4. Elise
4
ELISE
Elise
S ix years was a long time to get to know someone.
Soon after Claudia and I moved to Chicago from the small town in Indiana where our grandparents raised us, we met the Bowen brothers. Claudia got her job at the bakery downstairs in the Bowen building within a week of applying at bakeries because Grandma taught her how to be a goddess of all things sugary and sweet.
When I walked her to work one day, still looking for a job for myself, I bumped into Derek so hard that we dropped our phones. We cracked up that we were both not paying attention to where we were walking, too glued to the same video of a stand-up comedian. Meeting Derek led me to meet Grant, and voila, I had quickly nabbed a job as an assistant for the sexy grump.
For six years, I’d gotten to know both of them. How silly and lighthearted Derek could be. How stern and uber-focused Grant was.
And in that time, I learned to read them rather well.
Derek knew something about this weekend. Grant was going out of his way to skimp on the details.
What’s up with that?
I’d worked outside of normal hours before. When Derek got lost at a concert that I really wanted to attend, Grant called me to go help “fetch” him from the VIP areas. When both brothers got food poisoning from a conference uptown, I stopped at their places with chicken noodle soup that Claudia made to ensure they stayed alive. That one time when Accounts Payable screwed up a huge report, I stayed up all night with Grant at the office, drying out my eyes to fix it with him. And when Derek had to fire an angry supervisor, I had his back and confirmed that she was making up false sexual harassment claims.
They knew I could step up and work hard. Their acting odd about this weekend rubbed me the wrong way. Why not just give me the details from the get-go?
This meeting with Samantha and Greg lasted all afternoon, consisting of the same back-and-forth about the pending Newman acquisition that should close soon. Grant and Derek had their eyes on Newman Inc. for a while now, but it seemed that Vince Newman was a hard man to pin down a yes for.
I struggled to pay attention. I lost interest, not hearing details about anything I’d need to note that I hadn’t documented before in the many other meetings held between the Bowen brothers and the Newman execs.
I gathered that this weekend had something to do with this deal, per Samantha’s comment. And I further deduced that the gorgeous bombshell would be at these meetings too.
Just what I need. Seeing Grant’s ex who defaulted to snark soured my mood. I recalled the strange four months he’d dated her and the long three years since that she’d hounded after him following their breakup. Knowing I’d need to face her this weekend worsened my mood, but I wasn’t surprised. She’d been to all of these deal meetings, probably to soak up every chance she could to talk to Grant. He’d blocked her personally, but it seemed that he was stuck dealing with her professionally.
Elise: Yeah, it looks like he’s canceling my request for Friday off AND expecting me to work Saturday.
Texting my cousin during this meeting seemed wrong, but I couldn’t bring myself to care. Samantha was dragging it out, asking Grant the same things five times over just to make him stay here with her. Unfortunately, Greg was dull enough not to notice what she was doing.
Claudia: Just Saturday? You don’t have to work Sunday?
Grant pushed his hard thigh against mine, prompting me to look up from my phone in my lap. I looked up, glancing at him, then Samantha.
Did I miss something?
It didn’t seem like it. Grant furrowed his brow at my being on my phone, and Samantha pouted that he was distracted by me.
Don’t mind me. I held my phone under the table so no one would be bothered.
Elise: I don’t know. I hated that I wasn’t clued in to the details about this sudden need to work this weekend. If it was more of this boring chatter, talking about the same things over and over, why did I have to be there?
Elise: He didn’t say. But I think I’ll be off Sunday.
Waiting for her to reply again and waiting for this meeting to wrap up, I scrolled on social media to see what scandal Derek could’ve been so apologetic about on the walk in here. It didn’t take me long to find it, and I sighed at the obviously exaggerated “news” about Derek with some supposed royal and a hint of a second DUI. He liked to party, but he wasn’t stupid.
As soon as the meeting concluded—thank God—I tugged on Grant’s sleeve to keep him in the conference room. Derek lingered too.
“What meeting do you ‘need’ me for this weekend?” I asked. “Something with the Newman deal?” I jerked my thumb at the empty conference table. “Because it’s just the same old. Nothing new to note.” And why did Samantha say it would be romantic? The idea of Grant and Samantha getting back together peeved me.
Derek shared a look with Grant. I grew more frustrated that I couldn’t decipher it.
“Just a business trip,” Grant said, not making eye contact.
I frowned. “ Trip ? We’re meeting the Newman team somewhere else?” Dammit! Coming to the office was one thing, but going to New York, where Vince Newman was headquartered, was another.
“We’ll leave in the morning.” Grant glanced at me, stern and not giving anything away. “I’ll have a driver pick you up.”
With that, he turned and left the room. I stared after him, annoyed. “Are you going too?” I asked Derek.
“I’m, uh, gonna lie low for a while.” He winced. “Try to stay out of the public’s eye.”
I rolled my eyes and patted his back.
“I saw you on your phone,” he said. “So, you, uh, know the latest.”
