"But you guys must be close, right?"
I stared ahead, not sure if I wanted to dump the truth on her quite so blatantly. And, as she looked at me expectantly, I wondered if she knew that she had something I never had; a connection with her family, an understanding and a love that supported them through everything they chose to do. I smiledslightly and shook my head, hoping that she wouldn’t think too much of it.
"Uh, we don’t see much of each other these days."
"No?"
She sounded genuinely surprised, her brows knitting together.
"Yeah, they work for my dad’s company and they’re pretty busy with that," I replied, keeping it as vague as possible. I didn’t want to sound resentful, because I wasn’t, truly. I didn’t want what they had, and I knew that they would have said the same thing if someone had asked about me. And yet, there was such a distance between us, a distinct reminder that what I had gone after was not what my father or my family had expected or wanted for me.
"You think you’re going to join them?" she asked. "I mean, a family business like that, it’s a hell of a thing to have to your name..."
"Yeah, I know," I replied, and I could hear the tiredness in my voice before I could stop it. She slowed slightly, studying me with interest.
"But you don’t want to work for them, right?"
I shook my head. I didn’t want to come across as ungrateful, but I couldn’t think of much worse in the world than spending the rest of my life locked in those stuffy office buildings, staring at stats, sitting through meetings, visiting suppliers, all the stuff that my father had dedicated his whole life to.
"Nah, I don’t think so."
"Why not?"
She seemed to realize that she might have overstepped the line, and she quickly held a hand up.
"Uh, not that you have to tell me..."
"No, it’s okay," I replied. There were times when I needed to reiterate it out loud, as much to myself as whoever I was talking to, to underline that I had made the right choice for myself, astough as it had been to do. I took a deep breath, and launched into it.
"My father, he was always working while we were growing up," I explained. "Always focused on what came next for the business, what he could do to make more money, or expand, or buy this property or that one and turn it into something else. And when I was really young, my mom would tell me that there would come a time when he had made enough money and he would be able to spend more time with us. And I kept waiting and waiting for that to happen, and it just...never did."
She stayed quiet, keeping pace with me as she let me speak.
"And my brothers, they jumped into it when they were old enough, and it was like it just sucked them in too," I went on. "Like there was nothing that mattered in the world more than making sure they were pulling in as much money as they could, expanding even further than they needed to. We have enough money to live for decades, keep the next ten generations of this family fed and housed, but they still just can’t stop."
"Damn," she muttered. "That sounds...kind of horrible, actually."
"That’s what I thought," I agreed. "So when I got my inheritance when I turned eighteen, I just took off. I knew that if I put my feet under the table there, I would never be able to leave, same as they couldn’t. It was like an addiction, like they couldn’t stop, no matter how much power or money or influence they had. And I swore I was never going to live that way. Not seeing how it kept them from their family and their actual lives. I wanted adventure, you know? Never in one place too long. Keep moving, and I’m not going to gather any moss."
My shoulders slumped slightly, and I was surprised at how heavy it felt, saying all that out loud to her. Verbalizing it that way, it almost made it feel real, even though I had been living that life for so long now. All at once, I was distinctly aware ofhow far I was from my family, how far I was from home, how long it had been since I had really had someone at my side to keep me company.
"I’m sorry," she remarked, reaching over to give my arm a squeeze as we passed by the sign that announced our arrival into her neighborhood. "That must be hard on you."
I forced a grin on to my face, determined not to seem too sorry for myself.
"Well, the inheritance helped, that’s for sure."
She laughed.
"Yeah, I guess that would take the edge off," she agreed, turning down the street that must have led to her place. The town was quiet, some music drifting from Ford’s across the square, and I was suddenly distinctly aware that it was just the two of us out here together.
"Your family still live in Whisper Falls, right? I mean, your parents, at least..."
She snorted.
"My mom does," she replied, a note of bitterness to her voice. "My dad...he hasn’t been around in a long while."
"Oh, really?”
