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He looks thunderous and I take pity on him. There’s a time to tease and a time to be straight with somebody. There’s also a time when you don’t want your brother to spontaneously combust.
“Listen, there really isn’t anything to worry about,” I say, trying to reassure him. “Sophie and I are friends. And I needed to make some charitable donations on behalf of the company. You know this.”
“You hate each other,” he points out.
“We don’t,” I tell him. “We’ve agreed to be friends. And you should be happy about this. You’re the one who wants us to get along for Charlie’s sake and now we do.”
“And there’s really nothing else going on?”
“No,” I say honestly. “I donated to charity, she’s providing a service. That’s it. So stop looking so miserable and go dance with your son.”
“Hmm,” Myles says, then passes me a dirty plate. “Let’s see how long the peace between you two lasts.”
* * *
SOPHIE
From: [email protected]
Subject: You now know more about my movements than anybody else…
Sophie,
As promised, my itinerary is below. Do you need anything else? Let me know.
MONDAY – Meetings all day in Charleston
TUESDAY – AM as above. PM flying to New York.
WEDNESDAY – Meetings in New York. Dinner in the evening.
THURSDAY – Flying to Washington DC. Meetings in Capitol building.
FRIDAY – Meetings in DC. Coming back to West Virginia that evening.
WEEKEND – Planning on sleeping for 48 hours. Don’t care if there’s a biblical flood.
Have a good week,
Liam.
I smile at his weekend plans and make some notes on my pad. It’s actually a slight pain that he’s traveling so much – because I’m going to have to do forecasts for each area – but it sounds like it’s going to be more painful for him. At least Saturday and Sunday should be easy, though. I already have to do the forecast for work and since he’s doing nothing specific I can make it fairly generic.
His email is nice. Friendly. It makes me feel like this whole auction thing might work.
And then I think again about that stupid lie. I need to tell him. It was one thing covering up the truth when I thought he was annoying and hated me. But he said he wants to be friends.
And friends always tell the truth. Even if they know it’s going to make them look terrible.
I look at my phone for five minutes before I get up the courage to reply. Via messenger rather than email because I don’t want to use my work account for this.
Hi, I hope it’s okay to message. I wanted to check if you’re free next weekend. I could buy you a coffee to thank you for your high bid. - Sophie
Two ticks come up and the next moment they’re green. I feel a weird thrill knowing he’s already read my message.
Hey. Yeah, that could work. Did you get my email? I sent over my itinerary as requested. - Liam
