ChapterFour
WALSH
“You know, if you had Nadia, things like this wouldn’t happen.”
“What did you say?” I ask my office manager, who looks up from her tablet and blinks.
“I said that if you had audio, things like this wouldn’t happen.” She shakes her head and goes back to uploading my files. “I don’t know how the owner of a billion-dollar company can use a busted tablet with no sound to run things.”
God, I’m losing my mind. Everywhere I look, something reminds me of last night and that doe-eyed girl that looked at me like I was her savior. That barely legal girl, I remind myself. What is it about her that has shaken me up on the inside and now I can’t seem to let the thought of her go?
“Maybe I don’t like change,” I grumble, turning around in my seat and staring out the window.
“Heh.” Her laugh is humorless, but I don’t take the bait. Louanne just wants to poke at me, which I’m pretty sure is her favorite pastime. Since her husband retired last month, I’ve turned into her emotional punching bag. “Don’t like change? Hell, Walsh, you avoid it like an angry skunk is chasing you up a tree.”
“I don’t even know what that means.” I glance over my shoulder and smile at her. “Isn’t it about time you retired and stayed home to annoy Stan all day?”
“You wish.” She keeps poking at the tablet until she finally looks up over the rim of her hot-pink reading glasses. “What’s up your butt today? Did that boy of yours throw a party?” When I don’t answer, she nods to herself. “I’m not going to say I told you so.”
“Why? You know you want to.”
“Fine, I told you so. Now slap a return to sender sticker on his ass and call it done. That kid has been nothing but trouble since he showed up, and your sister damn well knew it was going to happen.”
“I know,” I sigh because she’s right.
“You came back early from a vacation that was supposed to be about rest and relaxation. So explain to me why you came home without even a hint of being relaxed or rested?” She cocks her head to the side and waits, but I know that’s a rhetorical question. “Look, Walsh, I’m just gonna say it.”
“Has there ever been a time when you didn’t?”
She pretends to scowl at me but goes on. “I don’t need to be here. The reason I keep coming to work is so that you’re not alone. You don’t want to face the fact that you’ve created an empire that doesn’t need you and that you’ve got nothing left besides this.”
“Jesus, Louanne, could you at least pretend to soften the blow?” She’s not wrong, but she’s never actually said the words out loud before. I’ve thought about it somewhere in the back of my mind, but I’ve always shut that down too.
“Sugar-coating isn’t my strong suit, which is why you hired me.” She stands up and puts the tablet on my desk in front of me. “You want my advice?”
“I have a feeling I’m going to get it even if I say no.”
“Get out of here, take that boy back to his mama, and live your life, Walsh. You’ve wasted prime baby-making years in these four walls. I suggest you go find yourself a young woman and get at it.”
“Oh my god.” I put my face in my hands and try to pretend she didn’t just tell me that.
“I’m gonna go home and make Stan rub my feet. And I better not see you here tomorrow.”
“I’ll do my best,” I say before my office door swings shut.
I don’t know how she can see right through me, but it’s probably all the years we’ve spent together. She’s never pulled punches, but I’m surprised at her telling me to go have some babies.
I get my phone, check the time, and grab my keys. She’s right about one thing for sure, I’ve got to send Kyle back to his mom’s. After I dropped off Nadia last night, I came back home and found him passed out on the game room couch. I woke his ass up and tried to get him to tell me what happened with Nadia, but he just mumbled something about her being a bitch. I wanted to strangle him, but he was so drunk he wouldn’t have known. So I waited until this morning when I knew he’d be hungover, and I barged into his room blaring a horn.
He tried to say it was all a misunderstanding, and I told him that he owed her an apology. I also told him he’s lost his privileges with the car so I’d be the one taking him to and from school for the remainder of the year. That got his attention.
After he whined like a brat, he got in the passenger seat of my car, and I drove him to school. I told him if he wasn’t on time for pickup this afternoon he could kiss his cell phone goodbye.
Louanne is right that I need to send him back to my sister’s. This isn’t the first time he’s pulled shit like this or even the tenth time. Nothing is getting through to him, so maybe it’s time to let him fail on his own so he can figure it out. I have a feeling he’s going to take the first flight out of LA to Greece to be with his dad, but that would be a rude awakening too. His father is living off his wife's inheritance, and I don’t think he’s prepared to have Kyle cut in on that.
On the way to the school, I call my sister and tell her his time with me is coming to an end. She’s not surprised at all and says she will talk to him tonight about finishing his classes and coming back to live with her. It’s a little weight off my shoulders, but I’ve still got to get through this last bit of school with him. I know somewhere deep down inside of me, I love the kid, but he’s turning out to be a pretty shitty nephew.
When I get to the front of the school, I pull up to the curb and wait. Not many kids’ parents pick them up because this is one of the most expensive private schools in the city. They usually have chauffeurs waiting to take them home, but that’s not my style. Checking the time again, I see that he’s about to be late.