The girls must have caught onto whatever stupid grin is on my face because they’ve stopped the interrogation and they’re both staring at me. I raise my eyebrows at them.
“Who areyoutexting?” Kennedy asks, leaning over to look at my phone and I let her have a peek.
“Evan,” I say, grimacing.
“And he’s making you laugh,” Wren mentions, tilting her head to the side.
“Yeah, at his stupidity,” I retort.
“Riiiight,” the girls say in unison, sounding like Kronk from‘The Emperor’s New Groove.’I get up, interrupting their overanalyses of a stupid half-smile that doesn’t mean anything.
“I’ve got to go. I need to go see my mom,” I say, brushing off my long skirt, readjusting my white top.
“If you’re going to meet Evan, you can tell us,” Wren says quietly. “We don’t hate him as much as you do.”
They don’t have a reason to. When they met him, he was his charming self that he puts up when they’re around. Opposite to our first interaction.
* * *
I know that every time I walk into my house, my mom is going to be on some sort of new rant. I don’t know why I get surprised anymore. This time, she’s going on about how she won’t know what to do if my dad doesn’t pull through: immediately going to the worst case scenario. My dad will pull through. He has to.
My parents had the picture-perfect wedding, all five of their kids being able to attend. I had only just learnt to walk, so I was a little wobbly going down the aisle in the pictures, but there is no doubt that my parents are so sickly in love with each other. You’d think that after twenty years of marriage and thirty-five years of being together, they’d dial it down, but no. They remind me of a modern day Morticia and Gomez Addams, constantly all over each other, never being afraid to show off their love to us kids.
That’s why it hits so hard that my dad isn’t here to be the rock for my mom. She is an independent woman, and she always has been, but there’s a certain light in her eyes that can only be lit by my dad. She has been with my dad beforeVossgot popular and that grounded both of them, knowing that they always chose each other, no matter what.
As the brand grew from clothing into designer accessories, you start to realise that the numbers on the spreadsheets you come across in your parents’ bedroom aren’t just little figures. The dollar sign means power and not everyone knows what to do with that kind of power.
My dad never lied to us about our competitors, and as a business student now, I know how important competition is, but I didn’t realise the dirty truths behind why some companies are so desperate to take the other down.
“You need to stop worrying, mom,” I say, stopping her pacing as she stalks around the coffee table in the living room. I guide her into her favourite plush violet chair, letting her settle in it before taking a seat across from her. “Gio is going to be thereifthings fall through. Which they won’t because dad is the strongest person I know.”
The mention of my uncle soothes her somehow and she nods, tapping her foot rhythmically. “Can I worry about you instead?”
“Why would you need to worry about me?” I laugh.
"Because you don't have a partner yet,” she says, sounding genuinely frightened that I won’t ever settle down. I’m twenty, for God’s sake. I do not need to be settling down. She adds with a pout, “Even Henry has a girlfriend."
"Yeah, because he's a manwhore," I say through another laugh.
"Don't call your brother a manwhore."
"It's true," I mutter, and she swats me on the arm. Honestly, I’ve called Hen a manwhore to his face and he just laughed at me, telling me he’s going to use that insult in the future and thanked me for my service. My mom doesn’t seem so happy about it though. Her deep brown brows are furrowed and she's gnawing at her bottom lip. "I'm fine, mom. I don't need a relationship right now. Dad's not here and you're doing okay, I think I can manage."
She sighs deeply. "Yes, because I have years of marriage to fall back on. Don't you want someone to take care of you? The same way me and your dad look out for each other. The way he took care of me when I was going through chemo."
The mentions of my mom’s battle with cancer sends a dagger straight through my heart. Those two years were probably the worst two years of my life, watching my mom slowly fade away while I couldn’t do anything to help. But she pulled through. She always does. And she’s been cancer-free for almost two years now.
"I don't need someone to look after me, mom. I have you, dad, myself and four brothers to do that,” I say proudly, holding up my chin.
"Scarlett, my love, we're going in circles here.” I’ve been playing this game for too long, so I just smile, letting her project all of her worries onto me if it distracts her from thinking about my dad. For a minute, it distracts me too.
7
Evan
It only took my dad twenty-four-hours to call me asking for an update on the situation with Scarlett after the game, even though we just started working together on the project. Well, ‘working together’ is a bit of a stretch. It’s more of us sitting in silence so we don’t piss the other one off.
My dad has given me nothing to work with, meaning I have to coax some starting information out of Scarlett when I get the opportunity.
