by Kasey Krane
“This is good, Keira. This is great! These people have all requested to work with you specifically.”
I couldn’t force myself to smile.
“What does this mean? Are you saying I don’t have to work with Everett Baker anymore?” I asked. I tried to hide the way my hands were shaking in my lap. Thankfully, George didn’t seem to notice.
“He says he’ll get in touch with me if he thinks he needs our services. For now, the cameras are kinda leaving him alone and he just wants to maintain a low profile and let it all die a natural death. I agreed with him. Most likely, he doesn’t need us anymore, and it’s all thanks to you.”
Sean agreed to have lunch with me and I met him on campus at one of the cafeterias.
“You look worried,” Sean said as we brought our trays of food over to one of the tables.
“I’m just wondering how you’re doing.”
“I’m fine, Sis. You know you don’t need to worry about me.”
I hadn’t brought up the subject of Everett with him yet and I didn’t even know if he wanted to talk about it.
“Did you see the photos?” I asked sheepishly.
Sean looked confused at first and then a look of realization entered his eyes and he smiled faintly.
“Are you talking about those photos with Everett?”
Of course he’d seen them. Everyone in town had seen them. Probably everyone in the country had.
I hung my head down, embarrassed. This was all my fault. I was the one who had put my brother in that position and there were no excuses.
“I’m sorry Sean, about all the things they’re trying to say in those pictures.”
He shrugged and looked away.
“Will you believe me if I say I didn’t plan it like that? I genuinely didn’t expect the two of you to go for a walk together. I should’ve thought of the cameras but I didn’t.”
“It’s okay.”
“No, I know it’s not okay. I don’t want you to feel like I’d use you like this. In such a cheap and degrading manner.”
“I know you wouldn’t.” Sean looked up at me and I really hoped I wouldn’t tear up. He wouldn’t have wanted to see me like that. “I know you didn’t plan it.”
“It was all him,” I said.
Sean chuckled. “What are you talking about?”
“It was all his idea, not mine. I didn’t even know he had this up his sleeve.”
“You think Everett did it on purpose? To get them to take photos of us together.”
“Who suggested the walk?” I asked.
Sean ran a hand through his hair. “He asked if I wanted to get some donuts. He said he knew a place, so we walked there. I was happy to just spend some time with him. I thought he was a pretty cool guy.”
I nodded, feeling a fresh wave of anger take over me again. I was right about him.
This was his plan.
“I’m sorry Sean, I wish I knew he was going to use you.”
“How did he plan it?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he got the idea the first time he went over to your apartment. Maybe he wasn’t happy with my campaign and wanted to do something more impactful. I don’t know. From the photos, it’s pretty obvious to me that he knew those photographs were being taken, and he almost posed for them.”
Sean remained silent. I knew this was difficult for him to hear.
“I thought he genuinely wanted to hang out with me. I thought we had things in common.”
“Everett Baker doesn’t care about anyone else but him. That is what they’re all like.”
“Rich people, you mean?” Sean asked.
“Especially people with that kind of money. I’m sorry, I don’t know how to fix this. Hopefully, the spotlight will turn away from you and people will eventually forget it.”
“But I’ll always be that guy in the wheelchair. The guy to be pitied.”
“Sean, that’s not who you are.”
“Only my sister seems to think so.”
Sean blinked hard and I sensed him trying to keep the tears out of his eyes.
I reached for his hand and he let me squeeze it.
“I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to forgive myself for doing this to you,” I said.
“It wasn’t you. You didn’t do anything to me.”
“I was the one who brought him into your life.”
Sean drank his orange juice and shrugged.
“And it was fun hanging out with him. That’s the way I’m going to look at it. I’m not going to think about those paparazzi photos taken out of context by the media. Even if I don’t see him again, I’ll think of him fondly.”
My throat was dry as I stared at my brother. I couldn’t believe what he said—was it really possible to have such a big heart? To forgive, forget and move on, no matter what?
“You’re a bigger person than I am,” I whispered.
“Are you calling me fat?” Sean remarked with a laugh, I had to smile too. It was nice to see he still had a sense of humor through all this.
“Okay now, can we just talk about anything except Everett Baker?” I declared.
I didn’t want to dwell on him. With any luck, I wouldn’t have to see him again. Sean’s forgiveness of Everett had maybe calmed me a little too. Maybe I didn’t have to hate him with this much fury. Maybe it was possible for me to forgive him. After all, he was only trying to protect himself from the pitchforks on the internet.
I just hoped someday he’d look back on this and regret his actions and decisions. That he’d regret losing me.
Twenty-Four
Everett
All of a sudden, before I could even make sense of it, I worked harder than I had ever worked before.
Night and day, I felt like I worked around the clock, twenty-four-seven, trying to get up to speed with everything that made our business function. After two weeks of immersing myself in the work, I’d still only scratched the surface.
