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“What am I supposed to do?”
I felt a hand patting my head in a clumsytap-tap-tapmotion.
“Everything’s going to be okay,” Jin soothed, his hand doing some more patting.
“Everything is not going to be okay, Jin,” I mumbled into the desk. “God, there really is no justice in the universe.”
A hand wrapped around my ponytail, gently tugging up until I was forced to lift my head. I met Maxine’s concerned gaze.
“Okay, gal pal, what’s going on? And try to include some actual details this time.”
I swallowed down a hysteria-shaped lump and took a fortifying breath.
“My mom called me this morning to tell me that my dad fell through a rotted floor on a job site and hurt his leg. She wants me to come home for a bit to help her look after him, and to help with his business.” I glanced up to find them watching me with matching expressions of mingled concern and confusion. “He’s okay. They kept him in the hospital overnight for observation, because, you know, he literally fell through a floor onto another floor.”
“So you’re upset that your dad was hurt?” Maxine clarified, still holding my head up by my ponytail.
I nodded as much as her grip would allow in response, then snatched the donut out of her free hand and took a bite. She had the good sense not to protest.
“But who are Sissy and Macon? And what do they have to do with” — Max waved a hand around — “all this?”
Just hearing their names together took me back to being sixteen again. That trip down memory lane was not one that I was interested in taking — especially not at work.
“I don’t want to ta — Ican’t,” I corrected myself, “talk about them right now. Please.”
Sensing how close I was to the edge, Maxine and Jin nodded.
“Sure, we can respect that,” Maxine said. “But we’re all going out to dinner after work to discuss the situation. Whatever it is.”
“We are?” Jin and I asked in unison. Maxine gave Jin a murderous look, and he added, “I mean, yes. Yes, we’re all going to go out to dinner to talk about our feelings. Hooray. So exciting.”
I took another bite of my swiped donut. “Don’t you have three younger sisters?”
Jin sighed. “First, your manners are appalling. Second, I do, but it feels like there are twenty of them.”
Undeterred by his scolding, I continued with my mouth still full. “So shouldn’t you be used to talking about feelings?”
“No. They had each other to talk about their feelings to. Can I have a donut now?”
Maxine practically chucked the box at him. He fumbled it briefly but managed to keep from dropping it. By silent agreement, we all turned our attention to donuts and work.
I was more than happy to get lost in my work. It was exactly the distraction I needed, but I also knew I couldn’t hide from reality forever, so I sent a meeting request to my boss.
3
Less than eight hours later, I was seated at a high-top table, with Maxine and Jin staring at me expectantly. The server had already been by to take our orders, so I was fresh out of ways to delay the inevitable. Even though I understood that what my sister had done was in no way a reflection of me, it still made me feel terrible and small to admit to others how much my own sister hated me.
“I don’t even know where to start.” I blew out a slow breath. “It’s kind of a long story.”
“Maybe we should have ordered more appetizers,” Jin mumbled.
“Take your time,” Maxine said, shooting Jin a look. “We’re here to support you.”
“As you both know from my...episode this morning, my older sister, Sissy, is engaged to Macon St. James,” I said, ignoring Jin’s comment and rubbing my sweaty palms on my pants. “The St. James family is Beaumont County royalty. One of their ancestors actually helped found Beacon Hill, and every St. James since has been a DA. The courthouse walls are just lined with portraits of St. James men. Once they’ve done their civic duty, they join the family’s very successful law firm. It’s a whole thing.”
I realized this was a meandering way of getting to the events of that horrible, horrible summer, but it felt easier to start with some impersonal background information.
“The whole St. James family has this untouchable feeling to them, like gods from Mount Olympus that the rest of us mere mortals can only worship from afar. But Macon, he was different. He was friendly and outgoing, just generally nice to everyone. He even ended up going to public school instead of the private school the rest of the wealthy families sent their kids to. Naturally, I was totally in love with him. Every girl in school was in love with him.
