Ezra 3.
I’m not hiding. I’m not. I’m a grown ass man who runs a multi-billion-dollar freight company. I do what I want. When I want.
“EZRA!” Shit. The she-beast found me! I slip deeper into the storage closet, using the shelving units as cover, and drop to my haunches just in time. Tovah throws open the door, huffing and snarling, her wild eyes darting all over the closet, and I’m home—
“Own it like a man. You and that lap pinky get out here!” Why is everyone razzing on my junk? It’s good junk. Homegrown. Pleased a lot of ladies with it over the years. “Right the fuck now!” She roars, the shelving units quaking in fear or from the inhuman decibel. I step out of my hiding spot and shuffle out of the closet, trying like hell to keep my head up, but I can’t under her disappointed and irate stare. For the millionth time in my life, I curse being forced to work with Tovah. Zilv got Ruthie; how is it fair that he gets the sweetest angel heaven sent and I get the thing that scared the demons of the underworld enough to crawl topside?
“Moshe approved it.” My voice is a broken whisper. She spins on her spiked heels and snarls in my face.
“Is that my name now, Ez? Is my name Moshe?” I can’t even shake my head before she’s gripping my shirt and pulling me closer. “No, the fuck it ain’t. I didn’t approve it. I run this company, not Moshe, not Uncle David, and certainly not you, me.” She jabs herself in the chest with her talons, “Me. I run this motherfucker. And I did not approve this!”
“Tov. Sweet—” I switch course when her nostrils flare and a little smoke billows between us, “Ms. Frenkel. It’s just the logs. They had a new streamlined interface—”
“My fist. Your face. That streamlined enough for you?”
“Tovah.”
“No! I’m the one on the phone with the drivers and pilots. I’m the one adding tech-support to my resume because you pencil dicked motherfuckers decided to fix something that wasn’t broke!”
She releases her hold on me to rub at her face in irritation and I use that opportunity to run like Forrest Gump into my office and lock the door. A moment later, she punches said door. “I’m not going to kick down your door because I’ll be the one who has to call in the order to fix it and stay after hours to make sure it’s done and Carl told me I’d have to buy him dinner next time I broke a door, and I am NOT buying that man anything.” Her sigh is palpable. “You should buy Carl dinner for saving your puny little ass this time.”
“On it!” I yell, take my seat behind my desk, and pull up on my phone an Italian restaurant that I know Carl likes, ordering enough to feed his entire maintenance department in the lower level of our offices.
An hour later, I hear a key in the lock of my office door. I brace myself for Tovah’s wrath and am pleasantly surprised when our mishpocheh’s sweetheart walks in with an adorably confused expression, followed by my older brother. The best thing Zeppo ever did was get his head out of his ass and lock Ruthie down. She’s been his and only his since the moment she was born. I knew it. Ruthie’s parents knew it. Tovah and the cousins knew it. Zeppo eventually figured it out, but it was Moshe and his pigheaded misguided protection that kept them apart for too long.
“ Shvegerin! ” I open my arms wide and wrap them tight around Ruthie, swaying her side to side, chuckling as my brother grunts.
“I’m not your sister-in-law yet.” Ruthie giggles, tossing a wink over her shoulder at Zeppo. He instantly loses the look of emotional constipation and grins at his fiancé.
“Semantics. To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?” I peek around the couple and sigh in relief when Tovah doesn’t materialize. Meeting Zeppo’s stare, I match his scowl, “Brother.” Ruthie smacks my chest, stepping into Zep’s side and resting her head on his chest.
“We’re heading out for our trip to Hanging Rock, but I needed some tea before we left.”
“Tea?” My brows furrow even as I smile. Zeppo heaves a massive sigh, rubbing the back of his neck. Shit.
“I may have overheard Yak talking about…uh…and then I let it spill to freyd—”
Ruthie bounces away from Zeppo and claps her hands chest level as she wiggles her dark eyebrows at me, “Who’s the girl?”
With a glare at my brother, I plaster a forced grin on my face and address Ruthie. “What girl?”
She giggles, “What girl? The girl you want Yakov to find! That’s who! Who is she? How’d you meet? What’s she like? Is she tall? Does she have dark hair? Is she nice? Will she like me?” Any ire I have melts away in the face of Ruthie’s insecurity. She’s been doing so much better since she and Zeppo got together, but the events of the last year have taken their toll on her self-esteem.
“Anyone with the will to live would love you.” I boop her on the nose, chuckling when she scrunches it up.
“You can’t make people like me.” She asserts, then leans in, “But she might?” I love Ruthie but that love doesn’t stop me from denying her the spilt tea she’s fiending for.
“I don’t know who you’re talking about, but liking you is a prerequisite. I don’t care how tight her snatch is.”
“EZRA!” Zeppo roars, advancing toward me. I start to back up with my hands in the air, but for the first time in the history of the world, a demon fights for the side of good. Tovah materializes like the dark lord she is and steps in front of Zeppo.
“Chill the fuck out. I ain’t cleaning blood out of the carpet again.” Tovah glances at me over her shoulder, “Quit being a little bitch.” Before I can respond, Tovah turns back to Ruthie and Zeppo. She doesn’t want to clean up blood, but she’s fine mopping up a little tea apparently. “Ezra took care of some business the other day, then got into the elevator with some chick and took care o’ business .”
Ruthie turns those guileless dark eyes my way and blinks owlishly. “You had intercourse with someone you just met? In an elevator?” Zeppo’s face is a beautiful shade of red as the tendons in his neck distend. I keep an eye on him as Ruthie leans forward and whispers, “Did you go down while the elevator…uh…went down?” She bites her bottom lip, “Wait, you were going up?”
Tovah and I stifle our laughter at her innocence, and I thank my lucky stars that her naivete robs Zeppo of his ire. He pulls her into his body from behind and nuzzles her neck. “You don’t need to be worrying about what he’s doing with whom.”
“It was a good innuendo, though, right?” Zeppo nods in agreement, placing a kiss below her ear.
“So, when are you gonna see her again?”
“I’m not.”
Tovah tuts, “Yakov is searching for her, but since vanilla tootsie roll here only got her first name, it’s taking him a bit longer than usual.”
“Ooh, in an elevator with a woman you just met, and you only knew her first name? You sly dog you.” Ruthie pushes against my arm with a grin and another eyebrow wiggle.
“And we’re leaving. You and I have a date with a hot tub.”
“Zep, I didn’t pack my bathing suit.”
“I know.” Zeppo steers Ruthie out of my office.
“Why’d she call him ‘vanilla tootsie roll’? Is there a vanilla one? I’ve never seen them before.”
“And you never will!”
I spin on Tovah when they’ve disappeared around the corner, “Why can’t you keep your mouth shut?”
“Because so many people enjoy it when it’s open…” I shiver in disgust thinking of anyone willing to sell their souls to mate with the queen of the damned.
“Like the drivers calling you for tech support?” Fuck. Shit. Too far. I taunted it.
“Streamline!”
Her fist. My face.