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I look at the clock on the bedside table, particularly the date on it.
“This Friday?”
“Yes. You forgot, didn’t you?”
I totally did. I’m such a bad daughter.
“Sorry,” I say. “I’ve been busy with work.”
“But you’ll be there?” Adam asks me. “You know she’ll feel bad if you don’t show up.”
And she’ll make me feel bad about it. For months. Probably until her next birthday.
Why is it that children have to please their parents even when they’re already adults? I thought parents were supposed to let their children go, to let them live their own lives. If they don’t look back, that means they’re living their own lives, not that they’re being ungrateful.
Unfortunately, I’m not yet at the point where I can change the way the world thinks.
“Allie?”
“Fine. I’ll be there,” I tell him.
“Good. I’ll see you.”
He hangs up. I put my phone under my pillow, which is the next best thing I can do since I can’t turn it off.
Really? I had to start the day with not just one but two annoying phone calls.
“Who was that?” Cain asks again.
“My brother,” I tell him.
“Grae?”
“Adam.”
“You didn’t seem happy to hear from him, either.”
I draw a breath. “That’s because he just had to remind me that my mother’s birthday is coming up.”
Cain’s eyebrows crease. “And that’s bad because…”
“Because she’s throwing a party and I have to be there.”
“Because?”
See. That’s what I’m talking about. Why do I have to be there?
“Because I’m her daughter,” I answer.
Cain nods. “Right.”
Yup, I have no choice. I have to go put on an uncomfortable dress and a fake smile for all my mother’s friends and pretend that I’m a good daughter and that I love my mother. Well, I do, but maybe not enough to go to a party for her. I’ve always resented her forcing me to go to parties.
I thought I’d outgrown that, but no. She’s doing it again. She’s forcing me to go to her very own party.
“You don’t want to go, do you?” Cain reads my mind.
I shrug. “Well, the last time, I went to a party, I…”
“Got locked up in an office and had to jump from a window,” Cain finishes. “I’m pretty sure that isn’t going to happen this time.”
No, because I won’t be snooping. But I’ll still have to wear a dress. I’ll still have to have conversations with people I barely know. I’ll still be alone. Yes, my brothers and my mother will be there, but they have people to talk to.
I’ll still be alone. Unless…
I look at Cain as an idea comes to mind.
“What?” he asks.
I sit up. “Come to the party with me.”
“No, thanks,” he says. “Parties aren’t my thing.”
“You were at the last party I went to,” I point out.
Besides, he looks divine in a suit.
“Because I had a job to do,” he says.
“I can pay you to come to the party with me if you want,” I tell him.
Cain’s eyes narrow. “Are you buying me for a night, Ms. Chandler?”
“If I have to, but I’d rather you come with me for free.”
He says nothing.
I sigh. “Fine. If you come, I’ll owe you one. I’ll pay you back somehow. Not that I don’t already owe you for saving my life twice. Just put it on my tab.”
Still, Cain says nothing. Is he waiting for me to say something more convincing? What can I say?
I scoot over to him and place my hand over his. “Please?”
I just know it would make all the difference if he came to the party with me.
For another moment, he stays silent, his expression blank. Then he nods.
“Fine.”
My lips curve into a grin. “Great.”
“Your brother better not try to punch me again, though,” Cain says.
“He won’t,” I promise him. “In fact, I’m going to make sure he apologizes for that.”
~
“You want me to apologize to this man?” Grae glances at Cain before looking at me with furrowed eyebrows.
This after I introduced Cain to him as a man I work with. I did that as soon as I was able to get him alone, which was almost an hour after he arrived. Before that, I was waiting two hours for him to get here, answering stupid questions in my stupid gown, eating more canapes than I ever have and drinking more champagne than I wanted, even though I swore I wasn’t going to stay at the party for more than thirty minutes.
He’d better apologize.
“I told her it wasn’t necessary,” Cain says.
“But it is,” I insist. “Cain didn’t do anything wrong. He just accompanied me to that party.”
“And ruined your gown,” Grae reminds me.
“I did that,” I tell him. “You know I don’t like gowns. I’m bad at taking care of them.”
“True.”
“I was bored with the party. I went to the garden, tripped while trying to get across a pond. I escaped from Cain, actually. He came to find me. He saw my dress was ruined and lent me his jacket. That’s all. Now apologize.”
