Bossy Brothers: Jesse

by JA Huss

“My family. I brought you to meet my family. Why did I do that?”

  I sigh. Long and loud. “That was me. I swear.” I know it’s not a laughing matter and nothing about this moment has earned a laugh. But I laugh a little. “With you, I’m the real me.”

  “Then who is this?” She pans her hand around the apartment. “What is this? It’s fucking weird, OK? The whole thing is weird. That security downstairs. Who rents a space like this?”

  “I mean… that’s all public record and—”

  “That’s not what I’m talking about and you know it. What kind of family lives on four different floors of this creepy fucking building? Why am I standing in a lobby that’s supposed to be your apartment? And what kind of businesses need the security you offer?”

  “Do you know what I do for a living?”

  “You said you’re a consultant. For yacht people. Racing, or whatever.”

  “Yeah.” I laugh. “That is pretty much my only job. But I don’t work much. I don’t need to work.”

  “Neither do I,” Emma says. “So if you’re trying to impress me with your money, it’s not gonna fly.”

  “That’s not what I’m doing,” I say, feeling defensive. “I mean, Jesus Christ. We haven’t even had sex yet, Emma.”

  “Yes, we did. Thirteen years ago.”

  “That doesn’t count.”

  “Since when?”

  “Just… can you listen to me for a minute? We didn’t have sex yet because I didn’t want to.”

  “Oh, that’s much better.”

  “I mean, I didn’t want to make the same mistake I did before. I wanted to enjoy our weekend getting to know each other. And I feel like we had such a perfect day yesterday that I didn’t want to change it. Or take away from it. And when you offered to pick me up I decided… ‘OK. Let her in. Let her see the real me. What she’s getting into before we take this any further.’ And that way, if we did take it further, you’d understand me and wouldn’t feel blindsided when you…” I sigh. Throw my hands up in the air. “Saw all this.”

  She looks around. At the hallway to the left of the bank. Of elevators. To the right, the other hallway. “What is it?”

  “It’s a fucking office space, Emma. That’s it. Just an office space that pretty much looks like every other office space when you get off the elevator.”

  “When did you move in here? How old were you?”

  “Twenty,” I say. “I told you that. I didn’t grow up alone, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  She glances up at the ceiling. Then drops her gaze to the floor. “You grew up down there. One floor below?”

  I nod. “Yeah.”

  She takes a deep breath and holds it for a moment. Thinking, maybe. “OK. Then show me that.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I want to see where you come from.”

  “This is my home now. Why don’t you want to see this?”

  “Because I don’t understand this yet. But if I can start at the beginning, maybe it’ll make sense after.”

  “It doesn’t look the same, Emma. No one uses that floor anymore. Not since my uncle died.”

  “You mean when your father went crazy.”

  For a second I’m pissed. Because she doesn’t even know my father. But then that anger fades, because she’s not wrong. “I haven’t even been down there in more than a decade,” I say. “I don’t even know what’s down there.”

  “Show me,” she says.

  I can feel that this is a hard limit for her but I’m still reluctant. “Johnny’s the only one who goes down there.” I say that more for my benefit than hers.

  Because even though I don’t really know what Johnny does with his time, I have an idea. And whatever is left of the family floor below this one, it’s probably been claimed by Johnny.

  I don’t want to start there. I don’t want her to see that. Not yet. Not first.

  “I want to see it, Jesse.”

  “It’s not me,” I say. “This is me. See this.”

  “That first. Why are you so resistant? It’s just a place. What are you afraid of finding? What are you afraid I’ll see?”

  “I don’t know.” And it’s the truth. Mostly. But I have an idea of what could be down there. And I don’t want to find out for sure this way. Not with Emma next to me. Judging me.

  “Take me,” she says. “If you like me, you should trust me.”

  I laugh. “That’s funny. Because you sure have jumped to a lot of conclusions about me over the years.”

  “Maybe that’s because you fed me a lot of lies, Jesse. Now’s your chance to show me the truth.”

