Accidentally in Love, page 26
If, of course, she really was in love with him.
Because at that precise moment, he had his doubts. He’d made his feelings clear to her weeks ago, but she’d given no sign of wanting to explain what she felt in turn. If he’d known he would have ended up at such a psychological disadvantage, he would have done his best to keep his mouth shut during that famous tango lesson. It was all the Argentinians’ fault – they should never have invented such a sensual dance. As soon as the music started playing you got to feeling romantic.
“Ethan, we have to go. Really,” she reminded him with an indulgent smile. “But we’ll have plenty of time to talk about it. I’m not going anywhere.”
He gave in to the inevitable, put on his grey suit jacket and sighed before opening the front door. “Because runaways always warn you before they make their escape…”
Preferring not to answer, she pushed him out of the door.
*
Ethan had accepted the lunch appointment because, for the first time in his life, he was going to take responsibility for one of the stupid things he had done. He had to start somewhere, and Turner wasn’t the easiest place, but he’d promised Sara he was done with taking shortcuts. Metaphorically speaking, Ed Turner represented his own six lane highway – jam packed with traffic and risks.
“Good morning,” he greeted him, standing up and holding out a hand. The other, looking slightly uncomfortable, took it.
“Well, this is a significant change,” his guest commented, making no attempt to hide his amazement at finding him dressed in a suit.
“Well, my brother refuses to let me come to the office in trunks and flip-flops. Between you and me, I think he might actually have a point, but don’t tell him that,” Ethan joked, “his ego is pretty inflated as it is.”
The other gave a small, polite laugh. “Word in the city is that they’ve removed your court appointed guardian, Mr Phelps,” he said, going straight to the point. It was clear he didn’t have the slightest sense of humour and wasn’t there for small talk.
“Yes. Yes, they have, actually,” Ethan confirmed.
“So now you can decide to sell your share of the company, if you wish,” Turner pressed him.
“Excuse me?” asked Ethan. He was surprised, but probably shouldn’t have been. Ed Turner was Ed Turner, after all .
“Ethan, Ethan… I can call you that, right? There’s no point beating about the bush. Let’s make a deal and drink to it, what do you say? In fact, let’s drink to it right now!” Turner made a gesture to the waiter, ordering a bottle of white wine.
Seconds later, it was brought to their table by a waiter, who was about to pour some into Ethan’s glass when Ethan stopped him with a firm gesture of his hand. “Thanks, but I don’t drink,” he said, trying not to look uncomfortable. He had known that sooner or later he would have had to face alcohol. This was the hard part.
Turner couldn’t hide his surprise. “I thought the rumours I’d heard couldn’t be true. Have you really gone on the wagon?” he asked in alarm. It was clear the man had been relying on the booze to smooth talk Ethan out of his shares of the company.
“I decided to try and change. Even though I wasn’t much inclined to admit it, my old lifestyle made me pretty miserable. I’m trying to find happiness in a different way. That’s why I’m here: to apologize for having thrown up on you at the last shareholders’ meeting. I am so very sorry, it will never happen again.”
Turner gave him a look of hate before plunging into a gloomy silence. Ethan watched as he grabbed his glass and downed the contents in a single gulp .
“Extraordinary…” he shouted angrily, though it was obviously not what he thought. “Listen, my boy, let me give you a little tip. I know that right now you think you can change and all that other nonsense, but we each have our own nature, and there’s no escaping it.”
“That’s exactly what my guardian thinks too. But she says I’m actually a pretty decent person who has just lost their way. As you said, it was time I went back to my real nature,” said Ethan with a mocking smile.
“You no longer have a guardian,” Turner reminded him in an icy voice.
“Maybe not from the legal point of view, but from a moral one I hope to God I never have to do without her,” Ethan added with a serene smile that irritated his guest even more.
“Ah, a woman… Well, believe you me, women are the worst. Always ready to talk you into all sorts of nonsense just so they can get you to marry them and set about squandering a fortune. A fortune like yours,” he commented cynically. By the sound of it, Turner had been unlucky enough to have met the worst kind of women in his life.
