I'm Fine....Thanks, page 16
“You’re so sweet, Aria. We do appreciate everyone wrapping their arms around us, especially the food. I can’t even begin to get in that kitchen to prepare a meal for the kids.”
The girls didn’t mind living off takeout or casseroles. “Don’t mention it… what can I help you with?”
I dug into my purse to pull out the papers from the motorcycle. “When I tried filing a claim for the motorcycle on the website, it was giving me some trouble. I printed out the pictures of the damages. The mechanic said it’s totaled.”
She whistled. “He is so dang lucky.”
“Don’t we all know it.”
Aria sat down at her desk and started inputting our information in. I could tell she was having some trouble, then figured out the issue soon after. “Okay, I found the issue.”
I leaned forward. “I knew something had to be wrong.”
“Jace inquired about adding the motorcycle onto your policy, but he didn’t actually add it on.” Her finger followed the screen. “The system sent him out a quote four weeks ago, but he never called to add it onto the policy.”
If looks could kill, bring you back, and kill you again, Aria would have been faced down on her desk. I knew it wasn’t her fault, but I was so angry that I needed someone to blame temporarily.
“So, the motorcycle isn’t covered.”
“I’m sorry, Astoria. I know this isn’t what you need to hear right now.”
My heart was speeding so fast that I couldn’t stand up right away. I needed to calm my breathing so I could make it out of here without looking crazy. Once I stabilized my breathing, I gathered my purse.
“It’s not your fault, Aria. Thanks again for informing me.”
The one thing I was banking on was insurance paying us out for the totaled bike. I figured that as soon as they cut the check, I could put it back into the savings account, and we could try to put this behind us. I had already called our bank and removed Jace off the account because he couldn’t be trusted.
Now, we had to eat the loss of the money he spent without my permission, and we were losing even more money because he was going to be out of work until he healed. His job was real good about allowing him the time to recover and even sending things to the house. Since Jace used all his paid time off, he wasn’t collecting anymore while he recovered. His job didn’t offer medical benefits, so we had health market insurance plans, which were crap. All of the surgeries and rehab he would have to undergo would be an out-of-pocket cost or billed to us.
“How was your day, Mom?” Demi asked when she climbed into the passenger seat of my car. Enzo put her instrument on the empty seat in the back and hopped into the back.
“Stressful. How about you guys? I hope you had a better day than I did.” I smiled at Enzo through the rearview mirror.
Demi put her phone away, which was rare. I could always count on her having her head down in that damn phone. “What's going on? Let me be your therapist today.”
As much as I wanted to load all this stress onto my daughter, I didn’t want her to carry my burdens. “How about you tell me about some new boys you met? That would make me feel so much better.”
“Boys are so stupid. I like this Kyle boy, and he acts like he doesn’t notice me… I’m cute… duh?” Every time Demi spoke, she reminded me so much of Harlym.
I knew I would never have any problems out of her. She was so sure of herself and didn’t take any nonsense from anybody. My girl didn’t need any snotty boy to feed her compliments because she was already confident.
“Boys are like that,” Enzo called from the back.
I pulled away from the dance studio. Enzo’s best friends’ mom offered to pick Enzo up and drop her to Demi’s dance studio. “No, stupid boys are. Good boys notice a beautiful girl and don’t pretend not to see them… never settle for a stupid boy that doesn’t see the beauty in either of you.” I looked at both my girls.
“Yes, Mom.” Demi smiled.
“Hear you, Boss,” Enzo confirmed.
Growing up, whenever a boy would hit, kick, or punch us, we were told that they did it because they liked us. As girls, we’re taught to accept the weird or funky behavior from boys because that was how they showed their feelings toward us. Instead of parents raising emotionally mature boys, they allowed this behavior and that transferred into emotionally damaged men. I wanted my girls to always expect the most from a man, so they never settle like I did with their father.
The minute the cute boy on my block started giving me attention, he had me. I never made him work for it, I was so easy for him to have, and that was why he took me for granted every chance that he got. For the sake of wanting to have that young love, I accepted way too much from a man that did the bare minimum.
The girls got out at the end of the driveway to talk with their friends from across the street. Since the accident, they hadn’t been outside or over their friend’s house, so I allowed them time to catch up. Grabbing their backpacks and my purse, along with the other bags from my errands, I entered the house.
“Stori, that’s you?” Jace called from the back room.
“Yes.” I put the bookbags in the mud room and then headed toward the back where Jace was. He was sitting on the bed with the lunch I had given him before I left.
“Did you get the medicine? I’m in so much damn pain and you took your time,” he scolded me.
“Excuse me? I had to pick up the girls and handle the insurance stuff for the bike. Which I found out that we’re not insured for.” I tossed the bag at his bad wrist on purpose.
“Oww. What the fuck, Astoria?” he struggled to reach forward to grab the bag. “I didn’t get a chance to do it because the app was acting stupid.”
