My stress level rose, partially due to the stress at home, and I knew I was headed for a breakdown, so I got up from my desk and went to get a cup of calming tea.
I bumped into Dad in the break room, which was unusual because Mrs. Andrews usually took care of his coffee and snack needs.
He seemed deep in thought and didn’t even look up when I walked in.
“Hi, Dad,” I said, touching him on the shoulder.
“Oh, Rory, hello. How are you?”
“I’m okay, how are you?” His skin was looking grayish again.
“Oh, fine, fine. Just taking a short break. How about that glitch earlier?” I humored him and talked about that for a little while, but it seemed like we were going to need to have another chat about taking it easy. I’d have to ask Lucah if there were any developments in the Board takeover yet.
“Will Lucah be joining us this Sunday?”
“Yes, he will. Ryder’s with us now, and he’s stable, so things will be getting back to normal.” Or at least our new normal.
“Excellent. So it’s going well with him?” I gave him a quick rundown, editing out the part about Ryder almost seeing me naked this morning, and the fact that he didn’t seem to like me very much.
“Well, I should get back to work,” he said with a halfhearted smile. I patted him on the shoulder and he left. It was going to take more than tea to soothe me at this point.
~*~*~
“So how did it go?” I said to Lucah when we could finally talk like our regular selves outside the office building.
“I called to make sure he arrived at the appointment, and he did, but that’s all I can do. I’m just hoping the apartment isn’t a disaster when we get back.” He raised the hand that wasn’t held by mine and crossed his fingers. I crossed my eyes at him and that made him laugh.
“Oh, and Sloane texted and said she was coming home early so she could cook us dinner. I didn’t ask if she would be cooking in her apartment or ours.” I just gave him a look. We were definitely going to knock before we opened the front door. Ryder and Sloane was something I did NOT want to see.
Lucah and I talked about other things on the way home, and during the elevator ride up to our apartment. He listened at our door before getting out his key and jingling it in the lock quite loudly and opening the door slowly.
Nothing. The apartment was dark and no one was there.
“Maybe he took a nap,” I said, going to check his bedroom. It was empty, the bed still unmade from that morning. We checked the rest of the apartment, which didn’t take long, but Ryder was nowhere to be found.
“When I find him, I’m going to kill him,” Lucah said, getting his phone out to call Ryder. The sound of a rock song I didn’t know blasted from the coffee table, where he’d left his phone. Lucah swore again.
“Calm down. Let me go down the hall and see if Sloane’s seen him.” I dashed down the hall and knocked on Sloane’s door.
“It’s open!” she yelled.
I was just about to ask her if she’d seen Ryder, but I didn’t have to. He was standing in her kitchen, laughing at something she’d said.
“Oh, hey, Ryder. We were wondering where you were. Lucah’s been freaking out because you left your phone at our place.” He pretty much ignored me.
“Hey,” Sloane said, elbowing him. “Don’t be an asshole.”
“I’m not being an asshole. I am just silently objecting to the fact that I’m being treated like a lost child. Pretty soon here my brother is going to chain me to the radiator. That wouldn’t be the first time, but all the other times were for more pleasurable reasons.” He wiggled his eyebrows and Sloane giggled. There it was again. That giggle.
“Well, anyway. Maybe you could leave a note next time? He was worried.” I was still standing in the doorway, nervous about entering.
“Sure, I’ll get right on that,” he said with a smirk.
That smirk was the last straw.
“Look, I get that you don’t like me, and that’s fine. Go ahead. Hate me. But what you fail to realize is that you are living in MY house. I didn’t have to let you in, but I did. Because you’re my boyfriend’s brother and you needed a place to go. In case you haven’t noticed, no one else was standing in line to help you. So I would appreciate it if you could treat me like a human being. And if you EVER ogle me like you did this morning again, I will come into your room when you are sleeping and you will wake up minus one penis and a set of balls. Got it?” I didn’t mean to pull out the voice I used to reprimand employees when they screwed up, but once I started, I couldn’t stop. I’d also moved until I was looking directly up at Ryder.
“I wouldn’t mess with her. She means business,” Sloane said, standing beside me and pointing at Ryder with her spatula.