by Parker, Ali
The frown that seemed to be a permanent fixture on my face stared back at me. I rubbed my finger over the wrinkles between my brows, forcing my face to relax a bit. I was going to end up with premature wrinkling if I didn’t quit scowling all the time.
I pulled my shades back on and grabbed my purse. I walked into the restaurant and immediately spotted Carrie sitting at a table with her laptop open. She was officially working but agreed to meet me for lunch.
I was bored out of my mind with no job. I didn’t know what to do with myself. The smart, adult thing to do would have been to look for a new job. I couldn’t. Not yet. I was in a shitty mood and would only end up scowling at anyone brave enough to interview me. I would get a bad reputation and my career would be over before it ever got started.
“Hi,” I said as I flopped down into the bench seat across from her.
She looked up at me and grimaced. “Damn. Are you hungover?”
I realized I had my sunglasses on still. “No,” I answered and pulled them off. “I wish I was.”
She winced. “You are going to need a lot more makeup than what you are wearing to hide that,” she said, gesturing to my face.
“Thanks. I can always count on you to lift my spirits.”
“What is going on? You told me Patrick sold the business and then you fell off the radar. I’ve been worried about you.”
“I’ve been busy,” I replied.
“You don’t have a job. How busy could you be?”
“Hayden had some stuff with school. Freshmen orientation and stuff.”
She gave me a look that said my excuse was bullshit. “Lame excuse. What the hell is going on?”
“I’m pissed!” I said before she scowled and looked around the restaurant. I lowered my voice. “He sold the company without even asking my opinion.”
“It was shitty but you told me it was in his name.”
“Yes, but I worked my ass off in that place from the moment I could walk and talk. Yes, his name was on the deed but it was a family business.”
“What do your parents think?”
I rolled my eyes. “It would be a miracle if my parents thought in general. It isn’t their strong suit. I don’t know if they even know. I doubt they give a rat’s ass.”
“I think this is a good opportunity for you to get a new job that pays you what you are worth.”
“Maybe, but I didn’t tell you the part that really pissed me off and turned my guts inside out,” I told her.
“He’s not going to give you any money?”
I shook my head. “Nope. Tyson bought it. The man I thought I was falling for all over again bought it. The same man that knew how much I wanted the business. It was probably why he showed up at the office in the first place. He was scoping it out and I was such an idiot, I thought he actually wanted me. I thought we had something real. He claimed he was worried about Patrick, but in reality, it was more like he was worried how it would look once he stole it and left me hanging.”
“Have you talked to him? Told him how you felt?”
I wrinkled my nose. “He knows I am pissed.”
She laughed. “I bet he does. What did you do?”
“I stopped by his work,” I said, without telling her the dirty details.
“Did he offer an explanation? An apology?”
“I didn’t really give him the chance. It doesn’t matter what he has to say. I don’t care. He can kiss my ass.”
She winced. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s men. The three men in my life have all let me down.”
“Three?”
“My dad, Tyson, and Patrick. I feel like a leftover that got shoved to the back of the fridge. They forgot about me and don’t give a shit about me. They expect me to stay in my corner and just rot.”
“I don’t think that’s their intention,” she tried to say.
“If they cared, one of them would have asked me what I thought about the idea. One of them would have asked if I thought it was a bad idea. They did it without thinking twice about me. I’m so pissed at all of them.”
“Technically, your dad didn’t know,” she reminded me.
“I blame him for being a drunk and letting the business go to Patrick when he never really wanted it to begin with.”
She nodded. “Good point. Fuck them all.”
“No shit.”
She looked thoughtful. “How much did Patrick sell it for?”
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t care.”
“You should care. Patrick is going to give you money.”
“He said half, but it isn’t about the money. It was my business just as much—no, more than his.”
She waved a hand, dismissing my complaint. “But how much? You get half of how much?”
“I don’t know. He said a lot and he certainly seemed very pleased with himself.”
She slapped a hand on the table. “You need to find out how much and get your half. Use your half to start your own business. You will be the boss. You will be the one calling the shots and no one can sell it out from under you.”
I stared at her and an idea popped into my head. “Oh my god,” I breathed.
“What?”
“You’re a fucking genius!”
She offered a small smile. “I’ve been telling you that for years.”
“I have to call Patrick,” I said and fished my phone out of my pocket.
“Right now?” she asked, looking around.
“Yes.”
Patrick answered with a very nervous hello. “Yes?”
“We need to talk,” I blurted out the words.
“No shit. I’ve kind of been saying that for days.”
“Now,” I said, not interested in his commentary. “Don’t try and tell me you have shit to do because we both know you don’t. Neither of us does. Remember, we don’t have jobs.”
He let out an exaggerated sigh. “Mae, come on.”
“Where are you? I’ll come to you.”
“I’m not telling you where I am until you promise you won’t hurt me.”
“You’re an idiot. I’ll just use your phone to track you.”
He was quiet for a few seconds. “You can’t do that, can you?”
Sometimes, the guy was too easy to mess with. “I’m sure I can.”
“Fine, you can come over, but I don’t want to listen to you bitch at me.”
