“You’re biased, Mr. Blythe. But I’ll let it slide.” I finished my coffee and then went to the bathroom to try to get myself somewhat presentable. I turned on the light and almost screamed. It was that bad.
I took a deep breath and started with washing my face and untangling my hair and dressing in the clothes the ladies had picked for me. I loaded on the makeup and went for bold lips so people would look at them and not my eyes.
I slipped into my shoes and walked back out. Lucah whistled quietly.
“Whatever,” I said, rolling my eyes. “Can you help with this?” I pointed to my head. Lucah patted his lap. I sat down and he worked on my hair, French braiding the sides back into a bun. Ryder mumbled something in his sleep and turned over. The machines picked up for a moment and then settled back to their steady beeping.
“Done,” Lucah said, patting my hair. I got up and checked it in the mirror. Perfection. I munched on one of the muffins and had another cup of coffee. And then it was time for me to get my ass to work.
“I love you. If anything happens, or you need ANYTHING, and you don’t call me, you’re going to be in a bed next to your brother. I will be texting you throughout the day to check in, and as soon as I can leave, I’ll be here.”
“Yes, Miss Clarke.” He gave me another kiss and I waved goodbye to Ryder’s sleeping form. He’d probably flip me off if he were awake. With one last look at Lucah, I headed off to work without him, for the first time in a long time.
I called Dad on the cab ride over to the office to ask him if he could call Lucah’s department and tell them that he wasn’t going to be in. I didn’t explain the details, just said that Lucah was under the weather. I didn’t know what to tell Dad about the Ryder situation, but I wanted to talk to Lucah about it before I told anyone else. It wasn’t my story to tell.
“Good morning,” I said to Lilia, trying to smile as if I’d had a full night of restful sleep.
“Good morning,” Lilia said, and then looked up at me. “Are you okay?” She kept her voice down, which I appreciated, but my makeup job apparently hadn’t been good enough, which I did not.
“Just had a long night. Couldn’t sleep. Thinking about too many things.” She nodded in understanding. I leaned closer.
“It’s kind of a long story, but hopefully I’ll tell you later.” She nodded again.
“Understood. Here are your messages and these are the files you were looking for. Your father asked to see you when you have a chance, and Violet left this for you.” I dealt with the Violet thing first. It was a note asking if she could meet with me later. Sure. I’d get right on that. I gathered everything up in my arms and dumped it on my desk. Would anyone notice if I pulled my chair in and crawled under my desk and went to sleep? I considered it, but the pile of things I had to deal with called to me and promised me a mental vacation from the Lucah/Ryder situation, even if it was only for a few minutes.
I sat down in my chair and stretched my neck, cringing. And then my phone rang. So it began.
I sent Lucah texts every fifteen minutes. It was probably excessive, but I couldn’t help myself. He responded to each one, saying that there was nothing new to report, he was fine, he didn’t need anything and Tate and April were there, and Ryder was getting his “spirit” back. That was probably a kind way one of the nurses had put it.
At lunch I considered going over, but Lucah assured me I didn’t have to. He texted me five minutes later and said that Sloane had arrived with takeout for everyone and more clothes for Lucah and more coffee.
She was a saint. I took back any bad thing I’d ever said about her. I sent her a message thanking her from the bottom of my heart. She just sent back a smiley face.
Instead of going to the hospital, I took Lilia out to lunch again, but this time I didn’t want to talk about me.
“So, now that I’ve dumped all my personal crap on you, why don’t you dump some on me?” I said after we’d ordered drinks.
She looked at me as if I’d suggested naked mud wrestling.
“Sorry if that came off weird. I’m running on only a little sleep and pure caffeine.” I’d had about six cups by that point, and it was hard to sit still in my chair.
“Yeah, I can tell. Um, everything’s going good, I guess. My neighbors are going through a nasty divorce, every detail of which I am now privy to. It’s a bit like living next to one of those really bad reality shows.”
“That completely sucks.” So we talked about horrible neighbors and ate our soup and salads and she didn’t ask me once why I looked like crap, and hadn’t slept, or what was going on. I should give her a raise.
“Thanks, for this. I really needed to talk about something else today,” I said on the walk back to the office.
“You’re welcome. I know when to keep my mouth shut. I don’t want to get on your bad side if I can help it.” She had in the beginning, which made me feel awful. I apologized for being a bitch at first.
“It’s not a big deal. I think I needed it. I was just so nervous about working at my first real big girl job and I was so worried I was going to screw it up that I never opened my mouth. Another boss might have fired me, or just given up. You didn’t.” The praise made me blush.
I dropped Lilia off at her desk with another secret project (I’d given her quite a few lately) and headed to see if I could catch Dad. He was out to lunch, but Mrs. Andrews told me when he’d be back.
“Is everything all right, dear?” She noticed the poorly-concealed dark circles. Fucking fantastic.
“Sort of.”
“I, ah, overheard that Mr. Lucah Blythe was not going to be in to work today. I just wanted to know if something had happened.” She asked it in a really nice way, but I knew if I told her, it would get back to Dad and I didn’t want that to happen without talking to Lucah about telling him first.
“Things are going to be fine. They were just rough there for a few hours. I’m not sure if Lucah wants me talking about it, so—”
Mrs. Andrews put her hands up to stop me.
“Say no more. It’s completely personal. I didn’t want to pry, I just wanted to make sure there wasn’t anything I could do.”
Not really. It was up to Ryder.
“No, but thank you for the concern. It means a lot to me, and I know it does to Lucah as well.” Between Sloane, Chloe and Marisol being their fabulous selves and Mrs. Andrews and Dad being so nice about Lucah being out, we had all kinds of support that we never asked for. Funny how you never know who’s on your side until you need someone on your side.