“Sara isn’t like that,” Ethan replied promptly.
He was starting to enjoy himself. Okay, it wasn’t Disneyland, but this lunch date had turned out to be more interesting than expected .
Turner looked at him almost with compassion. “So you’re not going to sell your fifteen per cent, then?”
“Not now and not ever,” replied Ethan without wavering. “You know, I’ve discovered there are more interesting goals in life than trying to annoy my family. I’ve given them too much importance over the years, turning them into something larger than life. Something that felt like it would crush me if I didn’t fight back. I mean, they are important – but so am I. I can see that now, which is why provoking them isn’t as much fun as it used to be. What can I say? In the end, even I have grown up!”
At that point, Turner did the only thing he could do: he got up and stormed out of the restaurant without another word. A few moments later, Ethan left too – he wasn’t comfortable sitting at a table in the company of a bottle. Unless it contained water.
Recently, he was becoming a real expert in bubbles. He ought to find a way to exploit his excellent sense of smell, which allowed him to identify the brand of almost every mineral water in the country. Who knows, maybe he could take part in a talent show…
Chapter 16
Sara didn’t get back home until pretty late. From that day on there wasn’t going to be anybody there waiting for her, so she might as well take her time about it. Or rather, might as well drown her sorrows in paperwork. At the end of the day, that was what offices were for: to trick people into thinking they were necessary and keep away the thoughts of loneliness which would come crashing down on them as soon as they walked through their own front doors.
Eva had called her to tell her the move had taken place as planned: without any incidents or surprises. And without Ethan even being there.
She would never have confessed it to a living soul, of course, but a small part of her had nurtured the irrational hope he would have turned up in the afternoon to stop it all from going ahead. But it was obviously madness to have entertained the idea even for a moment, first of all because Ethan seriously needed to spend some time on himself without distractions, and secondly because any relationship that was destined to survive over time couldn’t possibly start with living together .
She couldn’t spend her life being Ethan’s legal and moral crutch. But she could be his girlfriend, if he still felt the same about her at the end of the long road he was travelling.
Whether he’d wanted to or not, Ethan had left his mark very deep inside her, and finding him there, when she came home, had made her evenings a lot of fun. She wasn’t really ready to go back to living on her own, but she’d have to force herself to.
She opened the door and was surprised to see the light in the living room was on. Had the guys from the removal company forgotten to switch it off?
“About time. I was starting to wonder if they’d kidnapped you…” said a very familiar and amused sounding voice.
“Ethan,” she exclaimed, stopping in the doorway of the room. “What are you doing here?”
He was still wearing the suit he had on when he had left that morning, but he had taken off his jacket and tie. As was his habit, he was lying on the couch. “If the mountain doesn’t go to Mohammed, Mohammed goes to the mountain.” he replied, sounding totally at ease.
“Ethan, you didn’t give me time to even think of going to you,” she commented with a smile, sitting down beside him.
“You’d never have come.”
“True, but maybe tomorrow I might… ”
“Tomorrow is too far away. I want to be with you now . Are you getting the idea?” he asked, and leaned over to kiss her. She did the same, kissing him too, this time without feeling guilty. It was a nice change.
“So did you have a good day?” asked Sara, pulling back just enough to look him in the eyes.
“Ah-ha! ” he said with a cheerful laugh. “I see my brother couldn’t stop himself from bringing you up to speed.”
“Okay, James called me, yeah – I’m not going to deny it. He needed to be reassured.”
“Reassured about what?” asked Ethan, his eyes opening wide.
“What do you mean, about what? About you not selling your share of the company as soon as you were back in control of your affairs. He hasn’t got to know you properly yet, and he was worried…”
Ethan cut her off with an impatient gesture. “Yeah, I know exactly what he’s afraid of,” he muttered.
“Don’t be offended. Just remember he didn’t go running to the restaurant as soon as he found out about your meeting with Turner – and for someone like him, that’s a big leap of faith. But how did he know about it?”