“You’re just too damn handsome and charming not to be in the public’s eye,” I teased.
He winked. “But I’ve been suffering a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time lately.”
“I feel the same.” I slumped my shoulders as I sighed. “I asked for Friday off because I was going to help Claudia move into my place.”
“Oh?”
I brightened. “But maybe if you’re around…” I clasped my hands together and batted my eyelids.
He chuckled, looking more relaxed than he had since he’d come in. “Sure. I could give her a hand.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” He walked out of the room with me as I continued. “I’ll text you the address and give her a heads up to reach out to you if she wants the help.”
More than anything, I’d feel better knowing that Claudia wouldn’t be alone. If Keith was intending to pester her again, seeing another person with her would deter him. I hoped.
After work, while I helped her box up things, I explained how I'd asked him to help. She wasn’t upset that I offered Derek’s assistance to make up for mine. As I figured she might, she said she doubted she’d contact him, that packing would be a cathartic exercise following the breakup. She’d been with Keith for six years, and I supposed she needed this as closure.
Other than slightly rejecting the option to call Derek for help, she didn’t say much, too deep in a depressive gloom about Keith leaving her. That worried me more. I’d rather her be mad and curse out that narcissist jerk. Her self-reflective negativity was harder to beat and worse to witness.
“Stop,” I chided her.
“I just can’t get over how dumb I was to ever believe a word he said.”
I let out a tired breath, dropping to her couch that I still couldn’t imagine fitting in my tiny apartment. “Claudia, stop. Keith was a master manipulator.” I bet several of his exes would claim to be victims of the same sad story.
“But he duped me. For years!” She sniffled. “I thought he loved me.”
I opened and closed my mouth, unprepared for how to reply. I was ignorant in matters of love because I’d never found a man to give it to me. Lackluster one-night stands and meaningless dates that ultimately went nowhere—that was my area of knowledge and experience. I’d never found anyone who sparked big feelings in me or convinced me that I could be worthy of love.
“Because,” I said calmly, “he was a master manipulator.”
Nodding, she sniffled and wiped at her eyes.
I hated that I wouldn’t be here for her when she was hurting the most.
Screw Grant and these stupid Newman meetings.
My cousin needed my shoulder to cry on, my help to move as she was evicted. I felt torn in two where my loyalties were concerned.
Later, as I lay in bed and willed myself to relax, I texted Derek to check that he’d be available to help her. He was goofy. He might distract her from being glum. They knew of each other, familiar through me, but I worried that I was dumping a bigger problem in his lap than he expected.
Elise: Thanks again for offering to help her move.
Derek: No worries. He sent a GIF of someone waving off concerns.
I replied with a GIF of a cat saying thank you .
Elise: She might be a little sad, though.
Derek: Oh?
I cringed.
Elise: She just got out of a bad breakup.
Derek: I’ll try to cheer her up, then.
I replied with a meme of how he was one in a million.
As soon as I sent it, a text came from Grant.
Grant: A driver will pick you up at six.
I rolled my eyes and sent him a GIF of saluting.
Elise: Yes, I saw your text earlier and confirmed it.
Derek replied with an aw, shucks meme.
Derek: I try.
I smiled, amused at how different the brothers were. Grant had yet to lighten up to sending a text with anything other than direct words, never animation. In our group thread, Derek and I constantly “clogged” it up with our “silliness”.
Grant: Six AM. Not PM.
Elise: Thank you for the clarification. I didn’t forget what AM meant.
Grant: Why are you up so late, then?
I yawned.
Elise: I burn the midnight oil to brainstorm how to make your life harder.
Grant: My bad. I thought that came naturally.
Elise: What do you want?
Three dots appeared and disappeared over and over as he typed and revised a reply.
It was late, which begged the question of what he was doing up at this hour, texting me.
Grant: For you to go to bed.
I took a picture of myself tucked in.
Elise: I am in bed.
Grant: Is that a comforter decorated in flying unicorn dachshunds?
“Oh, shut up.” It was a throw. I was only using this thick, plush blanket as a backup for my comforter in the laundry.
I set my phone down, bracing myself for the aggravation of having to put up with him in a few hours.
In the morning, I slid into the backseat of the car. Grant sipped his coffee as I scooched in. As usual, he looked fresh-eyed and alert, like he’d already run a marathon and climbed a mountain.
Like usual. Also per the norm, I was chugging my caffeine like it was a lifeline and sighing with my eyes closed at the fact that I was no longer in bed. Slumping in the seat, I waited for my body to wake up.
“Tired?”
I slit my eyes open at him, damning him for looking so… so…
Hot.
I had yet to see this man unattractive on a surface level. Deep down, though, I bet his heart was an ugly mess. How else could it be when ice flowed through his veins?
“If you'd managed to go to bed at a decent hour…”
I pointed at him by lifting a finger from my coffee mug. “You were also up late.”
He didn’t reply, glancing out the window.
