Chapter 25 – Lexi
twenty-five
Lexi
Ariella:
I can’t wait for tomorrow.
Gabriella:
I wish I was in town.
Zoey:
I wish I could cancel on the date that Nash has planned for us.
Ariella:
Well, it sucks you won’t be there, but I will. Well, me and Jagger but he doesn’t count since he’s attached to my boob for most of the day.
Me:
Guys, I live here now, so we can do it any other time.
Zara:
You think I can fly in for the night and then fly out?
I smile at Zara’s last comment. It’s been a while since I’ve been active in the group chats between the girls. My cousin Gabriella always makes me laugh as much as my sister, Zara.
Me:
If you want, I am sure someone can lend you a plane. Doesn’t Gabriel’s family have one just waiting in the wings?
Zara:
Don’t tempt me. Okay, I’m going to have to pass on this girls’ night, but I’m coming down in about a month and I expect girls’ night two-point-O. So clear your calendars.
Me:
It’s a date.
I push away from my desk and walk out of my office toward Kylie’s. Seeing her behind her white desk with a pink chair, she looks up from her screen and smiles at me. “Are you taking off?” Kylie asks as she leans back in the chair and puts her hands over her head.
“I’m about to,” I reply, “but I was also coming in to invite you over to my house tomorrow.”
“Oh,” she says, the smile on her face going bigger and bigger.
“Nothing big, just the girls are coming over for a housewarming party and we are going to watch the hockey game.” I hold up my hands after she shoots me an amused look.
“Ariella has to since Jaxon is on the team, so we are supporting her. But there will be pizza and sushi, along with wine and whatever it is you want.”
“Girls’ night?” Kylie shrieks. “I haven’t had girls’ night in well…a long time, since I moved here and don’t know anyone. And girls’ night was dwindling even more by the time I moved from Phoenix, so it’s been forever and a day.”
“I didn’t know you moved here just for this job,” I tell her.
“Yeah.” She leans her hands on her desk. “He’s been wanting to start this foundation for a while.” I smile when I think of Kirby’s smile and then my heart literally skips a beat, but then it gets tighter knowing I put the brakes on the whole thing.
“Well, it’s going to help a lot of people,” I affirm to her.
“Then it’s good I jumped on the train. Besides, I think I’m finally in the headspace to help. You know, since I’m over the trauma.” I smile at her sadly.
“Don’t we all have trauma?” I lean against the doorjamb. “Or at least that’s what everyone says.”
“We do.” Kylie folds her arms on the desk. “Some of us just don’t see the trauma before we know it’s trauma.”
I smile at her. “Isn’t that the truth?” I push away from the doorjamb. “It’s a good thing I wasn’t going to take no for an answer.”
“I wasn’t going to turn down the offer, so there is that.” Kylie laughs. “I’ll bring dessert.”
“Perfect, I’ll see you tomorrow, then.” She nods. “I’ll text you my address; you can come whenever you want.”
“Don’t say that.” She points at me. “I literally have no life, so I’ll be showing up at noon.”
“We can have no life together.” I point back at her. “Plus, you can help me decorate.”
“Ariella is coming over to your house.” She gawks at me. “You think I’m going to put anything anywhere where she can ask why I put it there, and then she tells me how wrong of a decision it was?”
“I never thought about that,” I say, thinking about all the decorations I put out. “Thanks for that, now I’m going to spend all night overthinking everything.”
“You’re welcome.” She pushes away from the desk and shuts her laptop. “That’s what friends are for.”
I shake my head and walk back into my office, shutting down my desktop and packing my laptop.
I walk out of the office at the same time as Kylie walks out of hers and we head down to the garage at the same time.
She gets into her own SUV while I wave at her and pull out at the same time my phone rings and I see it’s my lawyer.
“Hello.”
“Hey.” Her voice fills the car. “I’m just following up on my previous call. Trent’s lawyers are breathing down my neck with calls daily.”
“I can imagine,” I mumble as I pull onto the highway, heading to my house. “I’m still thinking about it,” I tell her, except it dawns on me that I haven’t thought about it once since she called me.
“I don’t know if that answer is going to be good enough for them,” she huffs.
“It’s the only answer I am going to give them right now.” I stand my ground.
“I’ll let you know what they say,” she says and disconnects. I look at the display screen and I know exactly what I should do, but I also am afraid of doing it.
I pull into my garage at the same time the phone pings with a text.
Marley:
They will give you until the following Monday for an answer and then the offer is off the table. It’s twelve million dollars, it should be a no-brainer.
