Chapter 16

Wesley

 

 

“Wesley, dear, it’s so good to see you!” My great-aunt Shelly bursts through my door in her usual array of violently-bright clothing, with a wide smile on her face. For a woman in her early eighties, she’s still surprisingly energetic.

Shelly is the one member of my extended family that I’ve ever really been close to. Ever since I was a kid, she’s been around, hovering on the outskirts of the fancy family upbringing I was accustomed to. Everyone else was a businessman, a CEO, an entrepreneur… but Shelly was always just herself.

No one is quite sure how she ended up the way she is. Rumor has it that she left the state for about a decade after she dropped out of an unnamed Ivy League school and gallivanted all around the country doing God-knows-what - but then again, it’s totally possible she just lived quietly. Either way, she popped up in the family’s orbit not long after I was born, and never left again.

“What’re you doing here, Auntie?” I still call her that, even after all these years. Anything else would just sound strange. “I told you I was going to be on vacation all week - how did you know I was back?”

“I know lots of things, honey. Don’t need your receptionist to tell me any of them, either.” Shelly perches on the edge of my desk, her rainbow poncho (which she proudly sewed and dyed herself), pooling around her. “Besides, it’s Monday, and the only way to beat the Monday blues…”

“…is to have lunch in twos.” I finish the old, silly limerick that she and I have been trading back and forth for years, with a smile.

Back when I was a sullen teenager and didn’t have any friends at school, I’d sneak off campus and meet Shelly at the diner around the corner. I think that’s where the saying started, as her way of trying to cheer me up on one particularly messy Monday, during which I was fretting about failing an exam or being turned down for a date, or something. There were a lot of those kind of Mondays though, so who knows.

“I’d love to, but honestly I really am swamped today,” I tell her. “Apparently I can’t leave the office for more than a few hours, let alone a week, without someone losing their mind and pulling some ridiculous stunt - ”             

“- You mean like hiring that new coffee girl as a Junior Realtor?” Aunt Shelly’s quirky smile grows.

“Seriously, how do you know all these things? Maybe I should just go on vacation after all and leave you in charge.”

“I know because I ran into her in the hallway, and your energy was all over her… and now I come in here, and her energy is all over you too.”

Shelly has always been what my dad derisively referred to as “hippie-dippy”, and this kind of talk is nothing new from her. The way she sees it, life is all about connection and energy and the bonds we make with one another - ironic, considering what a black sheep she is to the rest of my idiot family.

“Energy, huh?” I push back in my chair and raise an eyebrow.

“Don’t you mock me, Wesley. I felt it as soon as I saw her, and then again as soon as I walked into this room. You two have something brewing between you.”

“She’s only been here for two days! Besides, even if I did ‘have a thing’ for her, there wouldn’t be anything to do about it. I’m her boss, she’s my employee. And she’s so much younger than me. I couldn’t - ”

“Oh yes you could. Wesley, you always let yourself get too caught up in the rules of the business world. You think everything has to be neat and by the numbers for you. Just because she’s younger than you doesn’t mean there can’t be anything there. And consent trumps a business arrangement any day. She’s of age, she’s mature and smart - and you’re already falling for her, aren’t you? You can tell me. I’m not your father.”

I let out a long breath, feeling somewhere between frustrated and bemused. She’s not wrong… and I did see something in Mariah’s eyes when she looked at me in the lobby. Right?

Truth is, I have no idea, so I decide now’s the time to change the subject. “Speaking of Dad, why weren’t you at the country house for dinner the week before my vacation? We missed you.”

Shelly snorts a laugh.

“Okay, I missed you. How’s that?”

“More like the truth.” We both know my parents, especially my father, haven’t got any use for someone as flamboyant and esoteric as Shelly. She pops in and out as she pleases, but that’s almost entirely due to the fact that my father just can’t be bothered trying to swat her away anymore.

“I missed your father’s stuffy dinner because I was in the hills with a farmer friend of mine. He’s starting a few new plots, and I told him I’d help him out in exchange for a share of the bounty of one in particular…” She mimes puffing on a joint, and I can’t help but laugh.

“Really?”

“It helps with my arthritis.” She winks. “Besides, I bet I didn’t miss anything unusual.”

“Nope, just the same old stuff. Dad wondering why I’m not just bringing him piles of money in a wheelbarrow, and Mom sitting there cutting her food into tiny pieces and lamenting her lack of grandchildren.”

“Those two really do have a serious lack of imagination, don’t they? If I had that house to myself I’d never run out of things to do and enjoy.”

“And you’d turn the backyard into a hemp field.”

“Probably. Why not? It’s a lucrative business.”

Mentioning it again, all those old frustrations start welling up in my head. “I’m just sick of it, you know? I’m never going to be good enough for them. I took my vacation just to get away from the whole thing, and it didn’t help one bit.”

Shelly hops off the desk and peers out my window. “Listen, Wesley, your father’s been a blowhard businessman for the last 50 years. It’s probably too late for him to change that, mostly because he doesn't want to. But you…”

“What about me? I’m just like him.”

Shelly turns towards me, and her expression is suddenly serious. “Don’t you talk like that. You’re not like him. Want to know the first clue as to why? It’s because you have enough self-awareness to be concerned about it. What you’re doing, and how you’re doing it? It’s admirable. And it makes you happy. You didn’t promote the new woman because she’s hot - even though she is, and I’d kill for that figure – you promoted her because you saw a spark that reminded you of yourself. I saw it too.”

I fiddle with a pen, not sure what to say.

“No need to thank me. That’s your Monday pick-me-up, free of charge.” She winks, and the smile comes back to her face. “All right, if you really do need to catch up on work, I’ll leave you to it. But next week, no excuses. You owe me a lunch. Somewhere fancy.”

“You got it, Auntie.” With that, she’s out the door…and I’m left contemplating just how right she is about all of this. My first instinct is to try and reject what she said, but I can’t, really. She’s not wrong, and she knows it as well as I do.

I’m probably so dumb for falling for this new girl. But I can’t seem to help it. And my wise old Aunt Shelly is encouraging me to go for it – so, it looks like that’s exactly what I’m going to have to do.