Teacher's Pet - The Complete Series: Books 1-4

by Avery Phillips

  I had a decorator who cost an arm and a leg. I entrusted all my interior decorations to her so I didn’t have to deal with that stuff. My dad, however, I knew, could probably not only name every artist associated with the works on his walls, but give a tidbit of information on their personal lives as well. He was a well-rounded intellectual—not just a shrewd businessman—and I envied his expansive knowledge. Like a child, I looked up to him, though he didn’t know it. I wanted to be just like him.

  My father’s personal tastes, unlike mine, remained simple. He was the sort of man who was so focused on his work that he didn’t care about things that didn’t appreciate in value. He could get a job done from a closet with nothing but a student’s desk, if he had to. If it weren’t for having to impress his clientele, I had little doubt his office wouldn’t be so impressive, save for the art.

  There were a couple of modern chairs directly in front of a huge desk made of stained dark wood, and a comfortable-looking black leather couch off to the side against the wall. I entertained thoughts of lounging on the couch, but I knew better. Sitting, let alone lounging, in front of my father could be intimidating even for me. I pulled up one of the two chairs and sat to face him.

  He pulled his glasses down to the tip of his nose, looking serious with his arms folded across his chest. He pushed back toward the wall in his high-backed chair with a slightly perturbed “you’re disturbing me” look on his face. I felt like at any given moment he could squash my career and send me home packing, escorted by security. He wouldn’t, though; it wouldn’t be a wise business move. But he could.

  “Son.” He rarely said my name. I assumed it was because he had nothing to do with giving it to me. “How can I help you? Is everything good with our project in New York?”

  “Oh, yeah. Everything’s perfect. The construction is ahead of schedule, and I’ve got Tom supervising everything out there in my absence. He’s doing a great job. Turns out he was a good choice after all.” He nodded, acknowledging what he had known all along, though I had been skeptical of his choice of Tom in the beginning. “But that’s not really why I’m here.”

  “Of course it’s not.” He sat forward and placed his elbows on the desk. “What’s troubling you, son?”

  “Well, before I get into all of that, I’m curious about something. Why aren’t you at the hospital with Caroline?”

  He adjusted in his seat. “Because I’m not very fond of hospitals. Let me tell you something, son. I’m old, and to old people hospitals are like gateways to the grave. They’re plagued with the sounds of sickness, the constant smell of disinfectant tricking your mind into thinking it’s normal. And with my son just lying there, helpless…with us standing over him like we’re attending his vigil… No, I don’t see what good would come of it…all of that tortuous waiting. I don’t have the patience.” He paused and looked, locking his eyes with mine. “I presume you’ve gone to visit your brother by now, since I know you weren’t at the hospital with the rest of us.”

  My father had a way of looking at you until you were compelled to tell the truth, no matter how bad it made you look. This time was no different, and I wasn’t immune. “No, I haven’t visited him.”

  His eyes narrowed to slits.

  “I was there, but in the lobby. I couldn’t bring myself to go up.” Not exactly a lie, but not a hundred percent truth. “I just didn’t want to see him…in that way.”

  I waited for his response, feeling my stomach muscles clench. My father hadn’t gotten where he was without being able to peek into souls and see through deceit. If he felt like I was being untruthful, there was no doubt that would spell trouble.

  He sighed, taking off his glasses to look me directly in the eyes. “I completely understand.” I quietly let out the breath I was holding between my lips like I was blowing out a candle. I’d come too damn far for my career to be squashed over something as insignificant as Simon. My father, of course, knew how much my brother and I were at odds, but I didn’t need to remind him.

  “I had a hard time being there myself, son. But that’s no excuse. You’ve got to buck up. He is your brother, and he should be supported until he gets back to full health. And by supported, I mean both physically and spiritually. I expect you to see him in the next couple of days…and there will be hell to pay if you don’t. Understand?”

  Fuck!

  “Yes, sir. I understand, completely.”