“You know what also should be a no-brainer?” I say, getting out of the SUV. “Firing you and actually getting someone who is on my side.” I shut the door and head into my house.
* * *
“Look at this view,” Ariella gasps, walking out from the living room to the patio while I hold Jagger in my arms. “No wonder you wanted to move out so fast.”
“Oh, would you stop?” I kiss his head and he looks up at me. He’s been in my arms since they got here over twenty-five minutes ago. “I was in your hair.”
The doorbell rings and I look over at her. “Make yourself at home.”
I turn and walk back to the front door, Jagger on my hip as he looks around.
I open the door and smile when I see Kylie there with two clear bags, holding four boxes of what is probably dessert.
“Hello,” she greets, smiling big. “Am I too early?” she asks me and I shake my head.
“Good. Here, take this, I have more in the car.” She hands me the bags and runs back to her SUV that is parked in the driveway.
“Is she silly?” I ask Jagger as he hits my chest a couple of times and he blabbers at me.
I watch her walk back to me with two big boxes and another bag. “What are you doing?” I ask her, moving out of the way so she can come into the room. “What is all that?”
“This”—she holds up the bag—“is a present from the office.” I laugh at her. “And then these”—she holds up the two white boxes—“are from our boss.”
I swallow when she says our boss instead of saying Kirby’s name.
“Presents,” Ariella says, coming into the house.
“Hi.” She smiles at Kylie. “We meet again,” she says, holding out her hand to Kylie, who goes to shake her hand.
Jagger decides he’s done with me and launches himself toward Ariella, who catches him as if it’s no big deal. “This is my boy, Jagger.”
“He looks exactly like Jaxon,” Kylie says, rubbing her finger over his cheek.
“That he does.” She raises her eyebrows. “I spent nine months carrying him for him to come out looking like his dad. Actually, the only one who said he looks nothing like his dad was Angela.” When Ariella says that name, Kylie fake vomits making her laugh.
“Who is Angela?” I ask them.
“Kirby’s ex,” they both say at the same time and my stomach literally clenches. “She was vile.”
“She was,” Ariella agrees and they both look at me. “You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I lie and put on my fake smile. “So, what is all this?” I look at the boxes, hoping it will change the topic of Kirby and his ex.
“The champagne and glasses are from the office, which means they’re from me,” she replies of the box wrapped in blue paper and the bottle of champagne with a blue ribbon around it. “These”—she puts her hands on the boxes—“are from Kirby.”
“Isn’t that nice?” Ariella says. I look over and she is trying to hide her smile with Jagger’s head. “You should open it.”
“I’ll open it,” I say, “and you”—I point to Kylie—“pour yourself a glass of wine.”
“Say less,” she says, making us both laugh, walking into the kitchen and grabbing a glass and filling it with white wine.
I untie the white ribbon and open the box, folding the white tissues over to see that he’s got the quotes in my office printed and framed. I gasp and look at Ariella. “You knew about this?”
She rolls her eyes. “He might have called and asked where I got them.”
I take all of them out of the box and stop when I see the last one. “Wait,” Ariella says, looking into the box, “there were six.” Her eyes go to the last one.
It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
“Wait.” She turns and walks to the living room and picks up the frame I put there yesterday, his card from that night in the middle of it. “It’s the same quote.” She reads it and then gasps. “K is Kirby?”
“K is for Kirby.” I nod at her. “The two of us—”
“Are a couple,” she quickly fills in, and I shake my head but look down at the picture in my hands.
“We got close when he was in Phoenix,” I admit to her. “He was there when I needed him.” That’s all I will say. “And I will be forever grateful for that.”
“I think it’s more than that,” Kylie breaks into the conversation, “but it’s none of my business.” She takes a sip of her wine. “Well, at least that’s what he told me when I asked him about it.”
“There is nothing to say,” I agree with him, even though my head screams there is a lot to say. “He’s my boss and I’m his employee.”
“Yes, but you were friends before you started working for him,” Kylie states, “so does that count?”
“It doesn’t,” Ariella refutes at the exact time I say, “One thousand percent. He’s my boss; it’s wrong.”
“I mean, if we are being technical…” Kylie looks at Ariella, then back at me. “I’m your boss.” I shake my head. “I mean, technically, there is no boss.”
“He signs my paycheck.”
“No, he doesn’t”—Kylie shakes her head, laughing—“the foundation does.”
“Where do you think the foundation is getting money from?” I argue with her.
“From our trust fund,” she says and I take a step back. “Actually, it’s the interest from our trust fund.”
“I’m sorry, what?”