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“Yeah,” agrees Noah. Ava agrees too, though I don’t suppose she really understands what she’s agreeing with. “Like Mommy and Daddy have each other. All Uncle Lucas has is Sophie.”
“Auntie Sophie cool,” burbles Ava, which warms my heart a little. At least I’m doing a good job.
I shuffle closer to them to hear what they’re saying more clearly. “So, we have to make him see,” says Chloe, drawing the strings together on her scheme, “that Auntie Sophie is the best. And that if he just tried to give her a chance, I’m sure he could be in love with her.”
“Yeah, but we need her to be in love with him too,” adds Noah.
Ava babbles something that I can’t quite understand, but clearly it makes sense to the other two because they nod vigorously. “Having a girlfriend is only any good if she also likes you,” says Noah surprisingly sagely.
“Making people love you is easy,” says Chloe.
The childish confidence is sweet, if completely misguided. I’ve never had a whole lot of luck with love; only a handful of terrible boyfriends, and the only good ones I’ve had haven’t been able to cope with how much I have to work. In a way I guess the kids are right. Lucas is my life. I just wish I didn’t find that thought so depressing.
I just wish he’d show the slightest bit of interest in me as a human. Maybe, if he acted like he cared, Icouldlove him.
What a ridiculous thought to be having. I don’tloveLucas Adler. The last thing I need in a boyfriend is for him to be controlling and mean. I think my sister Katie would actually kill me if I had another really terrible boyfriend. She just about killed me when I couldn’t let the last one go.
Anyway, this is all entirely academic. This is three small children who don’t really understand how the adult world works. I wouldn’t go out with Lucas if he paid me, and that’s about the only way he’d think of to woo someone.
I wish I had the heart to break that to them, but I don’t so I’m just going to pretend that I didn’t hear anything they were saying. I back up along the corridor, then stomp loudly into the room so they definitely hear me. They definitely do, because they shush each other in a way that could not be less subtle.
“Hey, guys,” I say, trying not to sound too grumpy. “Where is Lucas?”
“He said he had an important meeting,” says Sophie, glaring at the others with a face that’s telling them to keep quiet.
“How long have you been sat here by yourselves?” I ask, feeling my worn-out patience stretching even thinner.
It’s been so nice to actually say what I think to him for a change. And even then, I’ve still been holding back. Not that he’s realized it. My standing up to him, in any capacity, is too much for him to take. In his world, he’s the boss, and that means he’s always right.
Just thinking about this is making me mad. I take a deep breath before I accidentally take it out on the children. They’ve already made it clear that they don’t understand complex adultrelationships, so I don’t want to burden them with the disaster that I foresee unfolding.
Chloe puffs up her chest proudly to relay Lucas’s words. “He said big boys and girls could take care of themselves. He said we were really big, so we could sit in the living room really quietly all by ourselves and watch television without anyone watching us. And he said I was old enough to take care of the other two. He said it’s all about responsibility. He said that responsibility is the most important thing in the whole world.”
“Profits!” echoes Ava with her new favorite word. I swear at this point her vocabulary is ninety percent stuff like graphs and marketing and stocks. I’m certain she can’t fully understand any of it, but it is entertaining watching her and Lucas have fake business meetings. It’s about the most engaged I see him with the kids.
I form my mouth into a tight line and say, “And where is he now, having his big meeting?”
If they could understand the nuance of my remarks, they would realize that I don’t at all believe that he is having a meeting. But fortunately, my snarky undertone flies right over their heads. They tell me with a smile that he’s in his bedroom.
“But you can’t interrupt!” says Noah. “He said he’s not to be disturbed under any circumstances.”
“Yeah,” agrees Chloe. “He said that if he gets interrupted, his whole business is going to fail!”
“Did he now?” I say, anger bubbling inside my stomach again. How stupid was I to think I could have just one hour of time to myself? I bet he left them within the first minute. These kidsaren’t even related to me, and yet I’ve cared about them more in the last two weeks than Lucas has in his entire life.
I crouch down to them. “Yeah, but the thing is, I’m his personal assistant. Do you know what that means?” They shake their heads. Ava babbles something incomprehensible to me, so I pretend she’s giving an accurate explanation of what my job is. It’s amusing to think about her telling me how it’s a job where you get overworked and abused by the boss because he thinks paying you is the same thing as caring about you as a person.
“Uncle Lucas needs me for the business to succeed. Because without me, he wouldn’t be able to have a business at all. So, what it means is I can interrupt anytime I want and not get told off.”
“Wow,” says Noah.
“Stay here,” I say, turning on my heel and marching to Lucas’s bedroom.
As I go, I hear Chloe telling them that I must have the best job in the whole world. And then, under her breath — or at least that’s what she thinks — she adds, “And that’s why Lucas has to marry her.”
I let myself chuckle at that. What an absolutely ridiculous sentiment.
I don’t even bother to knock on the door before I go in. There’s a thought in the back of my mind that I should, because the last thing I want is to walk in and see him jerking off or something, but I also want to make a shock entrance, so I steel my eyes for whatever sight I’m going to see.