“Bullshit. Aria told me all you did was request a quote. We’re out fucking money because you weren’t smart enough to insure the damn bike, Jace!” I yelled, not caring that our girls could walk in at any moment.
“I don’t need to hear this shit right now.”
“Are you serious? You are going to be out of work for God knows how long and don’t have any income coming in right now. Our savings could have been used right now, and now we have nothing.”
“There’s still money in there.”
“Not enough to pay half of our bills. Who is going to cover the football fees and Tyler’s school tuition?”
“Tonya will just have to cover it until I’m able to get on my feet.”
I laughed. “The one who can’t keep her car fixed?”
“You act like you can’t go half on it with her.”
“I’m already paying for both of our daughters to attend private school; I have my office lease and all the other bills it takes to run this damn house. What do you mean I can go half with her?”
I stormed out the room before I punched him in the face next. Whenever I started to feel violent, I always removed myself before I did something I would probably never regret. The girls were seated at the counter when I entered the kitchen, which meant they heard everything.
“Mom, if I need to quit dance for a few months, it’s fine. Me and Whitney could practice in her garage to keep up.”
I sighed and walked over to hug my daughter. “No, baby. You’re going to continue with dance classes. Me and Daddy just had an argument. Everything will be alright.”
Demi snatched away from me. “No, it’s not. Dad is going to be out of work for a while, and that means we’ll see even less of you because you’ll be working more. All because he had to have that stupid motorcycle!” she yelled and ran upstairs.
I didn’t know what to say or do. How could I correct or discipline her when she wasn’t wrong? Jace was the cause of all of this, and I would end up taking more sessions to make sure we could pay all of our bills.
I worked so hard, so I didn’t have to live paycheck to paycheck, and he ruined that for me. He took all the money I had been saving and tossed it down the drain when he decided to make the impulsive decision to buy that motorcycle.
“You better talk some sense into her, Astoria!” Jace yelled from the bedroom. “We’re the parents, not her. Demi gets slick out that mouth like she can’t get that phone taken away.”
“The phone that mom bought?” Enzo muttered.
The urge to high five my youngest was so strong I nearly had to hold my hand down on the counter. “Enzo, go change out your school clothes. How does sushi from your favorite spot sound?”
“Like I’d rather be there than here.” She smiled and hugged me before going up to her room.
Since I had been running around like crazy, I needed to quickly wash up and change clothes before we went out. The girls could sense the tension between me and their father, and I was trying hard to avoid that.
All I wanted was to be in Bray’s arms on that beach. I could smell his strong cologne if I sat in my thoughts long enough. Things happened so fast that I didn’t get the chance to tell him goodbye. Who knows if he was even thinking about me anymore. He probably did this to all the women that frequented his resort. All I did was make it easier for him to ghost me because we didn’t exchange numbers. Unlike me, he was pretty easy to contact with a quick Google search. I could probably find an email or office number to get in contact with him. All he had to go off of was Stori. It wasn’t like I offered my full name.
Then again, he owned the resort, so that was easy information to come by. Either way, it had been nearly two weeks since I had been back from the Maldives, and I hadn’t heard anything from him. Two weeks of having to push clients back because I needed to handle this emergency situation. Jace didn’t realize, or maybe he didn’t care how much he fucked us up.
“Mom, you ready?” Demi came into my bedroom. I guess Enzo told her we were going out to eat.
I put a little bit of my favorite perfume behind my ear. “Yes. I’m ready.” I closed up the bottle and headed out the room with my daughter. A mommy and daughters date was much needed and well deserved.
TEN
BRAY WILLSHIRE
When Laurent bypassed my assistant’s desk and headed straight for my office, I knew it was something important, not that he respected Kimberly’s role in the first place. None of my brothers listened to the rules she set in place when she first became my assistant.
“Is there a reason that you haven’t signed the new offer for the hotel in Paris yet?” Laurent cut straight to the point.
I looked at my watch and logged out of my computer. Today was a half day because I was picking my mother up and taking her to my house. When we spoke in the Maldives, I promised to spend more time with her, and I always honored my word.
“Because none of us stayed at the original hotel to know if it’s a good deal or not.”
Laurent screwed his face up while holding his infamous iPad. I was starting to believe that he slept with that damn iPad every night. “What you mean? We sent the team out months ago.”
“And I didn’t like their response.” I shrugged it off.
“Bro, lose the fucking attitude because you can’t find her. Just ask Ashton to hit her sister up,” he pinpointed exactly what was wrong. “You acting like you can’t call the hotel and get her information.”
“I’m not like that.”
“It would make a cute stalker wedding story when I do the toast.”
“Ha. Funny.” I stared at him with a blank expression.
“I’m not doing it the new way. I want to do it the way that Pops used to do it. He went and stayed at every hotel before he even considered purchasing it.”
“You don’t have time to do that shit though. It was you that came up with this new system because you didn’t want to be away from Kami for long periods of time. If you want to do it the same way as pops, don’t forget about all the birthdays and anniversaries he missed with us and your mom.”
