Sweetest Obsessions - Anthology

by Anthony, Jane

  I considered what she said. I had tried to talk to my parents at the dinner table. My father was pretty sure he was the victim in this scenario, and I was beginning to see how pigheaded he was. How selfish. I never thought of my parents as anything but hardworking, honest businesspeople. But they clearly had even more wealth than I originally thought and had used some questionable tactics to maintain it. Meanwhile, their employees were suffering, being treated unfairly.

  There was no reason my parents couldn’t stay rich and successful and be fair to their employees. But I highly doubted they were going to listen to me if I suggested a compromise.

  “I tried to talk to them tonight at dinner.” I rolled my eyes. “It didn’t go too well.”

  “Then talk to your brothers; get them on your side,” she suggested. “Look, Cy, if you want to make this better…if you want to help Jolie, you need to put in the work. Try harder. Money doesn’t solve everything, you know. Step the fuck up, Cy.”

  “She knows now,” I blurted out. “She knows who I really am.”

  Colleen’s eyes widened as she stared at me. “And how did that go over?”

  “About as well as you’d expect. She really does hate my family, doesn’t she?”

  Colleen smirked as she nodded. “I know she hasn’t been at the park for too long, but they haven’t treated her well. They’ve treated her like an object, not a human being. And they’ve been completely unreasonable about her needing time off to care for her son. Not to mention the medical stuff that hasn’t been covered under their cheap insurance policy.”

  “I didn’t know about her son till today.”

  “Your parents did,” she fired back. “Trust me.”

  That made me angry. My parents had three sons! How could they not be sympathetic to the plight of a single mother of two sons? Especially if one of them had a grave illness?

  Colleen continued, “Jolie hoped that portraying The Red Velvet Queen would get her some visibility. There’s talk about a movie, you know…a live action movie.”

  There had been animated films based on the Sweetopia characters for quite some time. Books first, of course. Then films. My parents had talked about a live action film, but as far as I knew, they hadn’t found a studio or director they wanted to work with. I couldn’t imagine a more perfect Red Velvet Queen than Jolie.

  “So that’s why she wanted to stick it out in the job,” I realized, “despite the bad insurance and benefits.”

  “She feels like it could be her big break, and once she started organizing this protest—”

  “So she is the mastermind,” I interrupted.

  I knew Jolie was headstrong, but she was so young and relatively new at the park. I figured the lead organizer was someone who had been around a while, a veteran. Someone like Colleen.

  “Jolie has the passion, the drive, the personality,” Colleen explained. “I have the experience. We make a good team. She was hoping telling her story to the media would open a lot of doors for her—with Sweet Enterprises and in general…maybe in Hollywood.”

  “I see.” Truer words had never been spoken. Everything had begun to crystallize. I knew what my next steps were.

  I glanced down at my watch, and it was nearing eight o’clock. There was no more that could be done tonight, but tomorrow I needed to pay a visit to our family lawyer and then to my brothers.

  I thanked Colleen for her time and advice then headed home.

  Jolie

  Cyrus Anthony Sweet, are you fucking kidding me?

  Yeah, I made it through the session with Mr. Barry then hightailed it home to do some research. My laptop was a bit dusty, but I fired that baby up and typed “Cyrus Sweet” into the search engine. Hundreds of results appeared. Most of them were about how the youngest Sweet boy was a world-class partier. World class in that he’d been all over the damn world—on his parents’ dime, no doubt.

  “How was River tonight?” my mother asked from the doorway to my bedroom.

  “Hey, Mom.” I angled the laptop screen down to hide my search, though I wasn’t sure why. Instinct, I guessed. “He was tired. We did his homework, and I read him a story, and that was about it.”

  “And your session?” She wore a concerned look on her face.

  “It was fine. Just the usual stuff.” I shrugged.

  “What are you doing now? Shouldn’t you be in bed?”

  “Shouldn’t you?” Sometimes it was hard to tell who was mothering whom around here.

  “Your big meeting is tomorrow, isn’t it?” She stepped a little further into the room. “Is everything set?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, good thing I’m not working tomorrow. I can sleep in a little.”

  “Maybe looking tired and worn out is a better game plan?” She smiled in a way that made me think she was probably joking. She did have a point, though.

  “Yeah, maybe.” I forced a smile. “Are you coming?”

  “Did you talk to Dr. Grimes about discharging River early so he can be there?” She didn’t answer my question.

  I shook my head. “No. He needs to finish out his tune-up. If you don’t want to come with Reed, it’s fine. You guys can stay here. I’ve got this.”

  “You seem upset. What happened today?” She paced toward my bed, where she sat down. It was abundantly clear she wasn’t going anywhere until I spilled it. She could always tell when something was bothering me.

  I huffed out a long sigh as I debated what to tell her. Then I remembered my search on the laptop. I could give her a pretty fast executive summary accompanied by a visual aid. “Remember that guy from work I was seeing? Marcus?”

  My mother nodded.

  “Yeah. So, this is him.” I turned the laptop screen toward her.

  She got up, moving closer to inspect the photos. “Whoa…that’s—”

  “The Sweets’ youngest son, yes.” My face immediately went into my palm before I ran my fingers through my hair.

