Page 31 of The Enemy

“All fun and games?” I managed to ask, trying my best to keep the fury out of my voice.

He straightened up with a dopey grin on his face. “Your stepsister is a cunt, you know that.”

My gut clenched with shame. This was my fault. My actions had consequences. By acting like Lou was nothing to me, I made this idiot think she was fair fucking game.

It only took one second to make my next decision. I hated it. I hated how it made me feel weak and complicit, but at that moment, I knew shoving my fist through Tatum’s face would only give me a small reprieve.

Sun Tzu said it best. Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer. And Tatum had become an enemy, but I wanted him at my side as I stripped him of everything his parents gave him.

Unlike Wes and me, he was content with being handed what his parents worked so hard for without putting much effort on his part.

When my hand touched his shoulder, I squeezed harder than was considered friendly.

“Come on, bro, I think you’ve had a bit too much to drink,” I said.

Tatum smiled at me and made his way back inside, and the only reason why I didn’t have his blood on my hands was because I was about to be his confidant, and then I would be his ruin.

Only I was allowed to break Lourdes. How dare he try to ruin what I kept trying to remold?

I left the party shortly after fighting the urge to go and stay at the house. Nothing good would come of it. Through the years, I’d learned that it was better for Lou and me to keep our distance.

Her family had welcomed me with open arms, but I didn’t like the way Gerald used me to try and punish her. I had enough of that shit with my own siblings I didn’t want anyone else to carry that burden. It was an impossible crux to carry.

My mother was another story.

I loved her, hell, she was the only person who had ever been in my corner. I’m not saying I was blind to her faults, but Lou wasn’t anything to me, so how could I go against the woman who had given me everything for someone who was nothing to me? If anything, that fight fell on Richard, and contrary to what my mother thought, he wasn’t wrapped around her manicured finger, which worried me.

As for Lou, she could give it back as well as she got it. She had a fucking sharp mouth on her and wit for days. I’ll admit that sometimes I found myself provoking her because there was something fascinating about watching the way she lit up in anger.

Most people got flustered when they fought with someone, but not Lou. She came alive and had the cute habit of always wanting to have the last word no matter what.

The drive to my condo was agonizing when, with every intersection, I kept talking myself out of turning toward the house. It was probably the guilt that kept eating at me.

When I got to my place, I noticed the sage green box I had forgotten I had picked up earlier. When I saw Lou on Monday, I knew Richard and I were thinking along the same lines.

My mind wasn’t on our overseas branch's mess, not even on the upcoming deadlines. It was all about Lourdes and how I would make Tatum pay for what he did to her today.

Lourdes did not showup to the office on time. My anxiety got the best of me, and I kept reminding myself that after the night she had, it would be okay for her to call in sick. Then, another part of me wondered if she should be alone at this time. She had no family she was close to.

You’re not close with her, either.

Regardless, I owed her for last night. I felt like shit because Tatum walked away scot-free—at least for now. The board wouldn’t understand if she missed her first Friday at work, and I had every intention to cover for her. I’m sure between Richard and I we could make something work.

My morning consisted of one phone call after another, followed by a long list of emails that had to be answered before we closed for the day. Luckily, my meeting to report on Lourdes was right before lunch, and everyone had been so busy with end-of-the-week tasks and the crisis overseas that they didn’t care much about Lou.

We would have been fine if my mother hadn’t wanted to start some bullshit.

It's funny how, at this moment, I think of Lou and me as a team when it was usually my mother and me against the world. I had lunch with my mother in her office while she talked about some charity she wanted to donate money to so she could be considered for their board of directors later on.

After lunch with my mother, I went straight to the elevators because I needed to get back to my office, and it wasn’t becauseof all the shit I needed to get done. I was hoping Lou would have shown up at some point.

When I stepped into the elevator, I heard a set of heels coming right after me. I turned around to move to the side, but I was frozen when I saw Lou trying to get inside.

She was in all black today. A silk long-sleeved blouse tucked into a long flowy skirt, and on her feet were a pair of kitten heels. I would have said she looked fine if it wasn’t for how tired her eyes looked.

For the first time, I was at a loss for words out of fear that I would cause her more pain, which was weird because hurting each other was what we did best. The sage green package was on my desk, and now that she was here, I didn’t even know how to approach the subject.

The door closed, and it was just the two of us.

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