“Since when do you smoke from a vape? You’ve always been a fresh flower or edible type, no?”
“What can I say? When in Rome, I guess,” I joke, scanning my options. My brother scoffs, taking over by grabbing me a pink dual-chamber vape pen.
“Here, you’ll like this. It’s guava flavored on one side, and lemon on the other. Sativa.”
I thank him and we make our way to the lounge area.
He waits until I tear the package open and suck in a hit to go on. “He’s been bothering you?”
“Define bothering.”
“You know what I mean. Has he done something recently to warrant us taking care of him?”
Let’s see, he’s schemed his way into my previous place of employment, put his slimy hands on me, harassed me by getting new numbers to contact me from after I’ve blocked him, to name a few. But I don’t want to tell my brother that. If he, or any of them find that out, it’ll start a war. A war with James means the façade they maintain with my dad will go up in flames, and none of us need that. Our family has gone through enough. It may not be healthy but it’s a hell of a lot easier to sweep things under the rug than to deal with that shit storm.
“No,” I lie.
“How’s your boyfriend feel about him?”
“He’s not my boyfriend.” I keep my voice low.
“Hold up, you mean to tell me that man who practically has cartoon hearts swirling around his head when he’s around you isn’t your boyfriend? Bullshit.” Emotion thickens in his throat, he’s trying his best to push it down. “Hell, it reminds me of how I looked at Ella.”
It’s been a couple years since his wife Ella died, leaving behind him and my niece.
She was the love of his life, his high school sweetheart, and I know that no matter how much time passes, nothing will fill the hole her passing left in his heart.
“It’s complicated.”
“Uncomplicate it then.”
“That’s easier said than done,” I mumble.
“Lay it on me.”
“He’s my boss.”
Liam’s brows lift, ripe with curiosity.
“Well, sort of.”
And they straighten just as fast, confused.
“I got a temporary position as his paralegal. He’s sort of my boss.”
“Okay, I got that part. So why is your kind of sort of boss here with you, looking at you the way he does?”
“Because his boss wants him to pitch a business idea to dad.”
He shakes his head. “No. That’s not all. Business proposal or not, I clocked immediately the way he was looking at you. That doesn’t scream business or professional to me. What are you not telling me?”
If there’s one thing about my siblings and I, is that we are all stubborn in our own way. And Liam is probably the most stubborn out of us all. He won’t stop asking until I give him the information he needs.
“I kind of married him,” I confess, just as he takes a hit from his vape.
Choking on the smoke, he wafts away the remnants of his hit before looking at me.
“I’m sorry. Did you just say you kind of married your boss?”
