regretted, as necessary as it was.

She angled a glance behind her, like she thought he might be standing there. Relaxing, she turned back to me and said, “I’m still in shock. I mean, I had to listen to a two hour lecture about answering my phone at all times, not doing drugs or anything that involves public nudity, and basically not doing anything that would embarrass him. But, yeah. He actually agreed.”

“Well, congratulations. In all seriousness, you deserve it. Make up for all those Disneyworld rides you never got to go on as a kid.”

“Oh, I fully intend to. I’m going to cross off everything on my summer bucket list during those three days, so I hope you’re prepared.”

“Bucket list, huh?” That sounded intriguing.

She shrugged. “Figuratively speaking.”

“Well, don’t worry about me. I’m always prepared. You make sure you’re prepared. Two-thirty on Thursday.”

“I’ll be ready.” An impish flash of smile assaulted me just before she left the room. I was so fucked.