Now I was involved in it myself, I had a newfound respect for my father and the amount of effort, blood and sweat he’d put into making the company successful. Keeping the legacy going wasn’t going to be an easy task, but I began to feel like maybe I was up for it. Maybe I wasn’t such a lost cause after all.
I told myself disconnecting from Keira had been the right thing to do. She’d served her purpose, right? She had been hired by my family to do a particular task and that task was completed. So I didn’t have any other use for her.
More importantly, the fact she’d used her brother and his disability to gain brownie points with the paparazzi and the idiot trolls on the internet—diminished her in my eyes.
Maybe the world viewed me as a jerk, but that wasn’t what I was about.
I felt bad for Sean. I wished I could go over to him and tell him exactly how I felt. Was her relationship with her brother all an act? Did she use him with all her clients? Were they even related? Was he even really disabled?
A lot of radical thoughts crossed my mind in the weeks after I stopped seeing Keira. Most of them were probably brought on by the intense sleep deprivation from working so hard. Maybe going sober had something to do with it too.
It felt like it had been a long time since I had thrown one of my legendary wild parties.
I was in my empty house that evening, nursing a can of soda because I had an early meeting the next morning. I really hoped to hit the sack soon and get some sleep tonight because I needed it.
But every night was the same damn story. When I closed my eyes, I saw her face. I saw Keira with her long blond hair, her endless legs, her tiny waist. I saw her smile and the way her blue eyes shone. The lips I had kissed and still wanted to kiss.
I didn’t want to want her, but I knew what I felt for her was more than just desire. They were the kind of feelings I thought I was incapable of.
My friend Marcus showed up with two bottles of vodka.
“Hey man, I was worried about you. You haven’t been around lately,” he said, walking st
raight into my house.
I was just about to head up to my bedroom, and Marcus looked like he was ready to party.
“Yeah, I’ve been busy. Work. Family.”
“New girlfriend,” he said with a chuckle.
My family and friends, the ones who knew me best over several years, had figured out pretty quickly that my relationship with Keira was purely for the sake of the cameras.
I smiled faintly at him while Marcus went to the living room. The vodka bottles were tucked under his arms and it didn't seem like he’d noticed me trying to get him to leave.
“Where is she now?” he continued when I joined him at the bar.
I shrugged. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen much of her lately.”
“Yeah, and you’ve been getting less media attention too. It’s like they’re only interested in you when she’s around.”
“I want to be left alone, so this is good.”
“Yeah, this is great. This means you can go back to your normal life.” Marcus sounded enthusiastic as he filled two shot glasses with the vodka.
“I don’t know man, I’m getting pretty involved in the business.”
Marcus waved a hand in the air.
“Yeah, I’m on the board of my father’s company too. Whatever. You don’t actually have to work.”
“Actually, I do,” I stated.
Marcus clinked his shot glass with mine while I was less enthusiastic, still trying to figure out if I wanted to have a drink tonight.
Who was this voice in my head reminding me to go to bed early? Who had I become? Marcus would’ve laughed uncontrollably if I told him the truth about the thoughts running through my head.
“Why don’t I make a few calls and we can get some people in here?” Marcus suggested. He’d already pulled his phone out.
I could’ve stopped him. I could’ve kicked him out. This was my house after all, and I needed to sleep. I needed peace and quiet so I’d be fresh and resourceful at the meeting tomorrow.
But I didn’t stop him. I wasn’t looking forward to going to bed and thinking about Keira again. Longing for her when I knew I couldn’t have her. Knowing she wasn’t the woman for me because I’d misjudged her. Because there was nothing she gave a fuck about other than her career and succeeding.
And I cared about integrity. Doing the right thing.
“So what do you say?” Marcus asked again, interrupting my thoughts.
I looked at him and shrugged, then emptied the shot down my throat. Making the decision hadn’t taken long at all. I knew I needed to revisit the old days, I needed a taste of what my life used to be.
“Yeah, make the calls,” I said.
Twenty-Five
Keira
I arrived at work the next day feeling like I was walking on stilts. Like I’d lost all control of my limbs. I hadn’t been sleeping well. Every night, when I turned off the lights and my head hit the pillow, all I thought about was Everett and how I wished he was there next to me.
No man had made me feel like that. No man had made me feel like I could have a life beyond my responsibilities.
And all of it had been a lie.
I wished I had the same strength Sean did. The way he was able to simply forgive Everett and the harm he had caused him, and just move on. Sean cherished the short time they’d spent together, instead of dwelling on the negative impact Everett had on his life.
I wished I could do the same, but I couldn’t.
And the real reason for that was because I was in love with him.
Maybe I’d fallen in love with him the first day I saw him lying in bed, sleeping, completely oblivious to my presence in his bedroom. He looked so vulnerable that day.
“Oh good, Keira, you’re here!” George barked at me from his office door.
I went over to him and stepped in.
“Hi, everything okay?”
