I could lose Enola and Annie. There was no way I was going to allow my sisters to be lost in the foster care system where they really would be abused.
I needed the adoption to go through.
“Or did you want to go somewhere else?” Tess asked.
“What?” I asked.
“We’re going to eat lunch. The girls are going to calm down, do a little bathroom yoga.”
“Bathroom yoga?”
“Quantum Cyber has very nice bathrooms,” Tess said. “Maeve and I do yoga in there when things get too rough or you’re having a particularly bad day and are being extra ‘I’m going to huff and puff and fire someone.’ So do you want to eat at a restaurant or at Sparrow and Thyme?”
“Holly’s bistro is fine.”
“Awesome! She made lobster bisque for the soup today, and I totally need a whole vat of it. Even though I brought a lunch, I can just eat that for my snack later.”
I couldn’t really eat during lunch.
Tess insisted that Enola and Annie give her the play-by-play of the whole fight. Hearing them describe the taunts and the awful things their classmates had been saying about them—about me, about our family—was sickening. Then they showed her all the messages on the various social media sites, and I felt even worse.
I didn’t feel any better that afternoon. I was pacing around my office when Tess brought me my tea.
“Maybe we need to move,” I said, feeling slightly panicked.
“Why?”
“Because,” I raged, “people are going to think I’m like my father.”
“They definitely are if you pack up everyone and move out to the middle of nowhere,” she joked.
“This isn’t funny,” I snapped.
Tess set the tea down and pushed me into my chair. “You can’t let a bunch of tween girls whip your psyche into a pink froth,” Tess said, rubbing my shoulders.
“There are messages online,” I insisted, closing my eyes and leaning back into her touch. “I need to have lawyers scrub it off.”
“You’re just going to bring attention to the matter,” she warned.
She spun my chair around so I faced her. “I’ll prepare a contingency plan just in case this blows up. The main goal is to make it seem like no big deal, just tween girls being awful, nothing to see here, folks. If anyone asks, we’ll say that those other girls were jealous of Enola and Annie because they’re blond and pretty and have a cool older brother who is more lenient and more engaged with them than their parents, and they don’t have a nanny. Those other girls are just starved for affection, and they act out. It will be no big deal.”
“But what if it is? I have competitors. My brothers’ companies also have competitors. People could drag us through the mud and make everyone think we’re evil like our father.” I stood up to resume pacing. “For fuck’s sake, I’m a single male with two young girls.”
Tess laughed. “Don’t forget you have a fake girlfriend. I will totally make out with you in front of a fancy restaurant if that will make all those busybody Karens shut up. Shit,” she added, “if we really have to up the ante, we can even stage a fake blow-job session in your car.”
The thought of her mouth on my cock was sandpaper on my already rough brain.
I swallowed. “Maybe we don’t need to go that far.”
“Then we’ll just keep it at the make-out session,” Tess said cheerfully.
She is flirting with you!my mind screamed.
I craved the connection, craved Tess because she was the only one who understood.
I reached out and pulled her close to me. “Do you want to practice now?” I offered, voice lowering an octave.
“Uh, um…” Tess said, sounding slightly panicked. “Making out is for emergencies only.”
