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“Alright. So, I don’t get half the shit you said, but it sounds like you were doing good. What’d she do? Some sort of hostile takeover or some shit? Like that shady mess in those television shows?” he asked.
“No. Apparently, there’s like, 10 percent of the stock or something not allocated to anyone or anything other than her father. There wasn’t anything said about it in his will, no paperwork that says where that 10 percent is supposed to go, so apparently until it gets settled his estate defaults to the courts, and the courts decided to turn everything over to Stella to manage for now.”
“Including the company?” he asked.
“Yep,” I said.
“Wouldn’t Stella have to actually fire you from that position, though? She’s the owner, but not the CEO. Those are different positions.”
“I think it’s safe to say she wants me gone from it either way,” I said.
“Well, that doesn’t really sound like something Stella’s in control of,” he said.
“Had she not begun her fucking witch hunt in the first damn place, it probably would never have been caught. Or at least, had she stepped back and taken a fucking breath, we could’ve tackled this issue head-on. That lawyer is as lazy as I’ve ever seen them. I don’t know what the hell her stepfather had him on retainer for anyway,” I said.
“Dude, that’s fucking nuts. I can’t believe she did this to you,” he said.
“I can. It’s just fucking like her. And it sucks donkey balls, because I thought she was changing. I felt myself changing. Caring about some business bullshit. And I was good at it, too. I know I was. I was starting to enjoy that shit, and I thought my life was finally falling into place. Then Stella comes out of nowhere like she always fucking did when we were kids, and she steals the spotlight because she can’t handle it when anyone else has the attention,” I said.
“Tell me how you really feel,” he said, smirking.
“Her and Greyson were perfect for each other,” I said.
“Whoa, whoa, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Greyson’s a grade-A asshole. You sure you want to go so far as to lump Stella in there with him?”
“If the shoe fits,” I said, sighing.
I wanted to tell him about the weekend. About all the things we experienced and talked about and did. I wanted to share with him about the relationship that had budded between us and how it made all this harder, all so much more confusing. I knew if I could tell him, he would understand why I was so blindsided. I knew the way he was looking at me. He was wondering how the hell I could be so dumb as to drop my guard with the one person I’d always kept it up with.
But, if he knew what we shared. The passion we felt and the romance we experienced. If he knew how I’d grown to feel about her and how I knew she felt about me when I looked into those beautiful pools of green, he’d understand my confusion.
All I could think about, however, was his freak-out the last time we went surfing. How he reeled at the idea of a stepbrother and stepsister romantically loving one another and being together. How disgusted he was with the entire concept, like we were committing some sort of incestuous nonsense.
So, I kept my mouth shut on it.
I guess that was the trend for my life — keeping my mouth shut on shit.
“So, here’s what we’re going do today, alright? We’re getting off our asses, going to get a perfect cup of coffee, then we’re going surfing. We’ll get your mind off things, then maybe we can call around to some lawyers. Estate lawyers. See what kind of legitimacy this has. If you love the company th
at much, you should fight for it. You should always fight for things you have a passion for. It’s why I always bitch at my boss about changing out seasonal drinks and shit. I live for that kind of thing,” he said.
“It’s why you should own your own competing coffee shop,” I said.
“Try again next time, dude,” he said. “So, get up off your ass and get changed. You’ve got 15 minutes.”
We headed over to his coffee shop and grabbed a cup of coffee, and I watched the scenery pass me by while we drove toward the beach. A day of surfing sounded phenomenal, but I knew it wouldn’t take my mind off things. Help me relax, maybe. Get me doing something, sure. Keep me active, hell yeah. But, help me to forget? To cope? To deal?
Not a chance.
“You know, if you really love the company that much, you need to fight for it,” Todd said as we swam out into the ocean.
“I don’t even know where to begin with that kind of thing,” I said.
“That’s what consultation appointments with lawyers are for, dude,” he said. “I’m sure there’s something you could do to get the company back. Especially if all this shit is out of Stella’s hands like you made it seem.”
“I don’t want to do to her what she did to me. That’s not right,” I said.
“You’re not intentionally throwing her under the bus like she did you,” he said. “You’re taking back something you love. Something you’re good at. And you’ve now got the track record with the company to prove it. It’s a brief track record, but what’s she got? While you were out there working through your grief like I know you do, she was plotting to take you down. That’s not going to look good for her in a court.”