The downside to having it all was that you were going to miss things. My pops always made his presence known whenever he couldn’t be there for an important event. He could be all the way in the middle east, and it felt like he was standing right next to me blowing out my candles.
“That’s not a problem anymore.”
Laurent nodded his head. “Bet. I guess you need to get snappy out there to book you a flight to Paris,” he snorted, annoyed that I was holding up the signing of our newest property.
“I’m taking the rest of the day off to spend the day with my mom.”
“Tell her I send my love,” he replied and headed out of my office quicker than he came. I grabbed my coat and breezed past Kimberly.
“Enjoy your day with Mrs. Willshire,” Kimberly called behind me.
“Thanks, Kim.”
Before my father passed, he and my mother decided to sell our childhood home. They didn’t need the extra space, and it was easier to move into a smaller home within the same community. I was pissed that they decided to sell our home. After my father was diagnosed with cancer and then eventually passed, I felt comfort knowing that she wasn’t in that big house all alone.
The security guard let me through the gates when he recognized me. I cruised down the perfect tree lined blocks with beautiful brick masonry until I came across my mother’s one-story cottage styled home.
Killing the engine, I climbed out of my truck and made my way to the front door. Using my fingerprint to gain access into the house, I sat my keys on the foyer table. “Mama?”
“In here,” she called.
I followed her voice into my father’s office, where she was sitting his favorite chair. “What you doing in here?”
“Looking for my passport.”
“It should be in the safe with all the other important documents.”
She snapped her fingers. “You’re right… it’s in there. Why did I think it was in his desk all this time.” I watched as she rested her back in the chair.
“What do you need it for?”
She fixed her glasses. “Do I need to have a reason to want my passport?”
I smirked. My mother was the most beautiful woman in the world. Nobody could light a candle to the beauty, brains, and class she possessed. Maybe Stori was a close second, but Mom was always number one. All my friends back in the high school used to swear my mother resembled Vanessa Williams. I couldn’t lie and say that I didn’t see the resemblance because mama really did favor that woman.
“Yes.”
She knew I was waiting for an answer, and I wouldn’t drop the subject until I had one. “I was thinking about doing some traveling. We own all these hotels and I never go anywhere now that your father is gone. I need to get out and see something more than this house and the country club.”
When we were younger, my mother didn’t travel much with my father because she was too busy raising us boys and taking care of our home. Once we were all grown, she would slowly travel with Pops, but by then, he wasn’t doing much traveling anymore himself. Now that he was gone, all she had was the small reminders of him all over the home they once shared together. I understood why she would want to get out and travel the world. I would distract her from the loss she had experienced.
“How about you come with me to Paris?”
She gasped in excitement. “Paris? Why are you going there?”
“We’re in the process of buying an existing hotel there, and I want to check everything out before we sign our names on the deal.”
She clapped her hands together. “Just like your father.”
“Trying to be.”
“Baby, you’re on your way. I would love to tag along… it’s been a while since I’ve been to Paris.”
I couldn’t lie and say I wasn’t excited about going on a trip with my mother. The last trip we took together was during my senior trip to Germany. It was a trip that I would cherish for the rest of my life because we made so many memories together. As the oldest, I was always held to a higher standard, and expected to be the strongest one out of all of my brothers, and I played my role pretty well. On that trip, my mother showed me that I was still her baby boy, and I was able to just be Bray, not the oldest Willshire boy.
“I will make sure Kimberly books everything. Is your things packed?”
“Of course.”
We grabbed Starbucks before we got on the highway and headed to Lennox Hill. Kami had been out of town covering a festival in Las Vegas, and she was due to fly in tonight. I enjoyed having the house to myself without seeing her whimper because I didn’t want to fuck or sleep in the same room as her. She thought she could fix our marriage by sleeping beside one another or having enough sex that I would eventually forgive her.
All I thought about was Stori and what she was doing. When reception told me she had checked out earlier than normal, I thought it was because of the night we shared. Maybe it was too much for her. She did tell me she was married and seemed hesitant, and even with all of that, we still took it a step further on that beach. What if she couldn’t face me later on that day and decided to just leave without saying anything.
I could easily make a call and get her information, but I didn’t want to come off like a creep. The best way was to go through Ashton, and I had been dragging my feet about it. Since I had returned, I had been in a sour mood because I didn’t know where my Doc was.
“Are you going to move forward with the divorce?” My mom broke our silence after being on the highway for a few minutes.
“I am.”
“I just really wish there was a way that you both could fix things.” She sighed.
Carol was a natural problem solver. If there was a problem, she would want to fix it right away, so I understood why she wanted to fix the problems between me and Kami. This problem wasn’t hers to fix, so I couldn’t let her stress herself out trying to.
“Mama, I know you want us to fix things, and I wanted to do the same. Sometimes people don’t belong together and that’s perfectly fine. Me and Kami had a great marriage up until she betrayed me, and that’s the memories I want to keep. The good memories.”
“And what about this new house?”