  “Good.” He placed his glasses back on his face, slipped them down the bridge of his nose, and began to read the papers on his desk again. I was beginning to feel like I was dismissed.

  “Oh,” he said. “Now what is it you wanted to see me about originally?”

  I was hoping I could get out of there before he asked. Suddenly, what I wanted seemed not so important anymore, or rather it was the timing that seemed inappropriate. “Never mind. It wasn’t that important.” I turned to walk away, lengthening my strides.

  “It was important enough for you to disturb me in my office when you know I like to take my preparatory time in the mornings. What’s the emergency? I don’t hear any fire alarms ringing, but I assume you infringed upon my solitude because whatever you needed from me was important to you. Now, I could be wrong, but you’re not going to tell me I’m wrong, are you? Are you, Dane?”

  By him calling me by my name I knew this could be a slippery slope if what I had to say didn’t sound important enough to him… Fuck it. I just stuck out my chest and spilled it. “What I need to talk to you about is twofold. One being business, and the other thing is personal.”

  He arched an eyebrow. “Okay, then. Continue.”

  “I’ve been thinking of moving back to New York, but permanently this time. I’m no good out here in California. There’s too much happiness and too many trees. You know, a lady stuck her head out of her window and yelled thank you to me the other day because I let her pass in front of me on the road. It’s too much for me, full of hippies and tree huggers. I mean, don’t get me wrong, the weather’s great out here, and it’s nice to be able to see you in person, as often as I have been…”

  “But?”

  “But…I don’t belong. I need to get back to where I’m comfortable, and I’m a New Yorker, through and through. I wear it like a suit, and the natives can tell. Besides, I believe the project needs me. Tom is great and all, but I need to be hands-on with it. I can only do so much conducting business via phone calls and video meetings—”

  “I agree.”

  “With what?”

  “With all of it. I understand where you’re coming from, son. I was raised in New York as well, so I know how it is, and I can see how you would miss it. The deafening sounds of the big city, the hustle and bustle, people looking so stressed out that if their faces got any tighter they’d crack and fall to the ground like brittle clay. Ha! Oh, and the traffic! Can’t forget about that, the culture of rudeness and the smell.”

  “Pop, c’mon, I’m serious.”

  “I know you are, son, but my question is, are you are you being truthful with me? More importantly, are you being truthful with yourself? Is your wanting to leave really about going back to New York or is it about you being with a certain lady? I’m assuming you’d want to take her with you, if you could? And I’m also assuming part of the reason for this discussion is you’ve been thinking about taking her with you. Perhaps so you could get her away from your brother?”

  Damn, I hated my father sometimes.

  “Correct me if I’m wrong. I’m not immune, it just rarely happens.”

  I said nothing, rocking back on the legs of my seat.

  “Exactly. So, that’s obviously the case. You have to know, I can’t in good conscience give you advice one way or the other. I can’t advise you in a way that would hurt Simon, and, to be fair, I wouldn’t advise him on this matter if he asked because it would hurt you. Either way, I’d be betraying one of my sons, and as a father, that’s something I just won’t do. Understand?”

  I nodde
d, trying to keep my face impassive.

  “So what little advice I can give you is do what you have to do, son, but do it with respect for your brother and this family. No matter if it hurts you…because that’s what real men do.” He paused to think for a moment. “But I will say this, and then let’s close the matter. Make absolutely sure this girl is really and truly what you want, because once you follow your heart down a road like this, it’s hard to find your way back home again. A woman can be a man’s best ally in helping him build or she can be his worst enemy, destroy him and all that he’s accomplished. Trust me when I say this to you.”

  “I see. On which side of that coin did Mom fall?”

  Instantly his face soured and he shot me a glare. “You know I can’t discuss your mother with you. It’s just too painful for me.” He stood up from his chair, shooting it back to the wall with a bit too much force, and it bounced off the windows with a soft thump. “Now, see your way out and let me get back to my work. Make sure you visit your brother like I asked. Have a good and productive morning, son. It was nice to see you again. And on your way out, could you do me a favor and ask Lisa to come in to see me, please? There seems to be discrepancies in this report she laid on my desk.”