“Whatever. I’ll be there in a bit. Don’t run away like a little bitch.”
“See, Mae? It’s when you talk like that I don’t want to talk to you. Just be a rational human being.”
I tried to tamp down my anger. In my mind, I was envisioning slapping him with a wet towel. “I am rational. It’s you who needs a lesson in rationality. I’m finishing my lunch and I will be there. Don’t leave.”
“You’re a bully, Mae.”
“Bye, Patrick. If you run, I will find you.”
“See? A bully.”
I ended the call. Carrie was staring at me. “What are you going to do? I’ve always said I would help you bury the body, but I think this is a great time to tell you I was lying. I was joking. I don’t want to go to jail. I have a little boy to think about.”
I laughed. “Trust me, I would not want any accomplices. I would hate to worry about your loose lips.”
She studied my face for several seconds. “You scare me sometimes.”
I grinned. “Never get on my bad side,” I said with a wink. “Now, I’m starving. I need to eat. I will need all the strength and energy I can get to deal with my lovely brother.”
She laughed. “What are you going to do? You came in here looking very murderous and now you look as if you won the lottery.”
I shrugged. “Didn’t I? I know what the business was worth, and Patrick told me Tyson overpaid and we didn’t have to work again. That has to be equal to lottery winnings.”
“Sounds good.”
“I’m going to use your idea,” I told her without giving her
any details.
I waved my hand, letting the waitress know we were ready to order. We both munched on BLTs and fries while I formulated a plan in my mind. I hoped my share of the money was enough to follow through with my plan. Two could play at Tyson’s little game. I wasn’t able to buy his museums, but I could certainly remind him of my presence. I was going to let him know I wasn’t some woman to be used and discarded without a second thought. I was going to be a thorn in his side for as long as I possibly could.
Chapter 26
Tyson
I walked into the diner that had been a fixture in my life back in the days when the most I had to worry about was whether or not I passed my calculus test. It had been a long time since I had been in the place. To be honest, I purposely avoided the diner where I used to spend a lot of my time with Patrick. And Mae. I purposely faded away from their lives and that meant cutting off all ties to my past life with them.
Until now. It was stupid and I knew I was probably asking for another public display of anger, but I wanted to see her. Even if it meant her claws were out and she wanted to rip me to shreds. I preferred her anger over her isolation. I tried to call. I tried to text. She made it very clear she wanted nothing to do with me.
I sat down in a booth and ordered coffee and a slice of apple pie a la mode. It was an old man’s treat but it was my comfort food. I needed comfort. There was a newspaper folded and stuck behind the napkin dispenser on the table. Feeling very old school, I grabbed it and flipped it open. I scanned the newspaper headlines, flipping through the various sections until I landed on a picture of the outside of my museum.
“Oh shit,” I muttered as I stared at the headline. “Big business swallows hard-working small business.”
I read through the article written by my dear friend Janet. When nothing happened in the days following the encounter with Mae at my museum, I had gotten the idea I was in the clear. Nope. Janet was just digging into my business and Mae’s business. Thankfully, Mae had no comment when Janet tracked her down, according to the article. That was about the only accurate bit of information I read. The rest of the article was supposition and assumptions peppered with gossip.
Truth seemed to be optional in Janet’s mind. I sighed and tossed the paper to the side. This was why I needed Alec. The whole thing never would have happened if Alec had been the one to do the interview. Janet focused her article on me, the scoundrel, rather than the museum.
I hated dealing with people. I hated the press demands. I hated being in the public eye. It was why there had never been a scandal with my name attached to it. I didn’t talk to anyone and my idea of a wild weekend was a Netflix marathon with a bottle of Jack. Alone. Always alone. Jack Daniels wasn’t going to talk to anyone.
“Fancy meeting you here,” I heard a familiar voice say.
I popped my head up from the apple pie I was trying to force down. My appetite was ruined thanks to Janet’s shitty reporting. “I was craving pie,” I told him.
He smirked. “Mind if I sit down?”
“No, please save me from looking like an old, lonely bachelor eating pie and drinking coffee at ten in the morning.”
He chuckled and took a seat. “It looks pretty damn good.”
“Thanks.”
“I wanted to thank you again for what you did. I know you way overpaid. I appreciate it. It will help my family a great deal and assure we never have to worry about Hayden or my parents coming after us.”
I almost choked on my coffee. “I don’t think all your family members appreciate the money.”
“What do you mean?”
I figured that meant Mae still had not told him about us. Not that there was an us but there had been a blip of an us. I picked up the newspaper, still opened to the article all but calling me an arrogant asshole, and handed it to Patrick.
He picked it up, winced, and then sucked in a breath as he read the article. He put the paper down. “I’m sorry. She gets pretty pissy when something doesn’t go her way.”
“I didn’t realize I was doing something so dastardly and worthy of being reported on,” I muttered.
“I’m sorry,” he said again. “Trust me, it was for the best. She’ll realize that one day.”
“I’m not so sure about that.”
“What happened?” he asked and nodded at the paper. “That reporter sounds like Mae talked to her. I know Mae. She would never talk to a stranger, let alone a reporter.”
