“Lila, I have been at this corner every morning since freshman year. How are you still slamming into me?” His deep voice curled into her skin and warmed her up like hot cocoa.
Lila wanted to tell him what an asshole his brother was, so much in fact that she had to bite her tongue to stop herself. As far as she knew, Chase had no idea of the past she had with Jack, and she planned to keep it that way. Instead of pouring her heart out, she eyed the two Starbucks cups he held, one stacked on top of the other, and took the one on top.
“You brought coffee, so I won’t kill you for being sarcastic with me this early in the morning.”
“I always bring coffee. Again, every day…. Since freshman year.” With a small smile he followed behind her as she continued her stomping towards the school. “Someone’s a real ray of sunshine this morning,” he observed.
She groaned her response and took a heavy swig of her hazelnut latte. It tasted like heaven on earth. “You’re walking too slowly,” she said over her shoulder where she knew Chase was behind her. Pulling her phone out of her bag she held it up and began to check her messages. “We’re already running late as it is.”
“You know, I was thinking,” Chase began, seemingly unaware of her chastising. “I don’t think I really want to go to Harvard.”
Lila laughed out loud, sure he was joking, and refusing to dignify such an idiot statement with a response if he wasn’t. She didn’t respond, but kept an ear open even as she saw an email in her inbox from Jack. Her heart nearly stopped.
“I was thinking Colombia… or even NYU…” Chase continued. “You know, stay here. In the city.”
Lila was no longer listening as her eyes scanned the words in the email. She read it once, twice, three times, sure her eyes were deceiving her.
As I’m sure you already know Chase has been accepted into Harvard University. In light of this news, effective today, I will no longer be requiring your services as his tutor.
Jack Almeida
Lila froze in mid step, stumbling forward when Chase slammed into her from behind. He took hold of her arms and saved her from falling, before coming to stand in front of her. “You haven’t started drinking in the mornings again, have you? If I can’t do it then neither can you,” he teased her gently, but even the small smile on his face didn’t last when he was faced with the grim expression on hers.
Lila took in Chase’s face over the top of her phone, mouth agape. Looking back down to the screen, her eyes scanned the words one more time, sure she was imagining things.
“What?” he asked softly, reaching up to touch her hair.
Realizing that they were in public and half a mile from The Dalton School Lila stepped back, tilting her head to dodge Chase’s hand. The wounded expression on his face made her look away. “I have to go,” she said, suddenly.
He squinted and opened his mouth. Nothing came out.
Lila began backing away from him. “I, uh… I just remembered that I left some important files back at the apartment. You know how scatter brained I am on Monday mornings.”
“I’ll walk with you,” he offered.
“No.” Lila vehemently refused, taking a deep breath to relax the panic in her voice. “No, I don’t want you to miss class. Harvard acceptees don’t miss class.”
“Fuck Harvard.” Chase gripped his bag, making his way toward her.
“Chase,” Lila demanded, holding a hand up. “Stop.” Her eyes scanned his. “You’re a kid.”
He blinked, unable to respond.
“Kids should be in class.” She knew she’d struck him, it was all over his face. Running a hand through her hair Lila turned away from him, calling over her shoulder. “Go to school.”
Clutching the phone in her hand so tightly she was surprised it didn’t crack between her fingers, Lila stomped down the busy street with only one intention.
Kill Jack Almeida.
Chase watched her go, wondering when she’d realize that she was walking in the complete opposite direction of her apartment.
---
Twenty minutes later Lila was stomping through the lobby of Jones Day Law Firm, catching eyes with a pretty young receptionist who smiled at her. “Hi. Do you have an appointment?”
Lila swept right past the reception desk, ignoring the desperate calls from the young woman behind it. As she stomped through the busy halls, dodging suits and skirts all over the place, she scanned the gold name plates on the back of all the doors until she landed on the one she wanted.
Without knocking she barged into Jack’s office where he was leaning back arrogantly in his chair with a phone pressed to his ear. He was giving some poor soul on the other end a piece of his mind as he scribbled haphazardly onto a notepad in front of him. At the sound of his office door slamming against the wall he rose his eyes heatedly, ready to rip to shreds whatever new intern thought it was okay to come into his office without knocking. When he caught sight of Lila he sat up straight, the anger on his face vanishing.
From the middle of his office she raised her phone, which had been clutched in a tight grip in her hand since the moment she’d read his email. “What the hell is this?”
“I’ll call you back,” Jack said into the receiver, hanging up before the person on the other line had time to respond. He began to rise from his chair but stopped in mid-stand, holding his tie against his chest. She was wearing a black pencil skirt that seemed a dash too tight for The Dalton School, and a white button down blouse that was definitely too tight for the Dalton School. Her deep brown skin glowed against the white satin and flashes of her wet white t-shirt from the night before spun in his mind.
“Good morning,” he said smoothly. A small smile lit his face and Lila could have punched him for it.
His receptionist came running in breathlessly behind Lila, her blonde hair fanning around her shoulders as she slowed to a grateful stop. She spoke rapidly, throwing a glare at Lila. “Mr. Almeida she just stormed in. I tried to stop her—"
Jack held his hand out to her without a word, signaling that everything was fine. Waiting for her to leave, his eyes went back to Lila. “Have a seat.”
