Stronger Than Bonds

by Devon Michaels

  I turned around and looked at her, and the second our gazes met, her eyes snapped sideways and she pretended to fumble with something in her hand. I looked down and it was a pack of cigarettes. “Morning,” she said, her eyes fixated on my dad’s. “I have a couple of updates for you.” The fact that she was looking at my father this entire time ticked me off because I felt like she intended to ignore me.

  “Alright, but before we get to it, have a seat. I’d like to take your opinion on something.”

  I held my head in my hands because I was so frustrated. “Is it about the merger?” she asked, turning to me. My father nodded and raised his eyebrows. “I heard some rumors flying around, but I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

  At that moment, I lost it. I don’t know what came over me, but I shot up from my seat and stared at the two of them. “I’m not really sure why you’re consulting her like she runs this place,” I said, my eyes darting back and forth frantically. This time, Sarah didn’t get up, but she just sat there, staring at me like I was a madman. “Oh come on, don’t look at me like that. Don’t look at me like I’m crazy.”

  “You know, I literally just came here. I’m not looking to piss anyone off, but it seems to me that you don’t like me very much.”

  I had always been a hot-headed man. My father knew that, and yet he still got under my skin. I was haunted by professional jealousy and a lot of other complex emotions, but I kept them bottled up, trapped under a layer of my ego. The silence descended over us like a heavy cloud, and I began to feel awkward and somewhat unwanted. My forehead trickled with sweat, and my hand was balled up into a loose fist. “You know what,” I said, my eyes locked on Sarah’s. “I’m just gonna head back to my office. We’ll talk about this later.” Before my father could say anything I spun around on my heel and stormed out of the office. I disappeared from their view, but I still lingered in the hallway with my hands stuffed into my pockets; it was a habit I had picked up from my years of working here. Eavesdropping, I thought, was a nasty habit… unless you did it for the right reasons.

  “You know, Sarah, I don’t want my son thinking that I’m trying to kill his dreams, or that I’m underestimating him. I just don’t think this is a good idea, I really don’t.”

  “Frederick, I don’t know your son very well but I can’t help but feel like he’s a bright man. He strikes me as bright, and I don’t know, I’m thinking that maybe you should trust him.”

  I felt warm. It was strange, but I felt okay again, almost as if she had brought the confidence back into me. I did not stick around to hear my father’s answer, but I carried on walking until I got to my office.

  Three - Sarah

  I woke up to the buzz of my alarm. I threw my feet off the side of the bed and blinked repeatedly, the room swimming in and out of focus. Today was a good day, or so I told myself to get by, every single morning of every single day. I really didn’t want to leave my bed, but I had to because Patricia was waiting for me. She was the one that got me into yoga, but before that, I used to enjoy falling asleep on my couch more than anything.

  I slipped into my yoga clothes, grabbed my mat and headed out. It was cold outside, so I thought I’d grab a cup of coffee before going to the gym. Not the best idea, but I wasn’t perfect at this, far from it. I was the clumsy girl at yoga practice, the one who fell on her side and made everyone laugh, the one who went out for a cheeseburger after an hour of rigorous posing, the one who didn’t give a shit. I was okay with myself, and I was okay with my lack of grace and overflowing honesty.

  The gym was only a few blocks away from my building, and when I went inside Patricia gave me one hell of a look. “Oh, for Christ’s sake!” she said, stomping her foot against the floor. “How many times did I tell you, no coffee before practice?”

  “Hey, it was cold outside!” I said, rather defensively. “I needed something to keep me warm.”

  “Well, you could’ve jogged!” she said. Patricia was the ultimate yoga guru. She had been doing this for as long as I could remember, slowly recruiting people to her vegan yoga-practicing cult, and I just happened to be one of her soldiers. “Come on, let’s do this.”

  “So, how’s work?” I asked her, spreading out my yoga mat. I mirrored her stretches.

  “Nothing much, but guess who raised twenty-thousand dollars for the National Breast Cancer Awareness Committee?”

  “No way! At the banquet?”