  “But—”

  “An undercover thing, I guess. I am pretty sure his parents sent him in to get close to me, to try to uncover the plot to organize the strike and boycott.” I blew another breath out as I realized what it all meant. “He never even liked me. He just wanted to out me to his parents.”

  “Wow. Honey, I’m so sorry.” My mom’s eyes were filled with sadness for me. “He seemed so nice. How did you figure it out? What did he have to say for himself?”

  “He actually tracked me down at the hospital. I don’t know how. Pisses me off that he would even try to do that.” I shook my head, trying not to let the anger bubble up inside me again, but it was too late. I could feel rage spiking the blood in my veins. “He offered to pay me double whatever Mr. Barry was paying me if I would cancel my session with him, and when he whipped out his wallet, all the gold and platinum credit cards caught my eye—he’s in his mid-twenties so he shouldn’t have all those—so I grabbed it from him. That’s when I saw his driver’s license. He’s not even British!”

  My mom made a tsk-tsk sound. “That may be the biggest travesty of it all!”

  I couldn’t help but crack a smile. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

  “So what are you going to do?” She patted the space next to her on my bed, and I plopped down on the mattress beside her. She put her arm around my waist and squeezed me to her body.

  “I’m not going to work tomorrow, so I can’t be fired.” I laid my head on my mom’s shoulder as I continued, “And even if they did fire me, that would just make things worse for them when I talk to the press. I’m going to just do my thing tomorrow and hope for the best. Fuck the Sweets.”

  My mom’s laughter filled the room, and for a moment I worried it might wake Reed up. But it was too contagious, and in seconds, I was joining in too.

  Fuck the Sweets.

  15

  Cy

  One errand down, one to go. I parked in the staff parking lot at Sweetopia in my beat-up truck. My cover was blown with Colleen and Jolie, but I didn’t want anyone
else to figure it out. I was hoping Colleen had kept her promise not to tell anyone.

  I used the elevator that required a key to get up to the corporate offices at the top of Cotton Candy Castle. I’d never realized how plush and luxurious things looked up here. I guessed after spending time in so many kitchens and storage rooms, nice stuff was starting to look swanky to me.

  I breezed past Clem and Carson’s secretary. She tried to stop me, not recognizing me in my Marcus Young get-up. I guessed with the pink polo on, I looked like any other park employee. I glanced over my shoulder at her and simply said, “They’re expecting me.”

  Poking my head into Clem’s office first, I announced, “Conference room. Now.” Then I did the same thing at Carson’s office.

  My dad was just down the hall, or he would be, but I happened to know it was his morning to play golf, which meant he was out on the green, not here. The timing was perfect.

  I settled in at the head of the table, the position where my father typically sat. The last time I was in this room was when the entire family nominated me to be the one to go all undercover boss. Oh, how things had changed. Hell, I was supposed to be leaving for Greece in two days, and I had nearly forgotten all about that trip. If things went as I planned, I would still be going. And I wouldn’t be going alone.

  “What the hell is going on? Where’s Dad?” Carson grumbled as he took a seat in one of the leather executive chairs.

  “I thought you were supposed to be down in the bakery. What are you doing up here? You’re going to blow your cover,” Clem added.

  “You’re such a fuck-up, Cy. I knew you wouldn’t be able to pull this undercover boss thing off.” Carson folded his hands together on the surface of the desk and glared at me.

  I looked from one brother to the other and cleared my throat. I had rehearsed this speech on the way over here, and I wasn’t backing down. “How much do you like your jobs here at Sweetopia?”

  Clem furrowed his brows. “Well, it’s not bad as far as jobs go. It’s not like we do that much.”

  “You do know that Dad is planning to retire and turn the park over to the three of us next year, right?” I continued.

  Carson spoke up with his normal know-it-all attitude. “Of course we know. But I think you mean turn it over to me and Clem. I’m pretty sure you’re getting written out of the will after the stunt you’ve pulled.”

  “Both of you need to listen really closely to me,” I said, leaning toward them. I took a deep breath before laying all my cards on the table, “The Sweetopia employees have arranged a press conference tonight at The Roost starting at five PM. One employee will be telling her story about unfair treatment and accusing our parents of some pretty heinous things, including not adhering to the FMLA. She has a pretty compelling story about the terrible health insurance we offer employees too. Her son has cystic fibrosis and is in the hospital as we speak.”

  “Are you talking about The Red Velvet Queen?” Carson questioned. “You fucked her, didn’t you?”

  “Of course he did!” Clem laughed.

  “It doesn’t matter who it is.” I could tell they were not taking me seriously—a problem that had been going on my entire life. No one took me seriously. I was just the baby. What did I know?

  “This is not going to bode well for Mom and Dad,” I warned them. “Or for us. We need to go to the press conference and offer to do everything in our power to help our employees.”

  Carson rolled his eyes. “If they don’t like working here, they are welcome to get other jobs. It’s not like we’re forcing anyone to work here. Do you know how many applications we had for The Red Velvet Queen when we let the old lady go?”

  Old lady. Wow. What a fucking tool, I thought to myself. Did I used to sound like that? Had I changed?

