Chapter Four #2
Andi nodded as we veered off into my office while Rome wandered into his own.
He was my technical head of personal security, so wherever I went, he went.
I would have gone crazy if every waking moment was spent with him.
My office was my safe place, away from demanding male egos, and Andi was amazing enough to find an office for me to stick him in while I worked.
She also had a great view of him from her desk, so she was quite pleased with the arrangement.
“Melissa, from the public relations department, is coming to meet with you about it. Also, your brother called and wanted to have a conversation with you about something important. He didn’t elaborate.”
I nodded and set my purse on the oak desk that sat in the center of the room. I looked around my office, realizing it matched my home. There was no color. It was all black, grey, and various wood tones.
When did I lose all of the color in my life?
“Ms. Bly?” Andi asked tentatively.
I shook away my thoughts and focused my attention back on her. “Thank you, Andi. I’ll call my brother back now. Tell Melissa we can meet at noon.”
Andi nodded, grabbing my purse and shutting my office door behind her as she headed out.
I sighed and slumped in my office chair.
Two of the four walls were lined with floor-to-ceiling windows, showing off the New York City skyline.
But my current headache wouldn’t fare well with the sunny skies, so I shut the electric blinds and popped two painkillers before dialing up my brother.
He and I hadn’t always been close. It was only in recent years that we worked to maintain consistent communication.
Between our busy schedules and his reluctance to come back to New York City—worried that he would face our father—I almost never saw him.
However, we made an effort to talk at least once a week.
“What?” Will asked when he finally answered after what felt like the hundredth agonizing ring, reverberating through my aching skull.
“Do you always answer the phone that way?”
Will chuckled on the other end of the phone, a sound I still wasn’t entirely used to hearing.
My older brother had always been more reserved and moody.
I used to joke that he was a stereotypical grump.
Since meeting and marrying his wife, Jackie, he could almost be mistaken for a happy person.
I swear, I nearly caught him smiling last time I went out to visit.
“I didn’t know who was calling,” he explained over the receiver.
“How are you? How’s Jackie?”
I could hear the smile in his voice as he answered, rambling on about Jackie, their life in Oregon, and something about a new cat.
If my count was correct, it was their third.
I couldn’t help but feel jealous as I listened…
but mostly I felt joy that my brother found someone who was perfect for him.
He had found the family we had been deprived of as children.
It’s all I had ever wanted for him… and for me.
After a few minutes of catching up, his real purpose finally made itself known. “Where were you last night? Rome called, saying you weren’t home and asked me where you had wandered off to.”
I sighed. Rome had worked for Will in Oregon for a few years before coming here.
Rome didn’t talk about his time there. I wasn't sure why. He had an understanding of how Bly Enterprises worked because of the affiliation, but it also meant he was close enough to my brother to feel comfortable calling him, and thus ratting me out. “I went out with a friend, and don’t worry, Rome found me.”
“You were out with Alexandra?” Will asked. He knew I had exactly one friend and had even vetted her when we first met.
“Yes, it was a lot of fun, by the way. Thank you for asking,” I quipped. “Figured I deserved a break.”
“I have a feeling I’ll see pictures of it in the tabloids today,” he remarked flippantly.
Every time I stepped out with Alexandra, our faces were painted all over every tabloid in every metropolitan city. The majority of my fame and recognition came from being her friend.
“You’re probably right. Anyway, I’m sorry to worry you.
I’m still not used to having a bodyguard follow me around all the time.
It just slipped my mind to tell him.” It was a bald-faced lie.
I knew when I left, that I was going to make Rome angry.
I knew I should have told him, but I just needed a night to myself—a night to be a normal 29-year-old woman.
“Promise me you’re being safe?” Will asked.
“Cross my heart.”
I heard him sigh, and I geared up for a lecture from the professor—aka the most overbearing older brother. But the sound of Jackie in the background of the phone call must have caught my brother's attention, because in a flash, he was saying his goodbyes and hung up the call.
Who would have thought having a sister came with perks like that?
The idea that Jackie was now my sister, or sister-in-law, was still hard to wrap my head around.
For so long, it had only been my mom, Will, and me.
Even when my parents were still married, they had hardly interacted with one another.
When my dad was home, his attention was on my brother.
The only time I did get his attention as a child was when he wanted to hurt my brother… by hurting me.
Mine and Will’s relationship was strained because of these dynamics.
We did our best to be close, but I could see his guilt for leaving.
He hadn’t admitted it, but I knew it ate at him to know that he left me in that household on my own.
We were trying to be better and mend our relationship, but after all that our father had done, it was a long and rocky road.
I shook away the thoughts of my unnecessarily depressing childhood and focused on the work I had in front of me.