“Should I count on a seven o’clock bedtime this weekend, then?” I rolled my eyes.
“So sorry Derek isn’t coming to keep you amused,” he shot back. “But then again, he’s had other priorities lately.”
“Oh, give him a break. He likes to have fun. That’s not a crime.”
“And that’s what I’m depriving you from this weekend? Having fun?” He narrowed his eyes.
“Would you apologize if you were?”
I dared him to lie.
“No. I am curious why you’re so determined not to come on this trip, though.”
I huffed. “Other than the fact that I have next to no clues why I have to in the first place.”
“Oh.” He scowled. “Like you’ve never had to travel with me before.”
“Why so last-minute?” I woke up now, blood burning hotter through my veins with the familiar excitement of arguing with him. “And”—I pointed at him and narrowed my eyes—“why did Samantha say this weekend would be romantic? Since when are meetings romantic?”
He furrowed his brow and looked down.
“Oh, shit. Are you guys getting back together?” I groaned and knocked my head back on the headrest. “I don’t need to see that.”
“No—What?”
I scowled at him.
“What do you mean, you don’t need to see that?”
It means I can’t stand her. And I know you deserve better. But that sounded personal. “It means I don’t need to tag along with you—and her—all weekend if you’re trying to hook up again.”
“That’s not—No.” He huffed. “That’s not happening.”
“Why would she think the meetings this weekend would be ‘romantic’?” I felt like I was on the cusp of why he was acting so weird.
“It’s in a romantic location.”
I frowned. “Not… New York? Near the Newman Inc. office?”
He shook his head.
“Then where?—”
“What did you have plans to do this weekend?”
I sighed. “My plans did not include arguing with you in the backseat of a car on the way to the airport so I can fly to an undisclosed location.”
“We always argue.”
I shot him a dirty look.
“Why are you so against going on this trip?” His face softened into a different sort of frown. I’d only seen him look like this once before—when he found Samantha cheating on him. “Why are you so against going on a trip with me ?”
I blinked, trying and failing to connect the dots. First, Samantha claimed this weekend would be romantic. Now, Grant was acting like this was a… date.
For God’s sake. A date? I was really reaching now. Grant Bowen, sexy billionaire CEO, would not be flying away with a wallflower like me for a romantic weekend away. I wasn’t his type.
This was a work trip. Nothing more, nothing less. Yet, I couldn’t shake this suspicion that he was scheming something. It wasn’t like him to be this elusive.
“Grant.” I slid my glasses up my nose and looked at him soberly. “Where the hell are we going, and why do I have to come?”
“Elise,” he mocked, parroting me. “Why the hell are you so bent out of shape about coming with me this weekend?”
“I was supposed to help Claudia with something.” He didn’t need all the details.
“Oh.” He raised his brows. “You mean you need to hold her hand and coddle her—again?”
I dropped my jaw.
“Don’t deny it. You’re a suffocating mother hen with her.”
I sneered. “No more than you’re a party-pooper with Derek!”
“That’s different.”
I crossed my arms. “How so?”
“His actions have consequences.”
“And, what, I can’t care about Claudia’s happiness? At least I don’t try to ruin her life like you do with Derek.”
“He’s well on the way to ruining his own life.”
I scowled. “Don’t believe everything about your brother that you read online.”
“Don’t mistake being a worry wart as an excuse to be overprotective of your cousin.”
I leaned forward, determined to get in his face. “Butt out of my life.”
He slanted closer. “Fine! Then stay out of mine too.”
Fighting the urge to growl, I huffed and slumped back into my seat. I never wanted to get involved in his life, but he was always there. Always around. I spent the vast majority of my life at work, and since he starred there, he infiltrated all my thoughts.
The terse silence that followed our shouting match lingered. On the way to the airport, all the way to the terminal for first class, and through the flight. Having my earbuds in and paying attention to the paperback I’d brought along made it easier to ignore him. The lack of conversation seemed to suit him too.
Once we landed, the tension thickened with the rising humidity too. Had the bastard taken the time to tell me that we were flying to the freaking Bahamas, I could’ve planned accordingly and packed my bathing suit.
But nooo. He had to go all closed-lipped and acting like a bigger ass than usual.
This weekend is off to a great start.
He didn’t speak as we got off the plane. Not even when we waited for our luggage.
Only when we were about to leave and find our driver did he stop me.
Feeling his hand on my arm shouldn’t have caused tingles. Looking up at his handsome face shouldn’t have threatened to make me angle closer.
You are impossible, Grant. He had the unique ability to piss me off at the same time he tugged my heartstrings.
“By the way…” He spoke gently, almost apologetically, like he wanted to be the bigger person and move past his part in our latest argument.
I sighed, hating that we fought so damn well when we both got going. “I?—”
He turned my hand palm side down.
The sensation of metal sliding up over my knuckle confused me.
“We’re engaged.”
I stared at the massive diamond ring he’d put on my finger.