“You haven’t talked to Mae?” I questioned.
He smirked. “She has talked at me, but as far as there being a conversation with each of us exchanging thoughts and ideas, no.”
I had to chuckle at that. I was glad I wasn’t the only one on the receiving end of Mae’s anger. “A few days after you and I talked, Mae showed up at my museum. I just happened to be giving an interview to a local reporter about the museum. Mae came in breathing fire and letting me know exactly how she felt about you selling the business. She was very clear about her opinion on the matter. Very loud and very clear and the reporter hung on every word.”
He grimaced. “Ouch. Embarrassing.”
I shrugged. “It wasn’t so much embarrassing as it was frustrating. I wanted to try and talk to her, to have a normal conversation. She wouldn’t have it. She was pissed.”
Patrick let out a long sigh. “It has been a long time since I have seen her that pissed. Actually, it was probably in high school when I saw her that angry. Thankfully, it doesn’t happen all that often.”
I winced when he mentioned the bit about her being mad back in high school. Well, she was in high school. I wasn’t. Once again, I was at the center of that situation as well. I seemed to be the catalyst for her anger. I could piss the woman off like no one else in the world. It wasn’t exactly a talent I was proud of.
“Did she say anything else?” I questioned. “Did she explain why she was so mad? I get the impression she felt the business was partly hers.”
“It was and I gave her half the money,” Patrick explained. “I would never take all the proceeds from the sale. At first, she refused to take any of the money, but she changed her mind.”
“That’s good I guess,” I murmured.
“She needed the money. I don’t know why she can’t see that. She is taking on a teenage girl that needs clothes, food, and all the other things a teenager needs. She’ll want to get her license soon and then there is all the stuff with school and graduation.”
“Your parents aren’t financially supporting Hayden at all?” I questioned.
He slowly shook his head. “I don’t know how much Mae told you, but they are in a bad way.”
“She told me very little. I got the impression she didn’t want to talk about it and I didn’t want to pry.”
“My mom is stuck on pills. Mostly opioids, I think. I don’t know for sure, but I think she turns to illegal drugs when she can’t get her pill fix. She is going down a very dark road and is rarely lucid. My father is better off in some ways. He drinks. A lot. He does sober up from time to time but not for long. I think he just kind of checked out a long time ago.”
It sounded sad and strange. “What triggered it? Did something happen that took them down this road?”
He scoffed. “If it did, it happened a long time ago. My parents have always had their struggles. It was bad at times when Mae and I were younger but never like this. They are destroying their lives. Mae did the right thing by getting Hayden out of there. I fully support her. I should have done it earlier. I just didn’t have the balls to do it. Not to mention, I don’t know the first thing about raising a kid.”
“I don’t think Mae knows any more than you do,” I pointed out.
He grinned. “No, but she has the advantage of once being a teenage girl.”
I laughed. “Ah, I see. So, has this thing caused a problem between the two of you?”
He shrugged. “She is still pissed at me and she will be for a while, but I think she will soon realize this was for the be
st. I want her to be able to live her life to the fullest. I don’t want her to worry about money. I don’t want her to stress herself out juggling work and the demands of raising a kid.”
“I hope you are right. I hope the two of you can be on good terms again. I hate to think I broke up a family.”
“You had nothing to do with it. I approached you. I made the decision to sell. She’ll get over it eventually. It’s for the best.”
“I think you did it for the right reasons, and I think the money will help her, but she’s sentimental.”
He smiled. “Always has been. I worry about her. I worry about Hayden. I feel completely inadequate to do anything to help them. This is all I knew to do.”
Patrick was a good big brother. He always looked out for Mae, even to the point of being way overprotective. In the world we lived in, that wasn’t a bad thing. I was happy to know Mae had someone watching her back. She was a good person and deserved to be taken care of. “You did your best. I think it’s noble.”
“I hope she sees it that way one day and soon. For now, I am enjoying the freedom. I don’t regret it for a minute. Besides, I always felt like my dad was watching. I don’t want a connection to them. I know Mae does but the fond memories she has of that place are not exactly what she remembers. She was young and she is holding on to the snippets of good in her childhood. I get it, but I think moving on is the best thing to do. She has to let go of that stuff. It is the only way she can see my parents with clear eyes.”
“She doesn’t want to break ties with them,” I said before I realized it sounded like I knew too much about Mae and the situation. “Like you said, she is sentimental. She is forgiving to the point of being too forgiving. I think she is hoping that one day there will be a chance for your parents to come back to the land of the living. She doesn’t want to completely cut them off because she is holding out hope.”
He stared at me for several long seconds. I had said too much. I was acting like I knew Mae intimately. He knew my secret. I quickly started thinking of an excuse to explain away my words. “You’re right,” he said.
“What?” I blinked.
“You are right. I shouldn’t force her into giving up on them. Just because I have, doesn’t mean she has to. It’s just me trying to protect her from the pain and frustration they cause her. They use her and it pisses me off. My dad knows how to pull at her heartstrings. My mom too. I hate that they don’t see how good she is, and she is to be cherished and not used for her goodwill and then tossed away when they are ready to crawl back into their chosen vices.”