Lila crossed her arms over her chest. “No.”
Jack retook his own seat and threw her a look. “Have a seat.”
She sighed and decided that she should probably choose her battles as she took a seat while dropping her phone on his desk. “What the hell is this, Jack? You’re firing me?”
Jack unbuttoned his jacket and leaned forward on his desk. The multi-line phone next to him was blinking out of control. “Yes. I’m firing you. I simply don’t need you anymore, Lila… And now that he’s going to college neither does Chase.”
“Chase needs more than you could begin to comprehend,” she said in contempt.
“Believe it or not you just walked into the office of the best god damn lawyer in this building. I can assure you that if I made it out alive in that shark pit...” He motioned to the hustle and bustle outside his open door. “I’ll make it out alive with my seventeen year old brother.”
“You don’t even know your seventeen year old brother. He doesn’t know you. The two of you might as well be strangers.”
“How the hell can we know each other, Lila, when he’s at your apartment more than his own home?”
“He’s at my apartment more than his own home because it isn’t a home.”
Jack’s eyes narrowed.
“He doesn’t know you because you’re not there. You. Are not. There.” Lila jammed her eyes shut. This was not the way she’d pictured this going. “I’ve done everything I could do for him, and I did everything you paid me for. You couldn’t even find the decency to fire me to my face after five years?”
Jack leveled her with his eyes. “You’re too attached to him, Lila.”
“I am only thinking about his well-being. I am the only constant that he has in his life right now and he needs that. You seem to think that just because he’s twice the size he was when you hired me
that he’s not wobbling at the knees anymore, but he is. He needs stability and driving me away is not going to help matters. There’s still pain there Jack, and it won’t go away overnight.”
Lila continued. “You have no idea what it’s like a be a seventeen year old boy in as much pain as Chase has been in for the last five years. It’s only this year that he’s started to make friends at school and become comfortable opening himself up to new people and experiences. A year is not a long time, Jack, and the ground he’s treading on is too shaky to throw any huge changes at him.”
“Huge changes? He’s graduating high school in five months.” Jack threw his arms out. “Three months after that he’ll be on his way to the single most competitive academic environment on the face of the planet. If he can’t handle losing you then he’s going to have a hell of a time getting through the next four years when life’s real challenges start kicking his ass from every angle. You can’t baby him forever.”
“I’m not babying him-- I’m protecting him. How can you be so unbelievably insensitive to his needs? He’s a kid who lost his parents, that doesn’t just go away with the snap of a finger.”
“He’s not the only one who lost them, Lila--they were my parents too.”
Lila looked away.
“And I’ll tell you what, if I had a woman like you waiting in the wings to lick my wounds every time things got tough I would have never made it out of the house, let alone finished Harvard Law. I don’t need you holding him back.” Without another word he stood and walked around his desk, sweeping past Lila before taking the door of his office in his hand and slamming it shut on all of the curious eyes staring in from the other side. Taking a deep breath, he made his way to the front of his desk and leaned against it, facing her. “I’ve already spoken with Principal White and requested that Chase be transferred to a different counselor.”
Lila sat perfectly still for a moment and looked off into space, unable to move. After a few tediously long minutes passed she quietly stood up and began making her way to the door. Her heels clicked against the marble floor and when she opened the door to leave Jack’s hand came over her shoulder and pushed it closed.
Lila looked down and shook her head before turning on her heel and looking up at him. She leaned back on the closed door when the power behind his golden eyes made her knees shake. “What?” she demanded.
He kept his hand against the door. “We’re not finished.”
A small smile touched her lips. “I’m fired. You’ve confirmed that I’m fired. I think we’re done.” When he didn’t go to move Lila almost lost it. “What is this? What do you really want, Jack?”
“What do I want?”
“Yes,” she beamed, her voice beginning to tremble. It was everything she had inside of her to keep the tears from brimming over the edges of her eyes. She refused to cry in front of him again. “What do you want?”
Jack stood his ground. The sunlight peeking through the Manhattan skyline behind him made the wavy ringlets that danced passed her shoulders and shadowed her face glow like black silk. He licked his lips, eyes narrowing.
Lila watched him with her mouth agape as realization began to sweep over her. It was Jack’s job to constantly evade the truth, to hop around the real issue, and he was damn good at it. But at that moment she saw the truth written all over his face.
She had to swallow back the fury that nearly engulfed her when she realized what was really going on. Slowly, tentatively, keeping her eyes riveted to him, she tucked her fingers into her open black blazer and pushed it off of her shoulders, letting it fall to the floor. He stared down at the puddle of fabric before raising his eyes to hers.
Gazing up at him, she slowly tilted her head and ran her hands down her neck until her fingers were lingering on the top button of her blouse. She popped it open. “Is this what you want?”
She watched his eyes fall to the top of her blouse where the healthy peaks of her full, heaving breasts were now exposed to him. The sight seemed to grab him in a chokehold, riveting him where he stood.