  “How many of those applicants would have made a good Red Velvet Queen?” I questioned. Their faces were blank. “How many would have made even a passable Red Velvet Queen?”

  Neither of them said a word.

  “I don’t think you guys are taking this seriously enough. They are calling for a strike. A boycott. There are a) not going to be any employees to run the park and b) no one is going to even come because once the public finds out how we’re treating a single mom with a terminally ill kid, they are not going to show up. Mark my words.”

  Clem ran his fingers through his dark hair before settling his gaze on me again. “Have Mom and Dad made an action plan? They know this is coming, right?”

  “Of course they do,” Carson retorted. “This is not going to be a big deal. Dad’s been talking to his PR guy, and he said there may be a few days of lower attendance, but it won’t last. It’s just a storm. It will blow over.”

  “I think you guys are underestimating Jolie Cox,” I warned them. “She is going to tug at the heartstrings of every single person in Florida—in America—with her story.”

  “Just because she’s tugged at your heartstrings doesn’t mean anyone else is going to care.” Carson delivered his snarky remark with a proud smirk then looked toward our brother for his approval.

  Clem nodded. “Besides, we have the scoop on Jolie Cox, anyway. Dad’s PR guy has done a little digging into her past, and she has not one but two baby daddies, dropped out of college, had an arrest for possession when she was in her early twenties, and not only that—here’s the real clincher, folks—she works as a professional dominatrix.”

  “How did you find that out?” I blurted, feeling my blood rush to the surface of my skin. I had only found that out myself the day before. They knew all this time?

  “We’ve had her followed, how else? Dad knew there was a pretty strong possibility she was involved in this. Why do you think he placed you in the bakery down the hall from her throne room? He knew you would try to get in her pants. He put you close to her so you could shut her up. Too bad your loyalty is to some skank and not the family!” Carson bellowed.

  “Fuck you,” I shouted back as I stood to my feet. I didn’t have to listen to this.

  As I headed to the door, Carson shouted, “You better think carefully about who you side with on this, Cy. I know you’re Mom’s favorite and all, but Dad will cut you off so fast you won’t even feel it until you’ve bled out. He can drain every single one of your bank accounts in a heartbeat.”

  “That must have been some damn fine pussy,” Clem added, “for you to betray your own family like that.”

  I wasn’t listening to any more insults. I had better things to do.

  Jolie

  I couldn’t deny that I was nervous. Seeing Colleen in the room when I entered helped, and then Buster and Ellie came into view as well. I still wasn’t very happy about seeing Ellie and Marcus—ahem, Cy—together, but it wasn’t her fault. She didn’t know I was seeing him. Glancing around, I saw there were dozens of other full-time employees from Sweetopia in the room too, all ready to cheer me on as I went to bat for all of us.

  Colleen and Buster had set up a table at the front of the room with a few chairs. We each had a bit of a story to tell. Buster had been discriminated against because he was gay. The Sweets warned him that he was not to interact directly with any of the park guests. Colleen was going to talk about how she’d been screwed out of a promotion to the administrative offices because of the time she’d taken off when her husband had surgery a few years before.

  Almost everyone in this room had a story to tell about how the Sweets had personally affected them—and not in a good way. We were poised to paint the Sweets as a family-unfriendly company despite making their fortune under the guise of a family-friendly amusement park. The irony was something both the press and the public were going to eat up, and I couldn’t wait.

  As I settled in my chair at the center of the table, I looked up to see my mother enter the room along with Reed. I hated the fact that River wasn’t with her, but I couldn’t see having him discharged early from the hospital or exposing him to all the germs that might be lurking here. Reed was holding something tha
t looked like a tablet, and he approached the table where I was sitting with it gripped tightly in his small, pudgy hands.

  “Hey, Mom,” he said, stopping right in front of me.

  “Hi, baby, what’s up? What do you have there?” I looked into my son’s wide blue-gray eyes, hoping he understood how important this moment was, how I was doing all of this for him and his brother.

  “Hey, Reed, how’s it going?” Colleen asked and held her hand out for a high-five, and Reed quickly slapped it before smiling over to Buster, who waved and also asked for “five.”

  “Mom, Grandma got me this tablet so I can video the press conference. We’re going to live-stream it to River in the hospital.” He looked down at the tablet, pressed a few things, then held it up. “Say hi to Mom,” he spoke into the microphone.

  He turned it toward me, and sure enough, there was River in his hospital bed. I looked behind him and saw that my sister and her two kids, my aunt and uncle, my two cousins and all their kids were standing there with him. They must have driven down from Fort Myers to be part of this.

  With tears forming, I looked across the room to my mother, who had matching tears in her eyes. She had set all of this up so that River could be part of this, and so he wouldn’t be alone at the hospital. His face was beaming with excitement; he loved being around his cousins.

  “Hi, River! Oh my gosh, you have a full room there, don’t you?” I gushed, my gaze sweeping from my precious baby boy to all the smiling faces of my family members.

  “We can’t wait to see you on TV, Mom!” he cheered. “You’re gonna be awesome!”

  “Are you nervous?” my aunt asked, looking down into the camera on River’s tablet.