  I got up and stopped short in the doorway. “Yeah, sure. I can do that.”

  “Thank you.” He went back to his work without looking up, and, like a good son, I pretended not to notice the tear that fell from his face and splashed onto his desk.

  Lesson # 12

  Laughter cures all but the most serious of ailments

  “Oh, man! You should’ve seen your face. It was like OHH!” -Selene Foster

  Lynn

  “I remember when you had just turned four years old, and your father took the training wheels off of your bike for the first time. You were so excited to ride that bike, so exuberant to show your father that you could do it. You always wanted to please him. You may not admit it now, but you’ve sought your father’s approval almost from birth. But you didn’t want anyone to help you, not even him. Even though you could hardly sit upright on your own and push yourself down the street without toppling over like a giant house of cards.”

  Caroline was sitting by Simon’s bedside, alone in his room, holding back tears. The light slanting in from the window made her eyes glisten, and she wiped them with her finger before they spilled over. She had no idea I was there watching her and her interactions with her son. I was in the doorway, hidden behind a wall, sneaking peeks.

  She tenderly communicated to her son, brushing the hair from his forehead and rubbing his hand gingerly. To see that side of Caroline made me feel sorry for her for the very first time. I didn’t think it was possible, but that was exactly how I felt. She was human after all.

  “You know, I should’ve known you were going to love motorcycles from that early Sunday morning, because, after you finally broke down and let your dad help you for a while, and you got the hang of riding the bike on your own, you used to make these motorcycle sounds while you rode down the street like a speed demon.” She chuckled softly and sniffled. I covered my mouth, feeling close to tears. “All day, all night, making noises with your mouth for hours at a time until nightfall. You were such a tireless child. I remember your father and I yelling at you to come in the house or slow down before you got injured. Watching out for the cars and being careful wasn’t you. You were a daredevil. I guess some things haven’t changed in all this time, although I wish it were different—maybe then you wouldn’t be in this place.” She ran her fingers through his hair, pushing a stray to the side, and she waited, I assumed, in the hope that he’d move.

  “Oh, my sweet boy. If only you could wake up…I would do anything to see you open your eyes and look at me the way that you do. With that big, bright smile and your father’s dimples, how your eyes crinkle at the corners when you’re truly happy to see me. I really don’t know what to do. The doctors said you can wake up at any given moment. How I wish this was that moment so I wouldn’t have to keep worrying—”

  “Are you going to stand there all day looking shady or are you going to come in and see how he’s doing?”

  I damn near jumped out of my skin. The voice behind me was sudden, not loud, but it startled me enough to put gooseflesh on my arms. Especially when Caroline was alerted to my presence and narrowed her eyes to slits, glaring in my direction.

  I sharply turned around to see Selene, Simon’s sister, with a mischievous smile tickling her lips, and then she started laughing. “Oh, man! You should’ve seen your face. It was like OHH! Your eyes got so big. You looked like a guppy.”

  I almost smiled, but Caroline spoiled the levity. “What are you doing here?”

  Selene’s expression quickly grew serious. She looked at her mother, and then looked to me and realized she might’ve started something. “Oh, come on, Mom. Simmer down. She’s here for Simon, not for you, and he needs all the support he can get.”

  I loved her right then. I didn’t know her from Adam, with her strawberry-blond hair all loose and hanging down past her shoulders. She had on designer jeans, tight and blue, with nude-colored heels and a light blue top.

  “I will not have this!” Caroline shot up angrily out of her chair, and I was convinced that if she could, she would have wrapped her hands around my throat and squeezed until I needed a hospital bed of my own. “Not only do I not want her here, but Katelyn will be back at any moment. Selene, you know how she is. She’d go bat-shit if she saw this girl here.”