  “You know what? Fine. Fuck it. Let’s go.”

  I turn towards the elevators and find Zach standing there. “Dude.” I laugh. “What the fuck. You snuck up on us.”

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Zach asks, looking at Emma, then me.

  “We’re going downstairs.”

  “Yeah, I heard that part. Why?”

  “Because I want to see it,” Emma says.

  “Who gives a fuck what you want?” Zach says, glaring at her. Then he looks at me and shakes his head. “Don’t do it.”

  “Why?” Emma asks.

  He points at her. “Be quiet, Emma. This isn’t about you. This is about him.” And then he points to me.

  There’s a long moment of silence as Zach and I lock eyes. “Do you know what’s down there?” I ask.

  “No,” he says. “But I can guess. And so can you. And she can’t see that.”

  “Why?” Emma demands.

  Neither Zach, nor I, even look at Emma. We just continue to stare at each other. I shrug. “Maybe it’s time to know.”

  He looks at Emma and says, “Go home, Emma.”

  “No,” she says. “I’m not leaving unless Jesse kicks me out.” Then she turns to me and says, “If you tell me to leave, I will. But I’ll never come back.”

  Up until this girl, in this moment, I wouldn’t have hesitated to say, Get the fuck out.

  But I think about our day yesterday. Her home town, her family dive shop, her family. My standing invitation for Saturday night dinners. The trimaran, the sailing, the sandbar, the diving, the sunset, and the stars.

  What a perfect day.

  And I admit, I want more of that. I want her. I think only Emma Dumas, of all the possible women in this world, can handle this. Can handle me. Us. My family.

  “Zach,” I say.

  “No,” he interrupts. “Not like this, Jesse. We’ve let it go all these years. We sealed it all up and locked it away and now you want to open up that fucked-up crypt in front of this… stranger? We were gonna do it together. One day. We made a pact.”

  “What the hell are you two talking about?” Emma says.

  “Us,” Zach continues. “Baby Bostons, right? We get no truth. We get no explanation. Hell, I didn’t even get the damn trust fund. We made a pact.”

  I look at Emma, helpless. She’s shaking her head. “If you don’t, I’ll leave. I’ll walk away. I won’t get involved in something… weird after just one weekend, without knowing. Without making that choice for myself.”

  I look at Zach. He’s shaking his head too. “I can’t stop you, but I’m going on record that I don’t agree. You don’t know her. She could be setting you up.”

  “Setting him up for what?” Emma asks.

  “See,” Zach says, “if you had any clue what was happening right now, you wouldn’t have to ask that.”

  She turns to me. “Make a choice. We’re talking in circles and I’m getting tired of it.”

  “Do you even have the code?” Zach asks. “Because I sure the fuck don’t.”

  “I don’t know,” I admit. “I have the old code. But I have no idea if it still works.”

  “You don’t think Johnny changed it?”

  “Only one way to find out, I guess.” I take Emma’s hand and start leading her down the north hallway.

  She resists, planting her feet in place. “W
here are you going?”

  “To the entrance,” I say. “You can’t get to that floor from this elevator bank. It’s been bricked up. We have to go this way.”

  She still hesitates when I tug on her hand. And I give her a minute to change her mind.

  But then she relents and follows me down the hallway. Zach follows us, his footsteps echoing behind me, but he doesn’t make any more protests.

  My heart begins to beat faster as we approach the end of the hallway. There’s nothing down here but one set of double doors.

  They open up to another elevator hallway. This time just one. And it only goes down one floor.

  I press the code to call the elevator and part of me hopes it won’t work. It’s an old code so there’s a high chance I’ll be saved from whatever revelations are awaiting me downstairs.

  But did I really think Johnny would change it?

  Never.

  The doors open and the three of us walk inside, then turn around as they close. Zach presses the button on the panel marked with an X and we descend for exactly one second.

  The elevator dings our arrival and the doors open.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE - EMMA

  It’s dark, so at first I can’t see anything except the faint outline of the floor-to ceiling windows covered with some kind of translucent paper.

