He reaches out and puts his hand on my knee. Another little gesture that drives me totally wild.
“I want you, Avery,” he says softly. “I keep telling you that I’m going to take care of you. This is one way I’m going to do that.”
“Giving me a company,” I whisper.
“It’s insane. I know.”
“So why do it?”
“Because I want you to have something you can always fall back on. We’re going to be successful, and when we are… you’ll have everything.”
I bite my lip, tilt my head. He leans toward me.
We kiss. I can’t help myself. He wants me to be his partner for real. He wants to bring me into his business.
The door rattles. We break apart. I feel dread fill me, cold as ice. I figure we’re about to see Marcy staring in at us, which will be pretty bad, but not the end of the world. Maybe we can convince her that it’s nothing, just a one-time thing, or maybe…
I look over at the door.
My mother is standing there, staring at us, her face white as a sheet.
“Fuck,” Julian says, jumping to his feet. “Samantha.”
“What’s going on?” she asks.
“Mom.” I stand up and step toward her. “Hey. Uh. What are you doing here?”
“I wanted to surprise you,” she says softly. “You haven’t invited me to the office yet, so I thought I’d just…” She gives a harsh little laugh. “Now I see why I haven’t been invited.”
“Mom,” I say.
“Samantha, hold on,” Julian says.
“No,” she answers, ice-cold and flat. Her gaze rests on Julian. “What the hell are you doing with my daughter?”
“It’s not what it looks like.”
“You were kissing her!” Mom’s voice rises, shrill and angry.
“Mom.” I say. “Please. Calm down.”
“Calm down?” She turns to me. “Your father is rolling over in his fucking grave. His body is barely cold. And you’re kissing this… this… piece of shit?”
I stumble back like she slapped me.
Julian groans. “Please, Sam. It’s not like that.”
“No, you motherfucker. You piece of fucking shit. You’re the scum of the fucking earth for touching her like that. You think Kevin would be okay with this? He fucking wouldn’t be. He’d beat the shit out of you and tell you never to come near his daughter again.” Mom takes a menacing step toward Julian and I can’t move a muscle. It’s like I’m frozen in place.
“It’s not like that,” he says softly.
“It’s always like that with you.” She says it like a curse, like she’s spitting on the floor. “You use people, destroy them, throw them away. That’s what you did to Kevin and that’s what you’ll do to his daughter. But I won’t let you.” Mom steps closer to Julian. “Stay away from her. If I ever, ever hear of this. I swear to god, Julian, I will kill you.”
His eyes go wide. “Samantha. I’m not going to hurt her.”
“Lying piece of shit.” She looks at me. “And you, you should know better. Stay away from this man. Quit this job if you have any sense of decency left in you.” She makes a face, disgusted and horrified. “You both make me sick.”
She turns and leaves the office. The door slides shut behind her.
Julian collapses into his seat. “Oh, fuck,” he whispers.
“She…” I can’t even finish my sentence.
“Avery, wait.”
I walk to the door. I look back at him.
Julian looks destroyed.
I shake my head. I can’t say a word. I turn and leave his office, and I walk home, my head spinning, the world crashing down around me.15JulianI pour a glass of whiskey and stare at the fire roaring in my fireplace.
I don’t think I’ve ever felt so shitty about kissing someone in my entire life, and I’ve kissed some people I really, really shouldn’t have. I’ve kissed married women, women with boyfriends, women with girlfriends, and a ton of others I probably should’ve stayed away from.
But this… this is the worst.
It’s not that I’m ashamed of wanting Avery. Really, far from it. I’m proud of what I’m building with her. I’m proud that I have her and I want to fucking show her off.
But she’s my dead friend’s daughter. And her mother had to find out about it in the worst fucking way.
I wish we had told Samantha straight up, or at least we figured out a better way for her to find out. The problem is, Avery and I don’t have a defined relationship. We’re just sleeping together, and I took her virginity, and she calls me Daddy…
Well, okay. I’m glad we didn’t tell Sam the whole fucking truth. I think she would have a goddamn meltdown.
Not that I could blame her.
But shit, this is so fucked.
As I’m sipping my whiskey, my phone starts to ring. I jump up and run over to it, hoping it’s Avery, but instead…
“Hey, Sam,” I say, answering.
“I want to meet.”