  “She might be right about that.” Selene turned her back to her mom and bent to whisper in my ear, far from discreetly. “I’ve always said Katelyn was coo-coo, and she’s done nothing but prove me right since she’s been back.”

  “Yeah, I saw a bit of that crazy from her last night,” I said.

  Caroline was standing with her hands on her hips as a sort of barrier between Simon and me. Her body language was firm and unmovable, and I wasn’t the one to try her, not tonight. Selene was standing in front of me like a barrier between me and the tense situation, and I was grateful for that, because I was starting to fear for the integrity of my sanity.

  This family was full of control-freak nutcases constantly on a rampage and intent on undermining me. It made me question whether my mission to see Simon was even worth it. At least one of them, Selene, seemed sensible. I wouldn’t be happy until I was at his bedside, but I wasn’t in the mood for another heated confrontation with Caroline or Katelyn.

  “Caroline,” I said, “I’m not here to fight with you. I don’t want to disrespect you or your family, but it would be a lie if I said I don’t need to see him. I very much need to see Simon. I want to hold his hand to at least let him know that I was here and I’m worried for him. Can I at least do that? It will only take a minute of your time and I’ll leave…please.” Tears threatened, again. I was sick of crying. I bit my trembling bottom lip and tried to appeal to whatever sense of empathy the cold woman might have.

  Caroline moved as if to get to me, but Selene, respectfully, wouldn’t let her pass. Caroline appeared too angry for Selene’s comfort, and she put her hands to her mother’s shoulders, gently shaking her. “No, Mom. You used to tell me anger was a reaction and not an action, that it couldn’t provide a solution because it was static, and anger and intelligence can’t reside in the same conversation. Do you remember telling me that?”

  Caroline nodded but wouldn’t take her eyes off me. “No!”

  “Mom?” Selene said.

  “No, I said! Selene, if she wanted to see Simon so badly, how come she wasn’t here all night like I was? How come she couldn’t stay in case something turned for the worse at the last minute?”

  “You had me forcibly removed from the floor, don’t you remember? Two burly security guards carrying me off like last night’s trash? Do you need any other refreshers? It was a pretty memorable scene. Everyone watched and had front-row tickets.”

  “Hmph,” was her only response. She presented
her back to me and walked back to her chair. She sat down and proceeded to effectively ignore the both of us.

  Selene grabbed me by the hand and stepped forward with me in tow.

  “No!” Caroline shouted, pointing at the door without a flinch or a blink. Selene and I deflated and retreated.

  She still held my hand as she walked me to the elevator doors. At that point I would have rather taken the stairs to the lobby. I felt a sense of déjà vu, but with a much nicer send-off. “Look, it’s no secret my mother doesn’t like you much. For what real reason, I couldn’t say, but I wanted to let you know I understand why you want to see my brother. I’d try anything to see that he wakes up, and I know you care for him greatly; I can see it. Never mind the fact you’re currently dating my other brother.” She shook her head. “The whole thing’s just freakin’ weird, if you ask me. But anyways, I’m not supposed to tell you this, but fuck it. I’m going to. If you want to see Simon and spend time with him all by yourself, you have an opportunity.”

  “I do,” I responded. “How is that?”

  “Be back here tomorrow at seven. Mom, Dad, and I are going out to dinner, so no one will be here, as far as I know.”

  “Well, what about Katelyn?”

  “Had some kind of career-altering case she had to prepare for. Left on a flight about an hour ago. She said she should be back in a couple of days.” Selene rolled her eyes. “So this is your best bet, okay? Tomorrow at seven, and you’re golden. You should have at least an hour with him. Say what you’ve got to say and give him all the love you can muster. Maybe it will help.”

  “Selene.” Caroline was leaning in the doorway. “Can you come in here, please? I need to talk to you.”

  Selene looked to her mom and then looked back at me and rolled her eyes. “Love the woman to death, but she can be a bit much, if you know what I mean.”