“Or your brothers might surprise you. Besides, sometimes you have to start a fight to live the life you want, because being comfortable for everyone else makes you feel uncomfortable in your own skin. For thirty years, someone else dictated your fate. Maybe it's time to take the reins and see what happens. No matter how scary that is.”
“Thank you.”
She squeezes my shoulder and motions with her head toward the apartment. “I have to go now because I’m exhausted and starved. Give me a call once you've decided or whenever you want to talk. We can be friends once you get over your resentment toward me.”
My cheeks heat at the fact that she reads me so well, and I mutter, “Sorry.”
“It’s all right. I’m not perfect, and I have my own scars. So we aren’t much different, even though it seems I have my shit together. See you, pretty girl.” She kisses me on the cheek and, with a wave, disappears behind the curtains, her heels clicking loudly until she reaches the elevator, and by the way the thing dings, I know she’s gone.
The rain intensifies, and sipping some more of my tea, I walk farther out on the balcony until it falls on me, slowly soaking me up, while nature warns us about the upcoming storm…
One awakens inside me.
And this time around I don’t rein it in.
In fact, I let it spread chaos in my soul.
My life plays like a kaleidoscope in my mind, and I wonder if Scarlett is right.
Everyone who was supposed to protect me has failed me at some point.
Maybe I should see what happens when I’m the one who tries to protect myself.
At least if I fail…
I won’t have anyone else to blame, and that would be a nice change.
Levi
I light the cigarette in my mouth and take a greedy pull from it, watching Lavender standing under the rain, her delicate body on full display for me.
My hands itch to grab her, to sink my fingers into her flesh while fear and arousal fill her green eyes, tempting me with their existence alone.
My phone rings, and I pick it up, pressing the loudspeaker button and exhaling the smoke. “What are you doing?” The annoyed female voice promises a rather difficult conversation. That was to be expected.
The woman is a shark and leaves no crumbs once she tastes blood.
“Whatever do you mean, Miss Harrison?”
“Cut the crap, Levi. You’re the one who slipped the copy of Juaquine Wright’s will under my office door.”
Leaning my chair and taking yet another drag of my cigarette, I watch as Lavender laughs and twirls under the rain, her tea spilling all over her hand from the action. “What gave me away?”
“The way you stare at her. I know an obsessed man when I see one, and I’m warning you.”
“Oh, you are? Didn’t know you were a comedian, Scarlett.”
The woman has my respect for what she endured and for how she built a whole new life around her trauma, and watching her work is art to a lawyer student like me.
However, that’s about it.
“If you kidnap or blackmail her to do anything she doesn’t want to do, I’ll be putting your ass behind bars and setting the Wright twins loose on you. Lavender doesn’t need yet another man who takes away her choices.”
I exhale more smoke before tapping the cigarette in the ashtray. “Scarlett, if I were you, I’d appreciate my giving youinformation that helped your client. You need to learn a thing or two about gratitude.”
“Gratitude is earned when one does something selflessly, and you slipping that will was as selfish as it gets.”
“Yet you still used it to your advantage. You might hate the game, but you sure as fuck love to play it, Scarlett.”
