Insufferable Proximity

by Z. Stefani

  “It’s down to me and the boss’s son.” she frowned.

  “The horrible Mr. Julian King.” Coco joked.

  “The repulsively horrible Mr. Julian King.” she took a baby carrot from the vegetable tray on the table. “you’d think it’d be easy considering the man spends most of his day having sex with secretaries instead of focusing on work, but he has proven to be quite clever.” she shook her head, wishing she could just throw Julian King off the building and be done with him.

  “Then you know what to do to win.” Coco loved to fuel her niece’s competitive nature.

  “Stop encouraging her Coco!” Sybille shook her head, “Enough talk of work! I’d like to know how that date went last weekend.”

  “What date?” Heaven asked.

  “You know very well which date.”

  “Oh, I cancelled it.”

  “You what?” Sybille slammed her glass of iced tea down and Heaven watched as drops of amber liquid seeped into the tablecloth.

  “I cancelled the date.” she said nonchalantly.

  “Why?”

  “He was weird.” Heaven took a sip of her ice tea.

  “You never even met him.”

  “No, but I talked to him on the phone.” Heaven’s disgust was more than evident in her frown.

  “Only once and it was less than five minutes.” Sybille reminded her.

  “Trust me that was all the time I needed to discover he was a sex-obsessed cornball.” Heaven shook her head in disgust, “Really mother, where do you find these deviants?”

  “But he’s Grace Gerick’s son.”

  “Well tell Grace that her son is a pervert and she should have told him that just because my mother runs a brothel does not mean that I trade sex for cash.”

  “I will have his head!” Sybille roared like a Viking lord. Heaven watched the fury ignite in her mother’s eyes then turned to see her Aunt Coco chewing her lip, a habit she had when plotting revenge. “After all I have done for that woman and this is how she repays me?”

  “I told you not to set them up!” Coco berated her, she was tired of her sister meddling in her niece’s life. Sybille needed to stop trying to force romance down Heaven’s throat and let nature take its course. Heaven was a beautiful woman with a high intellect and a successful career, she would find romance when she was ready.

  “Violet!” Sybille bellowed looking around for her soon to be ex-personal assistant. Violet was proving to be better suited elsewhere in the brothel.

  “I told you there was something strange about Grace.” Coco said in irritation.

  “So she’s a little eccentric, but I didn‘t think her son was a presumptuous pervert.” Sybille was shocked that Grace could spawn such a disrespectful cretin.

  “Well he definitely is.” Heaven nodded.

  “And Darling, you know mother doesn‘t run a brothel.” Sybille corrected Heaven as she fixed her hair.

  “Well whatever you’re calling the sex-shack now.” Heaven replied watching Violet scurry towards them, her pale amethyst colored eyes were rimmed in hot pink and her cheeks were stained with tears.

  “Yes?” Violet sniffled pathetically.

  “I want the entire Gerick family banned from this establishment!” she roared and Violet nodded wiping a tear from her eye. “What’s the matter dear?” Sybille asked, although she had a good idea what was wrong.

  “It’s Antonio,” she cried harder, “he- he broke up with me!”

  “You mean the Antonio you just met last month?” Sybille asked with a frown.

  “Yes.” she answered.

  “The same one you were crying about last week because you found out he was engaged?” Coco raised her brows.

  “Yes.” Violet sniffled.

  “So why are you crying? You should be thankful.” Coco asked in disgust.

  “Because I love him!” Violet sobbed harder.

  “You can get a chocolate bar at the grocery store and get the same effects as that chemical reaction you’re calling love.” Heaven informed her.

  “I don’t know what I’m going to do without him.” Violet cried unabashedly.

  “You were fine last month before you met him.” Coco reminded her.

  “But I need him, I don’t know how to live without him.” she cried over dramatically.

  “If you’re that desperate for companionship,” Heaven turned to her with a frown, “and you don’t mind being shit on, you should just get a dog Violet, at least you can eventually train it to shit on your floor instead of you.”

  “Just go upstairs and get some rest dear, I’ll come up later and we can talk.” Sybille said compassionately as Coco and Heaven rolled their eyes.

  “Alright.” Violet’s crying intensified as she walked away.

  “I had the cook whip up one of your favorites, caramel lava cakes with vanilla ice cream.” Sybille smiled as she changed the subject, “and there are fresh warm chocolate chip cookies.”

  “I told you I wasn’t eating sweets this year.” Heaven replied.

  “I thought that was last year and the year before and the year before that.” Sybille said sarcastically.

  “And this year too.”

  “You need to stop depriving yourself of everything good.” Sybille said in frustration, not understanding the lengths her daughter would go to retain control.

  “Good? What’s good about consuming 3 thousand calories?”

