"I'd have believed you indeed hold me dearly," Willem drawled, "if you hadn't avoided my call for the past few days."
"I was busy," Fleur said airily.
"Your photos on Instagram certainly make that apparent."
"Have you been stalking me through Serenity's account? If you have, that's very, very sneaky, and I totally—-"
"Enough, Fleur." Willem's tone was quite mild, but she knew her brother well, and she quieted down in a flash. Some things in life, one would never grow too old for, and that unfortunately included being scared of her big brother. It wasn't that he had ever been cruel, but he had always been intimidating when he was serious...like now.
"I've only called to let you know that Serenity and I will be flying to the States tonight."
What?
"The whole family will be attending Roberta's charity auction."
She couldn't help smiling despite everything. Everyone in their circle knew that "Roberta" preferred to be called Bobby, but it was so like Willem not to use this until he was personally invited to do so.
"You are also participating in this event, yes?"
"Yes, but...can we rewind to the part that you said—-"
"Serenity and I are looking forward to seeing you again, and naturally, I expect Julian to be with you as well. Tomorrow then."
Willem had already hung up before Fleur could pick her jaw off the floor, and she was still staring blankly at her phone when it rang again. It was Nic this time, and after that Anneke, and even Jaak!
Jaak was the self-proclaimed black sheep of the family, and it was with this particular brother that Fleur had struggled the hardest to hold her tongue and not point out the truth: Julian at his worst would still be no match for the way Jaak used to break hearts when he was still single.
What Jaak did to his then-girlfriend Ilse had been beyond the pale, but since he was now also the best of husbands...
Couldn't she hope for the same thing for her and Julian, as long as she made Operation Yuletide 2.0 work?
Her whole life, she had gotten everything she wanted with hard work, prayers, and grit. Hadn't there been a time when a Hollywood director wanted the wildest party ever, and Fleur had risen to the occasion by coming up with a party climax that made even the birthday boy himself blush?
Making Julian fall in love was no different from all of her previous goals, and with that in mind...
Chapter Eleven
Julian could not remember the last time he had felt this irritated. Actually, he couldn't remember the last time he had even taken the time to check anyone's social media feed, but that was how it would always seem to be, where his little flower was concerned.
He should be thinking about his lecture later, but instead his mind was still on the comments he had the misfortune of reading on Fleur's photo.
There was one who had tagged the photo of Julian buying her sanitary pads as #fakenews and #photoshopped, and Julian could not understand why Fleur had yet to delete that piece of shit. Did she want people to believe that she was faking it?
And then there was that other anonymous shithead who insisted that the photo was real, but it was only to throw everyone off in order to hide Fleur's secret relationship with Philippe DeRose. Was that person out of his (her?) fucking mind? Where did that kind of fucking conspiracy even come from, for fuck's sake?
Julian was still in a temper when he walked inside the suite of rooms Helder Meer provided for all of its visiting professors. Today's afternoon class was the only amendment he had asked Fleur to consider in her twelve-day contract; while he could delegate most of his work at the office, his lecture wasn't something he could just as easily find someone to take over.
Lisa, an administrative assistant whom the university had temporarily reassigned as Julian's secretary because of her fluency in Russian, changed her mind about greeting her boss a good morning upon seeing the dark expression on his face.
The professor gave her a swift nod as he walked past her desk, and Lisa collapsed in her seat in relief. At least she had survived that one.
She had seen him furious for a few times now, and since none of it was ever a pleasant experience, she couldn't help but secretly worry for the two women waiting for Julian inside his office. She'd like to think that both women would be the exceptions to the rule, but with her boss, well...one really never knew.
Julian had barely walked inside his office when a husky voice greeting him from the dark nearly gave him a heart attack.
"Good morning, Professor Alexeyev."
He switched the lights open and barely managed to keep his lip from curling. He had known this would happen eventually, but now had to be the worst time for Claudette to take her sexual advances to the next level.