Chapter 19
nineteen
it’s just pizza
E lissa pulled into her parents’ driveway on Sunday evening. They were leaving for the conference first thing in the morning, so she would be taking Leo to school. Hopefully, Jules and whatever boy toy she found available would appreciate the alone time.
She knocked on the door, but when no one answered, she walked in. Loud voices echoed down the hall, coming from the kitchen. Elissa left her suitcase in the entry and headed toward the yelling.
“When were you going to tell us you dropped out of community college, Ami?” her mom shouted.
Oh, snap.
“I’m done, Mom,” Ami shouted right back. “I hate school. Hate it. I can’t get it right. Can’t you just let me do my own thing?”
“Your own thing?”
Elissa resisted the urge to cover her ears as her mother’s voice rose in pitch.
“Dana.” Her dad’s softer voice stopped her mother as Elissa walked into the kitchen.
“Don’t you always do your own thing?” Elissa meant it to be a joke, but the way Ami’s eyes sparked with anger told her it hadn’t been received that way.
“I don’t need your shit, too, Lissa. Why do you think I got here early? Mom and Dad are bad enough.” Her sister’s cheeks were red with anger.
“Ami!” Mom snapped. “Swear jar, now!”
“Fuck that, Mom. I’m an adult, now. I can make my own fucking decisions, I have my own fucking job, my own fucking car, and my own fucking apartment, and I can fucking swear if I want to.
Don’t need this bullshit anymore. I dropped before the deadline, and you have your money.
If you can talk to me like an adult, call me. Otherwise, I’m done.”
Ami wiped away the tears dripping down her face with a ferocity that drove Elissa to hug the wall as her sister stomped by, leaving the kitchen deathly quiet.
The front door slammed. Elissa looked between her parents and the door, tempted to chase after her sister and smooth things over, but Ami was in no mood to listen to anyone.
Elissa looked from one parent to the other. Her dad’s shoulders slumped, and her mother turned away, trying to stifle the sobs rising from deep within her.
“Don’t worry, Mom, she’ll calm down and call you tomorrow to apologize.”
Ami always did. Her sister’s anger ran hot but fast. Ami had a heart of gold, but she also had a habit of choosing something easy or fun over what most people with common sense would choose.
But Elissa admired her little sister. She was brave in a way Elissa never could be, and that was part of the friction in their relationship.
Elissa was firmly in oldest daughter role, Leo was the baby, leaving Ami to her own devices. A small part of Elissa was jealous.
“Elissa, why don’t you go check on Leo?” Her dad wrapped his arms around her mom.
She left them standing in the kitchen and went to her brother’s room. Her mother’s sobs tore through the house as she rapped softly on Leo’s door.
“Come in,” he called.
Elissa slipped in, closing the door behind her with a quiet snick.
“Hey, Elissa.” Leo sat on his bed, book in hand, headphones on. “Is it over?”
“Yep.”
He took off the headphones. “Well?”
Elissa sighed and sat down on the bed next to him.
“Ami stormed out, Mom’s crying, and Dad looked…heartbroken.”
“I told her it was a bad idea not to mention it before the money was returned.”
“You knew ?”
“Duh.” He rolled his eyes. “We talk when you’re not around. In fact, we talk a lot when you’re not around, since you’ll go running to Mom and Dad with this stuff.”
She opened her mouth to protest but gave it a second thought.
Fair. If she’d known Ami had dropped out of community college, she would’ve blabbed to their parents.
She’d sworn not to tell them what she knew about Ami’s suspension from the U last year, and guilt filled Elissa every time it was brought up.
It was the one thing she’d ever kept from her parents, and she tried to keep it the only thing.
Their parents would be more understanding if they knew the whole story, but Ami had begged to be the one to tell them in her own time.
“Now what?” he asked when she didn’t say anything.
“I don’t know, Leo the Lion. Wait, I guess.”
He’d made a noise of protest when she’d called him by his childhood nickname but leaned against her.
She hugged him, and they sat there quietly for a few minutes.
It had been a rough year. Things had been looking up, but baggage from the past kept intruding on the present.
She’d give Ami a day or two to calm down before talking to her.
Like an adult. Her sister wasn’t wrong—she deserved to be treated with more respect.
When the silence got to her, Elissa asked, “What are you reading?”
Leo picked up the book, a ragged old Discworld book.
“That’s a good one.” In fact, it was her favorite, but she wouldn’t tell Leo that. Let the kid figure it out on his own.
“I know.”
A firm knock brought their attention to the door. Dad opened it.
