Lily
Our little romp ran long, so the SEC prep work turned into a working dinner, with Sebastian going over his papers while Connor, Johnny, Anh, and I paid more attention to our duck confit and wine.
Finally Sebastian got frustrated and slapped down his papers. “You can’t treat this so nonchalantly!”
“Let’s talk about the wedding, then,” I said.
“Oh God… no… please,” Connor pleaded.
“Shut up!” I laughed.
“We have until the wedding,” Sebastian said. “Which will be ruined by the tuberoses, but that’s another story.”
“Hey!”
“The SEC meeting is tomorrow, and if we don’t handle this, it could have massive repercussions, and – ”
“Sebastian, chill,” Connor snapped. “Why are you going crazy over this?”
“I’m not going crazy over this,” Sebastian sniffed. “It’s just a very important meeting and – ”
“And you’re totally PMSing about it,” Connor said.
“HEY!” both Anh and I shouted together.
“Sorry,” Connor apologized. “But he is.”
“Why’s it always got to be about PMS when somebody’s cranky?” I said, pretending to be annoyed, but really just teasing him. “Why can’t he be… blueballing?”
“Yeah – he’s totally blueballing,” Anh agreed enthusiastically, then blushed and shrank down in her seat when we all looked at her.
“Guys,” Sebastian said. I could see the imaginary pressure gauge over his head slowly building up. He hated raunchy talk.
“That’s not even a word,” Connor said.
“You’re a guy, and you’re arguing that ‘blue balls’ is not a thing?”
“Oh, it’s a ‘thing,’ alright,” Connor said. “But ‘blueballing’ is not a word.”
“Well, it’s totally a word now.”
“You don’t get to say it’s a word just because you made it up.”
“Guys,” Sebastian said, louder now.
“Oh, I’m getting ‘blueballing’ in the next edition of Webster’s. Believe you me,” I said.
“I’m pretty sure it’s already in UrbanDictionary.com,” Anh said, then blushed again when everyone looked at her.
I nodded decisively. “See? UrbanDictionary.com.”
“My guess is it relates more to a sensation of discomfort, rather than an emotional state,” Connor said. “Johnny? What do you say?”
Johnny shook his head. “I’m not even getting in this conversation.”
“Wimp,” Connor said good-naturedly.
“All it takes is for us to get it into common usage,” I said. “We’ll just start slipping it into regular conversations. You can even use it in your shareholder letters.”
“Really.”
“Yeah! Like – ‘Profits might have dropped 1.4% in the previous quarter, but don’t blueball about it,’” I said, trying to remain serious and not laugh. It wasn’t working.
“Oh my God,” Connor said, closing his eyes.
Anh was laughing, too. “‘Analysts may be blueballing over stalled forecasts for Q4 – ’”
Now I was snorting from trying to keep in my laughter. “‘And the – the dividends will be reduced – but don’t go blueballing about it – ’”
“GUYS!” Sebastian yelled.
“Dude,” Connor said, then delivered the coup de grace. “Quit blueballing.”
That brought down the house. Anh was laughing so hard she was crying. My stomach muscles hurt. Connor was breaking down. Even Johnny was bent over, head on the table, his shoulders heaving as he howled with laughter.
Until Sebastian said loudly, “Miranda will be there.”
The laughter stopped almost immediately.
Miranda was Connor’s ex-fianceé.
Not only had she and Connor’s family blackmailed both him and me with a sex scandal, we were almost certain Miranda had been behind an attempt on Connor’s life.
“What?” Connor asked, now stone-cold serious.
Sebastian dropped his eyes. He knew he was treading in dangerous waters. “Miranda will be there.”
“When were you going to tell me this?”
Sebastian’s eyes flashed. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe when you started taking it seriously?”
Connor was furious. “Let me explain something to you – ”
I put my hand gently on his arm, and suddenly he stopped talking. He took a couple of deep breaths and regained his composure.
Sebastian took the brief respite to try to extricate himself. “I only found out about it before the helicopter ride over here. That’s why I wanted to do the prep work – ”
“You should have told me immediately.”
Sebastian dropped his eyes again like a sulky child.
“Why is she going to be there?” I asked Sebastian.
He was grateful for the lifeline I was throwing him; I could hear it in his voice. “Because Connor’s been pressuring regulators to scrutinize her firm’s stock offerings, so she’s demanding a meeting to hash it out with the SEC.”
I frowned. “I still don’t understand.”
“Because I’m going to destroy her for what she’s done,” Connor said darkly, “and now she’s running to tattle on me.”
“Essentially,” Sebastian agreed.
“Well, just refuse to see her,” I said to Connor.
“Oh, no, I’m looking forward to seeing her,” he growled.
The hatred he held for Miranda slightly unnerved me. Actually, it wasn’t his hatred, because I hated the bitch, too. She had hired a gunman to kill Connor, and then killed all the people in the chain who could have testified against her.
No, it was his bloodlust. His violent obsession with taking her down. Sometimes I felt that if she were in the room and Connor had a gun, he wouldn’t be able to hold himself back from murdering her.
That was what unnerved me.
“Well, problem solved,” I said. “She wants to see you, you want to chew her out – ”
“It’s not that simple,” Sebastian interrupted.
“And why’s that?” Connor asked.
“…because she’s demanding that Lily be present, too.”