Lila studied his reaction, the valley between her legs betraying her as it began to swell in response to the desire in his eyes. Placing the tips of her fingers at the curve of his neck and feeling his racing pulse, she took his blue silk tie and tugged, tilting her head back as she pulled him closer.
“Is this what you want?” A hint of her red lace bra peeked through when she popped another button and he swallowed hard before forcing himself to meet her eyes.
“No,” he answered.
Lila undid another button, and then another, continuing to pull at his tie until her chest was brushing up against the open flaps of his jacket. Reaching down, she took his hand and guided his trembling fingers inside of her blouse. He immediately cupped her breast, his breath growing ragged.
As he kneaded her, she slipped her hands inside of his jacket, pulling it down over his shoulders before taking the back of his neck in her hand. She stepped between his splayed legs, the added height of her stilettos leaving her face mere inches from his, their lips a whisper apart. “Is this what you want, Jack?”
His eyes grew heavy. “Yes,” he breathed, squeezing her, seizing her around the waist while parting his lips, his tongue desperate to taste her.
It was all as clear as day now. As quickly as Lila was on him, she was off of him, tossing her head away and backing up as she re-buttoned her blouse. She stared up at him in distain and, this time, she couldn’t stop her eyes from growing wet. “So that’s it, huh? That’s all this has been about? Your fucking ego?”
He seemed shaken at the sudden loss of contact and struggled to speak. “No.”
“If you can’t have me then you’ll make damn sure Chase won’t have me, either, right?”
“Lila. No.”
“You really don’t care about anyone, do you? You don’t care about anyone but your god damn self.”
“No.” He grasped her arms, just needing a moment to think, but he couldn’t think. Not when she was this close.
“Don’t,” she spat, snatching her arms away from him.
Before he could stop her, before he could think a single coherent thought, she had slammed the door behind her. He stared at the closed door and several tense moments passed before he fell against it, pressing his pounding forehead against the cool wood, grateful for the small favor.
He knew he had half of Manhattan waiting on hold for him at his desk, and when his assistant’s voice rang into the quiet air from the loudspeaker, reminding him, he knew he should get back to work. But he couldn’t. He couldn’t bring himself to move.
A knock on the door came from the other side, making it vibrate against Jack’s skull and, in extension, immediately reigniting the headache that had been slowly fading away. He gritted his teeth in anger and threw the door open, ready to give his assistant the tongue lashing of her life. When he came face to face with Chase his mouth fell and a million different thoughts surged through his head all at once.
Jack sputtered, having no idea where to begin. He raised his arm to check his watch. “Um…” School had started an hour ago. Looking back up at Chase, taking in the sight of him holding the strap of his book bag like his life depended on it, Jack didn’t miss the distress in his eyes or the tiny downward curl at the edges of his mouth. He looked over Chase’s shoulder, eye scanning the room.
“She’s gone,” Chase said, emotion seizing him like a vise when he realized what Jack was looking for.
Jack pushed his jacket open and shoved his hand in his pants pocket. “Did you follow her here?”
Chase’s eyes narrowed.
“Does she know you followed her?”
Chase ran a hand through his hair, taking a deep breath before meeting Jack’s eyes, again. “No counselor,” he answered.
Jack’s eyes ignited. “You do realize that this whole Harvard thing is not yet set it stone, right? You realize that it can go away at the snap of a finger, right? An acceptance letter is not
an invitation to start fucking up, so why aren’t you in class, Chase?” Jack’s head was all over the place. On one hand, he was pissed off that Chase was missing class for Lila, and on the other hand he was distressed at the idea of having to tell him he’d fired her. He didn’t want to hurt him, but there didn’t seem to be any way out. His head was officially pounding now, and when the sight of Lila undressing in his office just minutes before jumped into his head, the pain was only amplified. With a groan, he reached up to rub his forehead, cringing. “Actually, Chase, you know what? Go ahead and skip class, throw your future down the drain, I’m sure the world will find a way to make it all my fault, anyway.” By ‘the world’, Jack meant Lila, and they both knew it.
Jack was now sure that he’d done the right thing. He wanted to bring Chase into his office, away from the probing eyes of the piranhas he worked with, and sit him down, but he knew him too well. Any sudden movements, any wrong words, any falsity at all would set Chase off. He wasn’t a weak kid, and he certainly wasn’t a mean one, but Lila had the power to unravel him where he stood. With each passing day Jack was beginning to understand that feeling more and more.
They met eyes across the threshold of his office door. “Okay Chase, look…. I was going to tell you this over dinner but since I’m sure you’ll find some reason not to be around when I get home tonight I suppose now is as good a time as any.” Jack fiddled with the keys in his pocket. “I fired her.” His heart seized in anticipation and he held Chase’s fiery gaze with one equally as strong. Never in their lives had Chase challenged him quite as openly as he was right at that moment. He was too attached to Lila, seeing the battle raging in his brother’s eyes proved that to Jack. “I fired her,” he said, again. “Today. Just now. She’ll see you around school every now and again, but that’s it. I’m having you transferred to another counselor effective tomorrow. No more apartment visits. No more tutoring sessions.” Jack took a deep breath. “No more.”
Lila's Thunder: The Almeida Brothers, Book One Page 3