  “It tastes good.”

  “Well it doesn’t look good on my butt after I eat it.”

  “One day you will indulge yourself Heaven Sevigne Deville and you won’t know what hit you.” Sybille just did not know about her daughter, she was uncaring, controlled and unkind. Heaven also happened to be unpredictable and un-malleable at best, nothing like her fun loving mother and her motley gang of outcasts.

  “Well that’s not happening today.”

  “Oh, I almost forgot!” Sybille clapped her hands in excitement, “Shelly and her son are coming tomorrow.”

  “Shelly Ono?” Coco asked in horror.

  “Yes.”

  “Please tell me she is not coming back already, I cannot stand that indecisive idiot.” Coco snapped.

  “What do you mean already? We haven’t seen her in almost two years now.”

  “I know! Isn’t that soon enough, Sybille?” Coco protested.

  “She is coming tomorrow night and you better be nice, Coco.” Sybille warned her younger sister.

  “Bullshit.” Coco replied, not intending to be nice to Shelly.

  “She’s bringing her son, I believe his name is Peter, I think you should meet him Sevigne.”

  “No more dates.” Heaven instantly objected.

  “Just this last one-”

  “Absolutely not! I mean it mother!”

  “Just one little date, Sevigne.” Sybille rarely called her daughter by her middle name, it was usually only when she wanted something or was trying to sweeten her up. Since she refused to be called, Heaven, Sybille in return refused to call her Sevigne, opting instead to call her darling or some other term of endearment.

  “If you ask me one more time I am leaving.” she said.

  “I worry about you.” Sybille could not help herself.

  “Don’t start with that.” she shook her head, ready to leave, “I’m 26 years old, stop worrying about me.”

  “I can’t believe you just told me to stop worrying about you Heaven, you are my daughter.” on the other hand, when Sybille was upset with her daughter she referred to her by her first name.

  “I can’t believe you just called me that, Sybille.” Heaven frowned in exasperation.

  “You do not call me Sybille!” Sybille cried dramatically, as if Heaven had ripped her heart from her chest.

  “Then you don’t call me Heaven.”

  “I named you that for a reason.”

  “A reason still unbeknownst to me.” she stood up, “I have to go.”

  “But you just got here!” Sybille whined, “A
nd you know we are leaving for vacation.”

  “I’ll call you later.” Heaven said before leaving.

  “She gets colder by the year.” Sybille spoke as if she recited a pivotal line in cerebral drama film.

  “She is not cold, she’s business oriented, and there is nothing wrong with that.”

  “Nothing wrong? She is 26 and not only has she never had a date, she seems to hate the opposite sex!”

  “What do you expect? We raised her to avoid men.”

  “Not all men, just the customers.”

  “How was she supposed to know the difference, especially at that age?” Coco shook her head, wishing she had a time machine to go back and re-raise Heaven.

  “If only I knew then what I know now.” Sybille sniffled dramatically, “This is my entire fault.”

  “It’s not your fault, she’s working hard to achieve her dream, she just doesn’t have time for a relationship.”

  “Will I never have grandchildren?” she sobbed dramatically, holding her leopard print silk scarf up to her eyes “is that too much to ask? Is this my payback for raising her in a brothel? I never meant to hurt her I only wanted to give her things we never had, but still she hates me!”

  “She doesn’t hate you, she’s just mad because you called her Heaven, you know she hates that name.”

  “I should have just saved us all the trouble and named her Hell.” Sybille squealed before she stormed off sobbing, her silk robes flowing behind her and emphasizing her dramatic display. Coco rolled her eyes and grabbed a glass of iced tea, enjoying the sudden silence.

  ***

  Another Day, Another Battle

  Ayden King sat behind his desk looking at Heaven and Julian, who sat side by side in the chairs across from him. They sat there silently, their faces trained on Ayden as they waited for him to speak. It was rare for the two of them to be in the same room and not go at each other’s throats, but despite their forced civility, Ayden could feel the thick rage emanating from both of them.

  He never understood why the two of them could not get along, especially since they had so much in common. They were both young hotshot attorneys, both superior to their peers and both so damn intelligent it was intimidating. Ayden had assumed that maybe over the years they would grow to respect each other, but their hatred had only blossomed out of control. They had the same taste when it came to picking cases to defend and seemed to relish battling it out between each other. They both sought the hardest cases, challenging themselves to win where others would fail. Over the years, their war had escalated to a dangerous level, leaving Ayden to suffer with bouts of dread when a new case came.

  Right now things were especially tense between the two of them, they were dueling for the partnership as well as the new Hudson case and they had managed to up the ante once again. It was an irresistible case with a defendant whose innocence would be hard to prove, that very fact alone was driving Julian and Heaven into a frenzied battle.