  Why did I insist on coming down here again?

  “Where’s the lights?” Zach whispers as the three of us walk forward. And for a guy who was totally in alpha-asshole prick mode upstairs, he sure is reverent and quiet now.

  “Over here,” Jesse says. He lets go of my hand and walks away, disappearing into the shadows. A few seconds later the lights come on in the little lobby. It’s not a lobby like upstairs and I realize that this is on the other side of the building. So somewhere on this floor is that lobby like upstairs, but this is some side entrance, I guess.

  There are built-in cabinets on every wall. But more like cupboards, because it’s not open shelves. So what’s in there? I have no clue. I’m just about to ask when I notice what’s covering the windows. “Oh, what the fuck?” I say. “Newspaper? That’s not creepy. Not at all.”

  I catch Jesse and Zach trading a look, but they don’t say anything.

  “What?” I ask. “What am I missing?”

  “Nothing,” Jesse says. “There’s nothing to see here. So—”

  “Oh, no,” I say. “We’re here now, buddy. And I know this place is huge. Let’s go.”

  They trade another look and this time Zach just shrugs. “Up to you,” he says.

  “Fine,” Jesse says. “I guess…” He looks around, chooses a hallway, and says, “This way.”

  I follow him to a door and Zach brings up the rear. I’d be lying if I said having him behind me wasn’t making me nervous. But when Jesse opens the door it’s just a big room. A massive room, actually. But a normal room.

  He lets out a breath, which I interpret as relief. “OK,” he says, panning his arms wide. “Living room.”

  And it does look like a living room. If said living room was say, maybe, the size of a hotel lobby. It has seven separate seating areas. Couches and chairs artfully arranged in clusters for talking. Except they are all covered in white sheets. Like this is not just any hotel lobby, but a haunted one.

  I get past that and notice there’s no newspaper on the windows and instead of being clear, uninterrupted glass like upstairs in Jesse’s lobby, these have panes. Lots of them. So many, in fact, the window looks like a freaking checkerboard.

  There’s a whoosh of fabric and a swirling of dust as Jesse removes one of the sheets over a long, pale-green, velvet couch.

  He smiles down at it. Then looks at me. “I slept here all the time.”

  Zach laughs. Then pulls off another sheet across the room to reveal a pale-gray velvet couch. “This one was mine, wasn’t it? Shit, I remember that now.” He points to another couch and Jesse walks over and pulls off the sheet. Another gray couch. “That was Joey’s, right? And this one”—he pulls off yet another sheet off yet another couch, pale green this time—“was Johnny’s. He said—” Zach laughs. “He said no one could shoot him from this one, because it was behind this beam. He’s such a dumbass. But that’s why he slept here.”

  “You guys slept in here?” I ask.

  “For fun,” Zach says. “We all had bedrooms too. I wonder if mine looks the same.” And then he walks off down a dark hallway to go look.

  “That’s where we put the Christmas tree,” Jesse says, pointing to the massive expanse of paned windows. “When we used to get them. And here,” he says, pointing to the closest fireplace, because now that I notice, there’s three of them in here. “This is where we hung the stockings. God, this place, man. It was fun living here. I know you think it’s weird, but I didn’t know any better. It was fun.”

  “Dude,” Zach yells from somewhere far away. “My fucking bedroom is a riot.” He walks back towards us. “There’s a crib in there. Why don’t I remember there being a crib?”

  Jesse squints his eyes at his cousin. “I don’t remember that either. What’s mine look like?”

  “I don’t know where yours is anymore,” Zach says. “Were you on this side? Or the other side?”

  “This conversation is weird,” I say.

  Jesse looks at me and shrugs. “You wanted to come down here. We can leave any time you want.”

  “Are you kidding? And miss my only chance to see Jesse Boston’s childhood bedroom? Forget it. Lead on.”

  As we make our way through a hallway, into a library, then a billiards room, another living space, and finally to another hall with lots of closed doors, I realize it’s set up like a circle. But if that’s so, then… “What’s in the middle?” I ask.

