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“And you know for sure that he’s being placed with you at The Oxford?” Ali asked.
Jane had a defeated look on her face as she glanced back over at her sister. “As of right now, yes. The rumor is that Mr. Drew wants to place him with me in my department because they think it will suit him best. They want to see where he fits.”
“But can he do that? You’re the Director of Events. You’re in charge of the department…and the people who work for you. He can’t just place Austin with you without talking to you, can he?”
“Mr. Drew can do whatever he wants. He owns the company, Ali,” Jane said, shaking her head and dramatically resting it on the counter.
“Have you seen him since high school?” Ali asked.
“No!” Jane shot back at her sister. “Which is the real reason why this upsets me so much. He didn’t give me the time of day in high school, so why should I expect anything different now?”
“Oh, Janie, that does suck. I’m sorry,” Ali replied, frustrated and exasperated as she looked at her twin sister. “Are you worried he’s not going to be nice to you?” The one thing she never understood about her sister was why she never just came right out and identified the issue. She always talked around it. Jane should have been direct with her when she first got home. As much as they looked alike, they had totally different personalities.
“A little,” Jane answered in a quiet voice. “I was obviously invisible to him in high school, which was tough enough, so what would be different now if everyone says he hasn’t changed?”
Ali stared at her sister, feeling her heartache. She remembered how much Jane had liked him in high school even though she tried to keep it under wraps. “Do you think he will work with you on every event coming up?” Ali asked gently.
“I hope not every event. The reason the rumors even started today was that The Oxford secured a wedding for a very high-profile celebrity couple, and the word is that Austin will be working on this particular event with me. That seems to be the plan, but nothing has been confirmed yet.”
“So if that’s the case, sounds like you’ll be stuck with him,” Ali said, eyeing her sister.
“Stuck is the perfect word to use on this one,” Jane nodded. “ If this were high school, I would have been thrilled out of my skin but, I can tell you right now, he is the last member of the Drew family I want anything to do with,” Jane added. “I’m dreading his ugly ass coming in!”
Ali reached over and rubbed her sister’s hand. As much as she knew Jane could be overly dramatic, she knew her sister was truly worried and upset about this. Jane took pride in her work, and she excelled at it, so Ali knew the thought of having to work with someone who didn’t necessarily have the same skill set that she did was going to suck for her. When Jane had scored the job at The Oxford three months prior, she had been ecstatic. It had been a huge jump in responsibility from her previous job as an assistant to the Director of Events at a posh hotel in Newport, RI. As much as it was tough for her to leave that job in Newport because she loved everyone she had worked with, Jane knew that the career opportunity at The Oxford would help her make a local name for herself in event planning.
Ali also knew that there was more to the story than Jane was owning up to, and she didn’t want to be the one to bring it up. She knew her sister had a crush on Austin Drew in high school, just like most girls, but she and Jane had been totally eclipsed by the popular kids. Those kids, including Austin, didn’t even have them on their radar and she knew that this was the root of most of Jane’s frustration, not to mention an embarrassing experience she knew her sister didn’t want to remember.
“I’m so sorry, Janie,” Ali whispered in her sister’s ear. She knew the only thing she could do now was try to make her sister laugh. “I blame Mom and Dad for not being millionaires.”
Jane lifted her head from the counter and looked over at her sister as a smile began to spread across her face. “The nerve of them, right? How dare they become teachers and not entrepreneurs?”
The sisters began to laugh so hard they had tears running down their faces. No matter what, they knew, deep down, this problem would get solved, and they were just glad they had one another to depend on in the meantime.
“Although, I do have to say one thing about Austin Drew that you have all wrong,” Ali added, looking over to her sister with a smile.
“Oh? What’s that?” Jane asked, wondering what the hell her sister could possibly say.
“You mentioned his ugly ass coming into The Oxford,” Ali said, as she cocked her head to the side to look at her sister.
“Yeah,” Jane nodded, “what about it?”
“If there’s one thing about Austin Drew that I know to be true for him, and all his brothers, is that they’re anything but ugly.”
