Unavoidably, You

Chapter 1

The Button was busy tonight, but then again Court Morrissey had rarely seen the place quiet.

All proving that it was the most popular lesbian club in the city and had been for over a decade.

Like so many others like her, this was her favorite club in town.

There were a few regulars with enough new blood to keep her evenings interesting.

Which led to passionate nights with little to no sleep.

Pulling her attention from a hot blonde woman in a tight black shimmering dress at the bar, Court turned it back to the table mates and her drink. Picking up the cocktail, and savored the strong booze in it. Another reason to love it here, good bartenders.

As with most nights she spent here, her friends were out with her. Though she wasn’t paying them too much attention, there was too much on her mind tonight, and not even a shapely blonde could distract her from those thoughts.

She had filled her friends in about her latest dilemma, but they would not be much help. They knew just enough about her past not to ask too many questions about it. Or so she had thought.

“Let me get this straight.” Ellis took a slow sip of her scotch during her dramatic pause.

She didn’t take her dark eyes off her, making Court squirm just a little as she focused fully on the woman in anticipation of what was coming.

“You’re going to a family reunion-type event hosted by your dad’s best friend, who used to be a big part of your life.

Let’s say a father figure after your birth father died when you were a baby.

A man you haven’t seen in over a decade and whom I have heard nothing about since I met you.

That being said, you have had ample opportunity to have brought this man up in conversation at least once, but that never happened.

Now I have to wonder exactly why that is. ”

Ailis Ellis, known to her friends, family and strangers alike as simply Ellis, was an attorney and always took forever to get to the point of her questioning.

Though the scotch wouldn’t be in the courtroom, Court was sure this was the Ellis that was known as a shark in some circles.

Not this one, but others. Her summary was correct, but there were no questions yet, and Ellis always had questions. Which meant more was coming.

It had been questions that had been a big part of their first tense meeting over a suspicious looking slipper that had been left halfway between their university dorm room doors that were directly across the hallway from each other.

It was a few weeks into their freshman year, and neither of them had managed to make any real friends yet until that moment.

That first puzzle they shared had never been solved, and the fluffy black slipper had been carefully kicked down the hallway and not brought up over the delivery pizza they shared for supper that night. The first of thousands over the years.

By morning the slipper had vanished, but the friendship it had started was still going.

Over the years, they had either lived next to each other or with each other until both could finally afford places of their own after college was over.

Court considered Ellis her best friend to this day.

And since Ellis didn’t put up with shit from anyone she didn’t like, that meant she liked Court as well.

When Ellis said nothing more, just held eye contact, Court rolled her own eyes, and told her, “After my dad died, Calvin was a big part of my life for years. Until Mom remarried, I had hoped they would end up together. I think Calvin did too. After Mom remarried the idiot, he finally started dating and was married within a year. That’s when I stopped seeing him.

He had his own family then, no need for me anymore. ”

“Three men? Three men have wanted to fuck that ice queen?” With a full-body shiver, Rebel Ellis analyzed the ice in her glass, not looking at her older sister or Court.

Whereas Ellis was her best-friend, Rebel was her business partner, and had been for years now.

And she was the only person Court wanted by her side in the business world.

The woman seemed ditzy and dramatic in most situations, but once she was in the office, all of that vanished and she became just as focused and driven as her sister was.

Maybe even more. It had been part of the reason they had found so much success with their business.

“The last time I saw him, I was seventeen.” Court ignored Rebel’s question about her mom, because she didn’t want to talk about her. Or think about her, for that matter. Her mother was all but dead to her.

Not seeing Calvin since high school was an understatement, since she hadn’t talked to the man in over a decade and she mostly never even thought about him.

And she assumed he didn’t spend much time with her on his mind.

She wasn’t his daughter, she was just in his life until he found himself an actual family.

When he got married, he got a handful of step-kids.

Those were the kids he spent all his time with and effort on the last time she saw him.

He had easily forgotten that she depended on him.

Before his call this afternoon, she was convinced he would forever be upset with her for popping his stepson in the face and making a twelve-year-old cry.

It hadn’t mattered that the kid and his siblings had made her life miserable every moment she was forced to spend with the man and his family for years.

All that mattered was that she had been seventeen and should have known better.

It was the straw that broke the camel’s back, and she never saw any of them again. Never wanted to.

“Okay, let’s circle back to what’s important here, ladies.

” Glaring at her sister, daring her to interrupt again, Ellis made a circle with her finger, then poked the table twice for emphasis.

“He invited Court to this family reunion thing next weekend. With only seven days’ notice.

Which is not enough time for you to spend too much time thinking about it.

You know to weigh the pros and cons of seeing him again after all this time.

Debate whether you even need to see him again.

It’s been a long time, and you have a life that doesn’t involve him, that doesn’t need him in it.

But the what ifs are still there, aren’t they?

What if you do need him? What if there is a chance for closure?

What if you could finally tell him what you really think of him?

How he made you feel? What if things could have been different? ”

Rebel leaning towards Court, drawn in by her sister’s words, “You need to know the what if’s Court.”

“Not a chance in hell. I’m beyond all those what ifs in my life.” Court barked out. Even after Ellis’s amazing speech, she wouldn’t subject herself to spending time with those people again. They were a family she wasn’t a part of, and they made sure she knew that. Nothing about it had changed.

But that argument wasn’t enough to erase the fact that even after he kicked her out of his home as a teenager, she still needed a father figure in her life, and he hadn’t been there for her. Her mom washed her hands of her, which had left her with nobody when she still needed someone.

There had been a time in her young life when Calvin Morrissey was the only person there for her.

Her mom was never very motherly or warm.

She spent more time focusing on her career than on her only daughter.

It was from Calvin she had learned what little she knew about the man who had fathered her. Jay Morrissey.

The two men had met in middle school and bonded over the fact that they shared a last name. That had turned into going to the same college and sharing a dorm room. Jay had spent more years with Calvin than he would with his daughter. Court had been three when he was killed in a car accident.

It was from Calvin that she learned her mom hadn’t wanted her from the beginning, but her dad had been in all in from that positive pregnancy test. That she had missed out on something special when she lost him. A loving parent.

But for years she hadn’t seen it as losing much, because she still had Calvin. Then he was gone to be with his new family just when she needed him the most.

“But you said you would? You told him you’d be there. You gave your word, you can’t not go now. That would be dishonest.” Ellis stated in confusion, because for some reason she didn’t see the lies. Even if she worked with liars all the time. It always shocked her when someone lied to her face.

“No, I was just told about the weekend, and he assumed I’d actually want to go.

Which means I didn’t commit to anything.

Thus I don’t have to go,” she said, and once again wished she had been ballsy enough to actually just say no.

Instead, she had been stunned to be on the phone with him at all.

That her mother had given him a number for her that she didn’t even know the woman had.

She had listened to him excitedly tell her the details of the coming weekend. Details she had no interest in. Details she barely remembered a few hours later.

“Court, you have to go,” Rebel pleaded with her, since she had bought Ellis’s argument hook, line and sinker.

“No, I’m going to skip it.” Court argued, she didn’t need to say no since she hadn’t said yes either. Calvin hadn’t actually given her time to answer. He just hung up after telling her about the weekend.

“Let’s look at this in a different way for a moment.” Ellis pushed her sister a little away from her with her excitement. She had convinced one at the table. Now it was time to focus on Court, it seemed. “How many people will be there?”

“No idea.” Court admitted, it always seemed like too many when half were teenagers. She couldn’t imagine any of them as adults.