  “You know it.”

  “I’m so proud of you!” I said, throwing my arms up into the air and performing a stretch. Patricia mimicked my movements, but she was far more graceful. “What about your little furry friends?”

  “Oh my God, don’t get me started,” she said. “My heart feels warm just thinking about it.”

  “Did you rescue any more dogs?”

  “Seventeen of them, actually. Can you believe it? So many stray dogs just stumbling around New York..”

  “Were they in good health?” I asked her.

  “Not at all. One of them was actually a lost puppy not used to being on the streets. When we found him, he had gotten into a fight with all the other dogs, the poor guy was a complete mess.”

  I dove down and touched my toes. “Did you nurse him back to health?”

  “We sure did. Dad called up our most skilled vet, this guy called Andy, and he helped the little doggy get better in no time.”

  Patricia’s life impressed me. At twenty-six she had already accomplished so much, and I had accomplished so little compared to her. But even though I looked up to Patricia, I couldn’t imagine running a pet shelter, or walking in animal rights marches, or nursing a sick puppy back to health. The truth was, I was a corporate girl who rocked a plaid blazer, and that pretty much summed up who I was.

  “You know what, I’d love to make a donation,” I said finally. Our instructor switched to a downward dog pose, and we went down with her. She often mumbled things to us as she posed, her body moving like water and mine struggling to keep up. I fell down a bunch of times, and Patricia couldn’t help but burst into laughter. We pretty much did this every day, and as much as I envied my yoga partner for her grace, I still wouldn’t have had it any other way.

  “You would?” she asked, turning her neck towards me. The sweat trickled down my forehead and before I knew it, my body was glistening with moisture. “You know, we’re holding another banquet later this month, it would mean a lot to me if you could come.”

  “Will do,” I beamed, feeling all the blood rush to my head. Rashmika repeated the same poses, over and over again, occasionally introducing a new one, and we were expected to follow. At one point they all did a headstand, and I remained stagnant, watching them all wobble around me like grass blades in the wind. Patricia was especially good at this. Her body was steady like it was stuck in time, and I was just there, observing her and everyone else. A few moments later, she got down on her knees and looked at me.

  “So, tell me about you. How’s work?” She was panting and so was I.

  “Work’s good, oh… I saw your brother yesterday.”

  “What, Ryan? I thought the two of you met before,” she told me.

  “We did, but we were never properly introduced, which strikes me as weird since you and I have known each other for ages.”

  “I didn’t think you and Ryan would get along,” she said, flipping her ponytail to the side and stretching her arms out in front of her.

  “Well, we didn’t.”

  Suddenly she turned to me, her eyes wide. “Why, what happened?”

  “Nothing, nothing happened,” I said. “God, you’re such a gossip.”

  “Spill the tea, girl. What did he do this time?”

  “Nothing, he’s just a bit… edgy, that’s all,” I said. I really didn’t want to get into this whole thing with her; Ryan was her brother, after all. “Did he talk about me at all?” For some reason, I felt inclined to ask, but I regretted it straight away because Patricia was looking at me like I had done something
scandalous.

  “No, he really didn’t,” she said. “These days all he can talk about is his dad, they’ve been having a lot of issues lately.”

  “But you know what, Ryan has a whole bunch of crazy ideas for the company, but they’re not all great.”

  “Oh.” Patricia raised an eyebrow at me like she was onto something. “So you’re the girl he was telling me about.”

  “What did he say about me?” I asked, rolling my eyes.

  “Nothing, he just said that dad has a favorite employee at the office and that he’s consulting her on his every move.”

  “He says that like it’s a bad thing.”

  “I mean, he is the CEO’s son, maybe he’s a little bit jealous?”

  “Oh, I don’t think so.” I thought a little about what she said. If Ryan was jealous of me, then why didn’t he work harder to prove himself? I wondered if he was just spoiled if he was used to getting everything handed to him on a silver platter. I wondered just how much he disliked me if he disliked me at all. My brain was spinning with a lot of possibilities, none of which made any sense. “You know I just don’t like the way he treated me the other day,” I said.

