Elliot
“Earth to Elliot.”
I blink, the guys in front of me coming back into focus.
“Sorry,” I mutter, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Didn’t get much sleep last night.”
“Uh-huh,” Peter mutters suggestively, but I ignore it.
He, Jim, and I are having a quick meeting to catch up on things since I haven’t been in the office as much as usual. Seraphine is in my office preparing things for a meeting I have this afternoon.
I’ll admit, I am tired. But it isn’t the kind of tired that sleep can cure. It’s a different kind of tired, the kind that sits in your bones and your skin and your eyes. It affects every part of you and no matter what you do, nothing fixes it.
It’s been days since the conversation about Seraphine and I telling people about us and I can’t stop thinking about it. Stillcan’t get over the fact that what’s stopping her from wanting to be open with our relationship is my son.Myson.
I’m not giving myself thewhat kind of father are you?talk in my head. No, I’m giving myself thewhat kind of child did you raise?talk instead. And that has nothing to do with how Harrison will take the news. I think most people in our situation would react similarly. It’s a normal reaction, I guess. I accept that, even if I don’t agree or understand why. But what’s really bothering me is that I raised a son that has put fear into a woman. Seraphine is scared of Harrison finding out about us. Not scared of him in the sense that he’ll be aggressive, but she’s terrified he will ruin her life or at the very least, make it more difficult.
The job is just an excuse, just something to make this worse because she doesn’t want me to see how much she’s worried about Harrison. She’s dumbing it down for me, maybe because she thinks it’ll help or maybe because she’s ashamed. Either way, I don’t fucking like it. The only way I’m going to get her to realize that Harrison is nothing to fear is by showing her that she can rise above him. She can overcome whatever it is he throws at her because it doesn’t matter. What matters is us—her and I.
“Let’s catch up tomorrow,” I say, getting to my feet and interrupting a conversation that Jim and Peter were having without me. They both look at me concerned.
“You sure you’re okay?” Jim asks as he stands from his chair.
“Of course.”
We move toward the door, and Peter pulls it open as I take out my phone.
“I’m going to make a phone call. Let Seraphine know I’ll be there in a moment, if she asks.
“Sure thing, boss,” Jim says, and they both leave the conference room. I shut the door, and move to the window, looking out at Seattle as I call my son.
I don’t expect him to answer, and he doesn’t need to. What I have to say will be just as good in a voice message.
I’ve never thought him spoiled before, just privileged. He was never ungrateful for all he had, but he did grow used to it. That is definitely my fault, and not something I ever cared about before. So what if he grew used to a certain lifestyle? It’s not like he was sitting on his ass, doing drugs, and getting people pregnant left and right. He’s in school to become a lawyer. Soon enough, he’ll be making plenty of his own money and won’t need mine any longer.
But this attitude and disregard for other people’s emotions… Where did it come from?
Is Seraphine making him crazy? She’s making me crazy and not even on purpose, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was her. Though, he only has himself to blame for that.
He fucked it up.
“Hello?”
I’m caught off guard when I hear Harrison’s voice on the line.
“I hadn’t expected you to answer.”
“Then why did you call?”
“Guess I’m hopeful,” I comment.
“What do you want?” he asks.
“Since there’s been some time for you to clear your head, I wanted to touch base on what happened at Seraphine’s apartment.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about what I said, Harrison. It wasn’t an empty threat. If you do one thing, and I mean one, even if it’s something insignificant, I will cut you off so fast your head will spin.”