It didn’t seem like it was. In fact, it seemed like George was having a mini panic attack. He went back to sit at his desk in front of his computer and tapped his fingers on the desk repeatedly.
“I feel like we need to do something about this. It could cost us a lot of new clients. New clients they referred to us. We can’t allow this slip up.”
He was almost speaking to himself, so I walked over to him to look at what was on his screen.
A collection of tabs were open on his computer. I saw Everett’s name splashed across the screen. There were videos and photos.
George sat back in his chair, giving me complete control of his computer.
I was curious because these weren’t videos or photos I’d seen of Everett before. I had no idea what they were and felt a little jittery as I clicked on one.
The quality wasn’t great because the video had been taken from some distance. Whoever had captured this did so from some distance, zooming in and out. The lighting wasn’t great either. I recognized Everett’s house immediately. The scene unfolded around the pool area. There were a lot of people there, the music was very loud. Drinks were passed around. Skimpily dressed girls were jumping into the pool, squealing with joy. The camera panned and a couple was caught having what practically looked like sex on a deck chair. My heart dropped because the man’s face wasn’t visible and I thought it was him. He was still fully clothed so I couldn’t see his body.
And I thought I was watching a video of Everett having sex with someone else.
But it wasn’t. The man looked over his shoulder and I knew it wasn’t him.
I pressed my eyes close and breathed a sigh of relief, hoping George didn’t catch me doing that. I didn’t need anyone else knowing exactly what I felt at that moment.
I stepped away from his computer and turned to George. He sat there biting his nails.
“What’s all this?” I crossed my arms over my chest. I didn’t need to see anymore. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to stand it.
“This was all recorded last night. Videos and photos. At Everett’s house.”
I knew that already.
“It looks like a party,” I said.
“A very wild party. Probably his wildest. Too much alcohol. Too many drugs. Things apparently got pretty crazy there.”
I breathed in deeply, trying to think calmly.
“Okay, and someone took footage.”
“Lots of footage. Lots of pictures. This stuff never goes down well with the trolls on the internet. Just when Everett’s reputation was on the road to being restored, now they have something new to attack him with.”
Shit.
I should have known he wouldn’t be able to hold out for very long. Didn’t he know how much was at stake? Hadn’t he done enough damage by using my brother to swing the votes in his favor? And now he was throwing it all away.
“Did they capture him doing…anything?” I asked, trying to choose my words carefully.
“That’s the thing. He doesn’t really appear in the videos or the photos. He’s there in the background in some of them, but he’s not doing anything. Just sitting having a drink by himself.”
My stomach dropped. That didn’t sound like the Everett Baker I thought I knew.
“So people have a problem with him throwing a party?” I heard the defensiveness in my own voice.
“They’re wondering where you are, and the good-guy-decent image he was on the way to build has come toppling down. It’s become pretty clear to everyone he’d done all that just to hide his lifestyle.”
Things were getting very tricky here. If people smelled blood and came after him because of this one wild party, things could go down for Everett. His reputation was hanging off a thread already and he may have snapped it last night.
“Any ideas?” George asked while I stared at the wall behind him.
I didn’t know what to say. I thought I’d made up my mind—I wasn’t going to associate myself with Everett, not after the way he’d used my brother. And now it looked like that betrayal wasn’t even worth it.
Gone to waste.
&
nbsp; “I don’t know. I guess I need to see him, speak to him, figure out what is really going on.”
“But it’s salvageable, right?” George asked.
I turned and went towards the door, ready to leave.
“Everything is salvageable if you know how to spin it,” I replied.
When I arrived at Everett’s house, Tate Baker, his brother, was already there.
There were also two older ladies in uniforms who looked like they were housekeepers and they were clearing up the place.
I walked through the door. Tate stood at the end of the foyer and he heard my heels clicking on the marble floor and he turned.
“Oh, it’s you,” he said.
I couldn’t tell if he was disappointed or relieved.
The women picked up trash. Bottles, empty packets of food and snacks. I saw discarded lines of cocaine on the surfaces in the living room.
I followed Tate around as he looked into every room. Neither of us spoke. We were both just allowing the reality of the situation to sink in.
“Where is he?” I finally asked.
Tate brushed his hair with his hand. “Up in his room, sleeping it off I guess. I just managed to kick everyone else out. There were people literally passed out on the edge of the pool. We could’ve had some serious accidents on our hands.”
“Why…what happened?”
“I don’t know. I thought he was doing well. He looked like he was doing a lot better. The meeting with the shareholders had gone well. He was getting involved in the business. He seemed genuinely interested in getting serious.”
Hot tears pricked my eyelids while I tried to keep it together. I thought he was doing well too. I thought he’d be absolutely fine without me.
Tate looked up at me, pushing his hands into his pockets dejectedly.
“Nothing seems to be working with him. None of us thought our parents’ death would affect him like this, but it has. He has gone over the edge and I don’t know if there’s any coming back from it.”