  “Well, you wanna tell me what he did?” she asked again.

  “It’s not anything that he did, it’s just the way he was looking at me like I was beneath him like I didn’t deserve to be standing in the same office as him.”

  “Oh, girl, you don’t know Ryan. He’ll be standing there wondering what pizza he’s gonna order for dinner.”

  I giggled. “He didn’t seem dumb to me.”

  “Oh, he’s not dumb,” she was quick to note. “He’s actually one of the smartest people I know, but he’s not as spiteful as you think. If anything he’s probably impressed by how intelligent you are, after all, dad never really stops talking about you.”

  A warmth radiated through me. If it was one thing I was addicted to, it was the boss’s attention. Any boss. Ever since I was eighteen and working at Starbucks, I would go that extra mile to get recognized; I became a workaholic, I guess. Years later, I was still doing the same thing, and even though I was overworking myself, I couldn’t help but feel proud of how far I’d come. Frederick loved me like a daughter, and perhaps that was why his own son was jealous. I wondered if Patricia felt the same, but then I would remember that I was Frederick’s work daughter, not his real daughter. “God, you should’ve seen the way Ryan was eyeing me when I said the merger wasn’t a good idea.”

  Patricia chuckled. “He really wants this, you know. He would kill to work with, whats-her-face, Samantha.”

  I looked around me and everyone was rolling their yoga mats and heading for the door. Personally, I liked to stick around after hours, maybe ask my yoga instructor a question or two. “You go ahead, think I’m gonna stick around for a bit,” I told Patricia.

  “I’m gonna go shower,” she said, looking at me with a glimmer in her eyes. “I love how some post-workouts feel.” She paused for a moment, clearing her throat. “About Ryan, I really don’t want you to think he’s a bad person, he’s just hotheaded like that.”

  “I get it,” I said, shaking my head from side to side. “Hey, do you really think I would diss your brother?”

  “But it’s not just because he’s my brother,” she said, her eyes locked on mine. “Ryan is probably one of the purest people you’ll ever meet, and you can take my word for this one.”

  I nodded and smiled, but a part of me felt uneasy. Even though I knew Frederick was a good man, and that the apple didn’t fall far from the tree, I still didn’t trust Ryan, and neither did I think he was a good person. Patricia didn’t even talk about him that much, which led to me to think that they weren’t close, but boy, was I wrong. She eyed me for a second before turning around and heading for the locker room, and I picked up my things and went to badger Rashmika about her indisputable grace.

  Four - Ryan

  I poured myself a glass of red wine and sat out on the terrace. Samantha was on her way, and it was just a waiting game at this point. I checked my watch and then checked it again, but then I told myself to calm down. The view was too wonderful to miss out on. Eventually, I went back inside and collapsed on the couch, observing the busy streets and feeling thankful for being up in the clouds. All my life I’d lived in skyscrapers, and I had to admit, I enjoyed the sky’s company more than anything. I loved me a good view of New York City, and I remember spending my first week up there marveling in the view of the skyline, absolutely bewildered by it, until it got kind of old.

  I was the kind of man who sought thrill in everything that he did, and when I found that thrill, I got bored, or tired, or I grew uninterested. I was that kind of man, and the truth was, I hated myself sometimes. As I sipped my wine I thought about Samantha, how she’d make the perfect work partner, but then I thought about my father and Sarah, how alienating it felt to be standing right there in front of them. The thought alone made me want to gag. As I paced the apartment like a madman, I couldn’t stop thinking about the company and what I wanted to do with it, and before my thoughts could run farther undisciplined, I heard a knock on my door.

  I straightened myself and walked over to the entrance. “Well good afternoon,” I said, smiling from ear to ear.

  “Good afternoon, Mr. Ryan,” Samantha said, leaning in and kissing me on the cheek. She had long blonde hair that cascaded down to her waist, and as she led the way into the sitting room, it moved across her shoulders like an electrified yellow waterfall. “Well, well, what a lovely home you’ve got,” she said, spinning on her heel and looking at me. I noticed she was wearing fake lashes, and that her lips were painted a deep crimson red. All in all, she looked like a perfect Barbie doll.