“We’re ordering pizza tonight,” he said. “Any requests?”
“Pepperoni,” Leo piped up.
Their dad waved their hand in dismissal and his lips twitched, banishing his grim expression. “Yeah, figured. Elissa?”
“Whatever you want is fine.” She gave him a quick grin.
“Sure. Give us about twenty minutes?” At their nods, he closed the door, and his footsteps faded down the hall.
“Why do you do that?” Leo asked.
“Do what?”
“Never seem to have an opinion. I know you love ham and pineapple”—he grimaced at her audacity—“but you never, ever ask for it. You go along with what everyone else wants. And no one else ever wants ham and pineapple, weirdo.”
Did she? She tried to think of the last time she spoke up when orders were being taken and drew a blank.
“I order it when I’m alone. It’s just pizza. No big deal.”
“I dunno, everyone else has an opinion. Why don’t you?”
Why didn’t she? Well, mostly because everyone else was so much louder, with more pressing needs.
Leo ate the most pizza, so first choice should be his.
Mom could barely eat after some of her chemo treatments, and if she craved anything, it got ordered.
Ami was loud and got pouty if she didn’t get what she wanted.
And Dad usually placed the order. Elissa’s opinion wasn’t sought often, and when she had one, it felt selfish to put her wants first.
Look at her, getting all introspective over pizza.
“I don’t care all that much,” she said.
“Liar.”
“I do not lie.”
“Okay, fine. Delusional.”
“Can we change the subject?”
“Fine.” Leo rolled his eyes theatrically. “What’s new, Lissa?”
“Tax season.”
She grinned wickedly when her brother groaned in response. Leo hated math, loved English class, and wrote whenever he could.
“No, it’s really good. With my CPA, I’m shadowing Karina so I can take over her accounts when she retires.
I got to meet some big clients this week.
” Not to mention a sexy office manager. The mere thought of him sent blood rushing to her cheeks and other parts of her body that would be embarrassing to explain to her little brother.
“How’s school? It’s weird I don’t know, but I don’t get the daily grunt reports at dinner. ”
“I don’t grunt.”
“Yeah, you do.” She shoved his shoulder, but when he tried to lick her hand, she snatched it back.
He laughed like a cartoon villain before answering. “I still suck at math, but I’m doing fine at everything else.”
“You know you can ask me for help.”
“I’m passing with a C, but math is boring.”
It was the same argument they always had. It was the same argument Leo had with Dad. Elissa let it drop.
They chatted for a bit longer about the upcoming school play, where Leo had a small role. Another soft knock stopped the conversation, and their mom opened the door. Her eyes were puffy and her nose was red, but she gave them a fleeting grin.
“Pizza should be here soon. Why don’t you come out and get your drinks while I find the paper plates?”
Before long, they were all seated at the dining room table, sipping their drinks, with hot cheesy goodness piled in the middle.
After a few bites, Mom cleared her throat. “So, Elissa, how was your week?”
Elissa told them pretty much what she’d told Leo.
“Oh, and you know the guy I had a blind date with, the one from the Sandpiper that turned out to be the wrong guy?” she said.
“What did you call him? Jerk-Ryan?” Her dad gestured with the pizza in his hand, almost losing a pepperoni.
“Yeah.” Though the other guy had turned out to be Beige-Flag-Ryan and—oh, she’d left him on read for too long.
Oh no. She and Jules had gotten a little sloppy, and though she’d planned on having her friend talk her through letting the dude down gently, the idea had exited her head as quickly as his presence had exited her life.
“If he’s a jerk, why are you bringing him up?” her mom asked.
“Well, he works for a company Karina and I are preparing taxes for, and he might be less of a jerk than I assumed.” A small smiled forced itself onto her lips.
“So, you might see him again?” Her mom brightened, hoping Elissa might be interested in a guy for the first time in a year.
“I’ll have to. He has the files I need.”
She wouldn’t mention it to her family, but she was looking forward to picking up the files tomorrow afternoon. The hottie behind the desk had become a bit of an obsession for her. At least three times a day since Monday, she had pulled out her phone and typed out a text. Then deleted it.
“Well, that’s nice,” her dad said.
Nice had nothing to do with it. The erotic dreams featuring him right after their “date” had faded, and she’d thought she was in the clear, until she had arrived at DeMarco Property Management.
Now, they were back even more frequently than before, and she’d had to recharge her vibrator’s batteries twice this past week.
She didn’t need the chaos Ryan would bring into her life. Did she?