  “What do you mean?” they both say at the same time.

  “The space doesn’t make sense.”

  Jesse looks confused for a moment, then says, “Yeah, you’re right. It doesn’t. I never thought of that.” We share a moment. Then he points to a door and says, “This was me. That one was Joey, and Johnny was on the other side of the building.”

  “Why?” I ask, just as Zach opens up Jesse’s door to reveal a large, but fairly normal teen boy’s bedroom. Posters on the wall. Guitar and amp in one corner. Huge TV and sound system. Outdated, of course. And a king-sized bed.

  “No,” Jesse says.

  I glance at him. “What?”

  “No,” he says again, shaking his head. “I never had any girls up here. We weren’t allowed. They had to meet us in the lobby.”

  “I bet that was fun.”

  Zach laughs, then walks away and starts opening all the doors.

  “So there you go,” Jesse says. “Normal enough for you?”

  I back out of the room and follow Zach, peeking into all the other rooms.

  “Yeah,” I say. “I guess so. If you can overlook the size of this place.”

  Zach reaches the end of the hallway and opens up a set of massive double doors to reveal the main lobby.

  Jesse and I walk that way and meet him in the center of the room. It’s bare, like the others. But there’s another hallway on the other side and Zach keeps going, so we follow him.

  A huge industrial kitchen, a long, elaborate dining room with seating for twenty. Then another hallway with offices and finally, the last few bedrooms.

  “This was Johnny.”

  “Why was he so far away from you and your brother?” I ask.

  Jesse and Zach trade that look again. Like they know why, but they’re not gonna tell me.

  “Why were you guys so afraid to come down here? It’s not that crazy.”

  Again with the traded looks.

  “What am I missing?” I ask.

  “Nothing,” Jesse says. “Can we go back upstairs now? I’d rather show you my place.”

  I take one more look around and sigh. “OK, I’m satisfied. Is there a shortcut back to that secret elevator?”

  “This way,” Jesse says,
continuing down the hallway. It turns a corner and we end up right where we started. A big circle.

  The newspaper room.

  But that’s when I notice one of the articles printed on the newspaper and walk over to the window.

  “Elevator,” Zach calls.

  “What the hell?” I say, reading the headline. Then the next one, and the next one, and the next one. I turn back to Jesse and find him right behind me.

  We lock eyes and he says, “Don’t.” It’s not an order. It’s not hard at all, in fact. It’s more like… a plea.

  But I look back at the headlines. All of them. And begin to read out loud. “‘Son of pharmaceutical mogul killed in car crash on the coast.’ ‘Head of oil company drowns in the Gulf of Mexico.’ ‘Son of publishing CEO killed in freak plane accident.’ What is this?”

  I turn to Jesse and he’s shaking his head.

  “Time to go,” Zach says.

  That’s when I notice the built-in cabinets again. I walk over to one, grab the handle, and I’m just about to pull it open when Zach says, “Don’t do it, Emma.”

  “Why?” I say, whirling around to look at them. “What’s in here?”

  “We don’t know,” Zach says. “We don’t want to know.”

  I look at Jesse. “Is that how you feel too?”

  He nods. “Yeah. I do. I’m not gonna stop you. So if you wanna know, look. But I’m telling you right now, this isn’t me. This is Johnny. So whatever you find in there, that’s him. I’ve got nothing to do with it and neither does Zach. They left us out on purpose, Emma. I told you this. And if you know this secret, whatever it really is, then…”

  He shrugs with his hands.

  “Then what?” I ask. “He’ll come after me and I’ll end up a headline on a newspaper taped to a window?”

  “No,” Zach says. “That’s not Johnny. All that was our fathers.”

  I look at him. “They were assassins?”

  They both shrug.

  “You’re telling me they killed those people and in the same breath you’re telling me you don’t know?”

  Nothing but blank stares.

  I open the cabinet.

  CHAPTER THIRTY - JESSE

  It’s empty. She opens all of them, and all of them are empty.