  “That’s very nice of you, have a seat,” I gestured towards the white leather couch. Samantha sat somewhere in the middle and crossed one leg over the other. I noticed her high heels and her perfectly painted nails; the way she straightened herself like she was about to get down to business. “Would you like something to drink?”

  “Give me some of that,” she said, reaching her hand out to me.

  “Oh, no, let me fix you a drink,” I told her, immediately heading towards the bar. Even though I had my back to her, I could almost feel her eyes on me.

  “I’m not supposed to be drinking on the job, you know that, don’t you?” she asked. When I turned around she was whipping her hair back and gathering it all to one side. I could’ve sworn the whole room suddenly smelled like peaches. “But you know, one drink won’t hurt.”

  “Your words, not mine,” I flirted back. I wasn’t really sure where this was going, but it was going someplace good. I poured some scotch into a glass and added some ice, and then I walked back over to the couch. I sat at a comfortable distance from her, but she scootched a bit closer to me and lit a cigarette.

  “Oh, is it fine if I smoke?” she asked, already taking the first drag.

  “It’s more than okay,” I replied. “I’ve never really liked cigarettes, so it’s not like you’re tempting me or anything.” She uncrossed her legs and twisted her body away from me. Then she reached down, grabbed her work bag and zipped it open.

  “We’ve got plenty to discuss today, Mr. Ryan,” she told me. “Now, have you consulted with the board on the merger?”

  “I have, and they’re all behind me on this.” I downed the rest of my drink and turned to face her. “I think we should start getting a move on with the paperwork.”

  “Whoa, not so fast,” she said, flashing me a wry grin. “We still have a lot to discuss.”

  “I know, there’s no rush. It’s a big move, after all.”

  “It’s a gigantic move,” she told me, the silver of her eyes flaring up. “With this, we could take over the market, we’ll be invincible! Especially that you’ll be the one running it all.”

  I imagined myself sitting in my office on the fifteenth floor, looking over the city and feeling like I was invincible. I had to admit, I scared mysel
f sometimes. I wanted power, I craved it like I craved food and ice cold water on a hot morning in June. I was all about the high life, the money, the lavish cars; I wanted to make it big. “Sounds good to me,” I smirked.

  “Hey, you’ll be running this whole damn thing with me,” I whispered. She inched a bit closer.

  “So, why don’t you tell me about your latest endeavors?”

  “What kind of endeavors are we talking about here?” I asked her.

  “You know, the new software you were telling me about.”

  “Oh, that,” I said. “Well, there’s this one project that I haven’t been very involved in lately, but it’s a very important project, I have to admit.”

  “Yes, the new irrigation management system?” she asked me, constantly brushing her nails through her hair. I nodded.

  “Yes, but that’s Sarah’s project. Sarah’s my father’s most trusted employee.”

  “Isn’t that supposed to be you?”

  “I’m no employee.”

  She smirked at me. Just talking about my father’s relationship with Sarah gave me a bad taste in my mouth, but I knew I had to be transparent with Samantha. “Nice ego you got there,” she said, kicking at the air. Her heels looked pointy, almost deadly. I poured her and myself another drink. “Hey, didn’t I say no drinking on the job? Now you’re just being a tease.”

  “Now, about the software,” I started, passing her a half-full glass of whiskey. “What do you want to know?”

  “Everything, I want to know everything.”

  “Well, you need to know that some of this information is confidential, so naturally, I won’t be able to tell you everything,” I said. Immediately, her face drooped to a scowl.

  “Well, aren’t we going to work together?” She shifted subtly in her seat and tilted her head towards me. She was staring at me through heavy-lidded eyes, bold eyes, eyes that wanted to conquer the world. I thought that Samantha must fit me like a glove. “If we’re going to work together, then I need to feel comfortable merging our companies; I need to know more.” She leaned closer to me, her lips smelling of liquor.