  Now was the moment of truth, Ayden had decided who would best represent the Hudson case and he knew his decision could possibly start a one-lawyer-riot.

  “I’m giving the case to,” he took a deep breath, watching Heaven’s fingers clutch the arms of her chair and Julian relax, as if he knew he was going to win, “Julian.”

  “I told you I’d win.” Julian smiled arrogantly and it took everything in Heaven’s power not to slap him.

  “No, that’s not fair!” she cried, completely flabbergasted by his decision, “I can win this case, all he wants to do is have sexual relations with Mrs. Hudson.”

  “Sevigne.” Ayden shook his head in fatherly manner.

  “But it’s true, everyone in the cafeteria heard him discussing the proportions of Mrs. Hudson’s behind.”

  “She does have a nice ass.” Julian’s wily grin infuriated Heaven.

  “You see!” she pointed an accusing finger at Julian then stomped her foot, “his libido is too out of control for him to properly defend this case.”

  “Now who is being the spoiled brat?” Julian chuckled. Considering the fact that Heaven was beginning to feel more like a spoiled child than a hard-nosed attorney, Julian’s words infuriated her even more.

  “What did you just say to me?” she was ready to fight.

  “Enough!” Ayden roared and they both stopped speaking, but refused to break eye contact. “I need Julian on this case, he has the experience we need, besides, I need you on a new case.”

  “New case?” both Julian and Heaven spoke in unison as they raised their brows in excitement.

  “Mr. Rob Myers, a member of the rock band “The Dead Men” has been accused of bludgeoning his girlfriend to death.” Ayden handed her the file and Heaven’s temper quickly subdued as the new prospect sparked her interest. “He claims he’s innocent, that someone snuck into their hotel room and murdered her while he was in bed.”

  “Who sleeps through a bludgeoning?” she shook her head as she glanced through the file, her adrenaline racing like ignited gasoline through her veins.

  “A heroin addict, and he claimed he was too high on drugs to commit this murder.” Ayden explained.

  “And what do you think?” she raised her brows in question.

  “I’ve spoken to the members of the band and when they left him an hour before the murder took place, he was too high to lift his head to say goodbye to them.”

  “Piece of cake.” she smiled in satisfaction then turned and gave Julian a dirty look before leaving the office.

  ***

  Heaven walked into the break room, needing to be away from everyone for a moment. Yes, she was happy with her new case, it would prove to be very challenging, just the way she liked it. However, she was not happy with losing to Julian King, in fact, she was quite livid. She stood at the window looking out, trying to bring her anger under control when she heard the voice behind her.

  “If you’re not careful he will win the partnership as well.” Heaven did not bother to turn around, instead looking at Ian’s reflection on the window.

  “He won’t.” she said as she raised her chin haughtily.

  “I hope not.” Ian responded before he slipped back out of the room.

  ***

  Heaven walked into the cafeteria, ignoring the smug look that Julian was giving her. She especially did not have time for his nonsense today, she had a lot of work to do with her new case. She had just started pouring coffee into her cup when Julian walked over to stand beside her. Heaven acted as if he was not even there and Julian frowned when she began dumping packet after packet of artificial sweetener into her cup.

  “It amazes me that someone with such a sour tongue is addicted to fake sugar.” he shook his head, “have you ever tried having coffee with your artificial sugar before?”

  “And I’m surprised you still have a tongue after what you did with Miss Lake in that elevator.” she pursed her lips in disgust, “then again it’s probably rotting as we speak.”

  “Did you watch my tape?” he asked and Heaven adjusted her poker face, refusing to let the comment affect her. “I did things in that elevator that would make your prudish little heart stop.”

  “Better to be a prude than a walking STD slogan.”

  “It amazes me that such a pretty little girl is such a frigid little bitch.” he smiled in satisfaction when he saw her poker face slip for a fraction of a second. Over the three years they had been dueling, he alone knew how much she hated to be referred to as a child.

  “And it amazes me that someone who claims to be such a good lawyer would have to resort to whispering sexual innuendos in the client’s ear to guarantee a win.”

  “How I got it doesn’t matter, all that matters is that I won.”

  “That method won’t work to win the partnership, unless you plan on wooing your own father.” she slowly stirred her coffee.

  “So the little Princess thinks she can beat the big bad King for the position.” He almost chuckled.

  “I will rip
through you like a bull shark as I take my prize.” She challenged him.

  “You’ve only been a lawyer for three years, there is no way you‘ll become partner this quick.”

  “Whether it’s three years or thirty, I’m still a better lawyer than you.” she smirked smugly, “and that’s why I’ll make partner before you.”

  “You’ll never make partner before me.” he chuckled at her audacity.