Page 17 of My Thursday Throwback

Chapter 7 – Sorting Through the Rubble

Saturday Evening, LasVegas

The ride out on the motorcycle was the perfect start to the morning. Sharing a nice breakfast in a little out of the way diner looking down on the valley was as romantic as it was quaint. Zelda wanted to know more about her big strong man since he barely talked about himself or his life.

“Scott, you never really talk about your family life. I mean, you know all about my family and my screwed-up life, I don’t really know much about yours other than you were on the road most of your childhood. That and having sex with grown women,” she said with her nose crinkled.

“Nothing much to tell. I came home from living on the road and had some trouble adjusting to so many rules, and my Dad brought in Chandler,” Scott said.

“And how did it come about that the two of you ended up pledging Omega Psi Phi in college?”

“I had to teach Chandler how to be a black American man and he had to teach me how to be a white one. My Dad, bless his soul, knew how to run the museum. He didn’t know how to run the business, so during my teen and college years, my cousin ineptly ran the company until I was ready to take hold of the helm. My Granddad started the Vent Conference and the rest is, I guess, history. After college, I took over the business, and that has been it,” he said, watching her face closely.

“I know all of that, Scott. What I don’t know about is your relationship with your sisters. You said you have nieces and nephews, but you never talk about them,” she said.

“That’s because they are creepy as hell.”

“You sisters or nieces and nephews?”

“Both,” he said, chuckling. “The family resemblance is strong, but Rebekah looks more like my mother. Sarah, who is the oldest of the three of us, is a bit of a busybody who thinks that I’m fragile. My dark phase between the ages of 13 and 15 she believed was because I was heartbroken by a lady love.”

“Which was partially true,” Zelda said.

“No, I was stuck in a house with a shrew of an older sister who took all the energy from my mother’s soul and a baby sister who was entirely too clingy. My dad hid in the museum until dinner time, which left me as the only sane person any of them could talk to,” Scott said. “I resented it, so I hid like my dad.”

“How is your relationship with your parents?” she asked, wondering after spending so much time talking about her own.

“Dad is the proverbial nerd. He knows his way around a hammer much like a rich woman knows her way around a kitchen. He is still cool in my eyes, though. We like to go fishing although he can’t bait a hook. Grayson, his butler, always has to do it for him,” Scott chuckled.

“Grayson?”

“Yes, he has been Dad’s butler, kind of like Chandler has been mine, since he was about 16 or so. Technically, he is retired, but he is so comfortable in his life, and my Dad actually just enjoys his company,” Scott said.

“Let me guess...he’s like family,” she said sarcastically.

“He is family. There is no like. When Dad got sick several years ago, my Mom was out of the country, so was I and Grayson handled everything. He took care of my Dad until we were all able to get home. He saved my father’s life,” Scott said.

“Cool. For that he gets an eternal bed under the stairs,” she said, frowning.

“Zelda, my world is a little different. Grayson’s father was my Grandfather’s butler and so on. His son would have been my butler, but Grayson was unable to have children. It is a symbiotic relationship between his family and mine,” he said.

“Oh, so the Berger’s has continued the indentured servant relationship through the millennia, which sucks ass. I am having some serious reservations about this. Are you telling me seriously, that what? Chandler’s children will be the servants to our children, Scott?”

“I doubt if Chandler will ever have kids,” Scott said.

“You didn’t answer my question,” she said, putting her fork down.

“No. I am not comfortable with having Chandler myself, which is why he is my brother.”

“Brother, my beige ass! I’d bet my neck that Chandler doesn’t see himself as your brother. Have you ever asked him how he feels about being your brother slash servant?”

“I have. He has been free to leave anytime he wishes, but there is something special about the connection and relationship we have, as is the relationship my father has with Grayson,” Scott said.

“Oh, I have got to hear your explanation of this,” she said, folding her arms across her chest.

“Imagine having someone in your life with whom you can be totally yourself. A person you can tell your deepest secrets to without any judgment or recrimination. To know there is one person in the world with whom you are truly yourself is rare. Even as close as you claim to be with Michael, he doesn’t know the real you,” Scott said to her with his bottom lip turned down.

“Michael knows everything about me,” she said defiantly.

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