27. Olivia
OLIVIA
I tried to calm myself. People got busy. This was not that big of a deal.
But I needed to talk to Lucas.
After the home show, Callie had officially confirmed we’d be using Helen’s home for the show. Which meant I finally got to tell Lucas and his brothers that their company was going to be featured on Netflix.
I could finally tell Lucas about this huge thing in my life. I’d been holding it in so long, I was ready to burst.
But he’d been avoiding me.
I didn’t know why, which had me on edge. He’d been fine when I got back to the room after finishing up at the home show. If anything, it felt like he didn’t want to let me go for even a moment. The man had held me from behind while I brushed my teeth.
Then we got home. He kissed me goodbye with sad eyes, and I hadn’t heard from him since. I assumed the sadness was because our weekend was over. Now I was worrying.
I’d decided I wouldn’t let him ignore me anymore. We weren’t twelve. If he was done with us, he could tell me to my face. So, I pulled in to the Alessi Construction offices and promptly marched to the door. I didn’t bother waiting, just walked right in and straight to Lucas’s office.
When I opened the door, I started with my prepared speech.
“Listen Lucas, I don’t know what–”
I stopped short when I realized the man sitting at Lucas’s desk was not Lucas; it was Leo.
“Olivia.” He nodded in greeting.
“What are you doing here? Where’s Lucas?”
“Have a seat, Olivia. I have a few questions for you.”
I wanted answers, but Leo scared me a bit. So, without thinking, my feet carried me to a chair in front of Lucas’s desk and I sat.
“First, Lucas isn’t here. He messaged us yesterday that we’d be pulling out of the Arnoult project and he would personally cover the financial hit to the company.”
What? Why? It was incredible how quickly my entire body went numb. I couldn’t seem to make my lips form the questions that were sitting on my tongue. So many questions.
Leo continued, “Do you know why he’d do that, Olivia?”
Did he think I caused this? That I was the one breaking Lucas’s heart and not the one sitting in his office slowly falling apart?
“I-I don’t know. ”
“Who was that woman you brought to the site?”
That jolted me out of my spiral. Why would he ask that right now?
“Callie?”
“Yes, with the purple hard hat.”
“Lavender,” I said out of reflex.
Leo leveled me with a scowl.
“She works for Netflix. They-they offered me a show, and she wanted to see the house for herself. To see if it would fit into the production schedule they had in mind.”
That was clearly not the answer Leo was expecting. So I continued.
“I knew it would be a big opportunity for you guys, so I didn’t want to tell you about it until it was a sure thing. They might not have used Helen’s house, and I didn’t want to get your hopes up.”
Leo studied me as if he were trying to decide if I was telling the truth. It seemed he decided when he started shaking his head.
“Was Callie at the home show last weekend?”
“Yeah. She wanted me to walk around, just start making my face familiar.” I answered.
“Did she speak to Lucas?” Leo asked his next question.
“They met at a booth while I was looking at another company. I didn’t see him after. He went back to the room, but Callie told me.”
There was no follow up question. Just a pregnant pause as Leo waited for me to put the pieces together. The pieces he’d assembled the minute he’d learned who Callie was.
When it hit me, it was like a freight train. She’d told him. He knew about the show. He must be angry I hadn’t told him about it. That was the reason he was avoiding me.
I started explaining myself to Leo. It wouldn’t change Lucas’s mind, but it was all I had right now.
“I swear, I was going to tell you guys. It just seemed cruel to tell you it was happening and then pull the rug out if they passed on Helen’s project.”
“Olivia, stop. This isn’t about you keeping the show a secret.”
I was about to launch into my next plea when his response registered. What? It wasn’t?
“What do you mean?”
“This is about my stupid, stubborn brother and his moronic baggage.” He stood up from the chair behind Lucas’s desk and grabbed a set of keys sitting on the edge near a stack of papers. “Let’s go.”
“Go where?”
“To see the idiot of the hour. I’ll fill you in on the way.”
Leo had never spoken to me this much, so I decided it was probably best to follow him. I rushed to keep up with the large strides of his much longer legs. When we reached his work truck and hopped inside, I took a deep calming breath, followed by about eight more.
“You done?” Leo asked, looking across the cab of the truck.
“Yes. I think so.” I nodded. I felt less frantic, but still completely confused.
“Do you know that Alessi Construction is a co-op? How it was started? ”
“Yes. Lucas told me all the residents of the lake helped you guys start the business.”
Leo cocked his brow like he wasn’t expecting me to know that information.
“Well, he did that because when our mother died, our father kind of fell apart for a while. We weren’t exactly little kids, but not quite men.
Lucas thought it was his responsibility to pick up the pieces and provide for the family.
He formed Alessi Construction. He figured out a way to make it work with basically no resources. ”
Tears were silently rolling down my face. Tears for these men who had loved their mother so deeply and lost her. For their father, who lost the love of his life and would never be the same. Tears of pride for Lucas, who built something amazing out of all the sorrow.
Then Leo just kept breaking my heart.
“We all have our shit about mom dying, but Lucas took our mother’s death as a tragic ending to a life unfulfilled.
For whatever stupid reason, he thought she should have been out living the dreams she had before she met dad and got pregnant.
He always felt like we held her back. Him specifically, because she had to quit the Broadway show she got cast in when she found out she was pregnant with him.
When she died, it was permanent. She’d never get to perform again. He blames himself.”
More tears. Oh, Lucas.
“If he hasn’t ended things yet, he’s probably planning to. Because that idiot found out about your show–”
“–and he doesn’t want to hold me back like he thinks he did with your mom.” I finished for him.
Leo hummed in agreement while nodding .
I couldn’t nail down the correct emotion. Part of me wanted to scream in anger. How could he do this without speaking to me first? And was he just planning to ghost me? He didn’t even have the guts to actually end things.
Another part of me wept for the young man with so much on his shoulders. Who couldn’t understand how much he meant to his mother. Who still couldn’t see that she chose to spend her life with her family and it fulfilled her just as much as any career would have.
I didn’t need to know her to know that. It was obvious. And it was exactly how I would have felt.
We were pulling up to Helen’s home, workers buzzing around. This activity wasn’t productive to the build though. They seemed to be cleaning and organizing. That’s when I realized they were packing up. It made sense, but seeing it broke the last piece of my heart.
I turned to Leo, hoping for some guidance because I was completely lost. How could I even try to make this better?
He was watching the house and the surrounding activity through the windshield. After a moment of me studying his profile, he turned to look me in the eye.
“What’s the most important thing in the world to you, Olivia?”
I knew what the answer was. It just never felt like I could say it because I didn’t have one.
“Family.”
He nodded.
“We’re your family now, Olivia. And our family likes to call each other out on our bullshit. Lucas is an idiot, but you should have told him about the show. Now you’ve got your work cut out for you, convincing him it’s not more important than him.”
I sniffled, hating that he was right. Hating that Lucas ever thought otherwise.
Leo continued, “He won’t care if you tell him you’d rather have him. He won’t want that for you. You need to make him understand that both are possible. I’m not sure how. I don’t know the details. But if you want him, that’s the way.”
Despite the bleak situation I found myself in, a smile took over my face.
“How’d you get so good at relationship advice? Aren’t you essentially a shut in? No offense.”
“None taken. This isn’t relationship advice, Olivia. This is Lucas advice. And there’s no one who knows him better than I do.”
I thought about that fact and how one day, I’d like to change it, as I opened the door and walked toward the house that started it all.