“James has spies everywhere. Maybe I wrote down the lunch date in my diary. Which, in fairness, is pretty much in plain view of almost everybody. You know, all that stuff about it always having to be possible to get in touch with you… Once I get promoted, I’m going to make sure I start agitating for some employee privacy.”
“Come on, Ethan – you’d have been worried too, if you’d been in his shoes, admit it.”
She knew the truce between the two was still fragile and it would need time before it was solid. It was hard enough to understand one another between siblings even when you didn’t have years of arguments and fallings outs behind you, never mind if you had a past history as complicated as theirs. But Sara was optimistic that somehow they would manage to work through it.
“I agreed to the meeting because I wanted to apologize in person for the awful incident, not to sell my stock. And James ought to mind his own business, period.”
“And he will!” said Sara reassuringly. “He just needs a little time.”
“A girlfriend is what he needs, the neurotic…”
“Maybe,” she laughed. “Have you started thinking you’re some kind of expert in romance now?”
“I would be, if you’d agree to become my girlfriend.”
He never missed an opportunity to bring it up .
“What was that, an official request? I didn’t think people did that anymore. Don’t people just hang out together nowadays?”
He pulled a face, looking at first perplexed and then almost offended.
“What nonsense. What the hell does ‘hanging out together’ mean anyway?”
“Don’t ask me… that they spend their free time together? That they spend their evenings together…” she teased. The temptation was just too strong to resist.
“But I don’t just want to ‘spend my free time’ with you! I mean, I want to do that too, but I also want to be there to scare off the jerk who puts the moves on you next time we’re in a bar…”
Sara gave him an amused look. “Ethan, I’m hardly going to drag a recovering alcoholic to a bar. What kind of person do you think I am?”
“That wasn’t what I meant. Okay, not a bar – that wouldn’t be a great idea. Let’s say, in a supermarket, then. Let’s say I leave you at the meat counter while I go to pick up some vegetables…”
“That wouldn’t be very wise,” she cut in. “I can’t tell lamb from chicken.”
“It was just an example ! So, like I was saying, this guy tries to put the moves on you at the meat counter… ”
Sara did her utmost to keep a straight face, but couldn’t help herself – she burst out laughing.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” she said, watching his irate face. Apparently, Ethan took the meat counter very seriously indeed.
“Okay, for the third time. Somebody puts the moves on you at the supermarket! And I don’t care which part of the supermarket – it could even be the aisle with the toilet tissue! I notice what’s going on and I come up. I can’t say, ‘get your damn hands off the girl I hang out with’ !” he concluded. “It wouldn’t have the same effect as saying ‘get your damn hands off my girlfriend!”
“Of course, but you don’t need to worry – I don’t need your help, I’m perfectly capable of scaring men away by myself. It’s a talent of mine. And just to reassure you, I have never once been approached by a single man in the supermarket.”
He crossed the arms over his chest. “That’s because you hardly ever go to the supermarket! And even then, you’ve probably only been to the potato chip aisle, and who the hell are you going to meet there?! Some spotty fifteen year old, at best! Anyway, quit trying to change the subject. I’m asking you if you’ll be my girlfriend, if you hadn’t noticed.”
“You can even call me your boyfriend, if you like,” she answered with a smile. “As long as you actually do call me, you can call me whatever you want.”
“Sara, cut it out! I’m already paranoid enough without you kidding around all the time! And anyway, when did you become so funny? Back when you were my guardian, you acted like you’d swallowed a broom handle you were so damn uptight!” he reminded her.
Yes, in fact she might have been just a tad severe with him. But only because the situation had required it.
“Yeah, well in case you hadn’t realized, I take my professional commitments pretty seriously. There aren’t many of us left who do, but I’m trying to do my bit for the conservation of an endangered species,” she replied, half seriously. “The hard worker.”
“I get the feeling all this kidding around actually is actually hiding a much more uncomfortable truth: you’re turning everything into a joke because you just can’t admit that you’ve changed your mind and don’t want to be with me…” he mumbled, sounding offended. Which he apparently really was.
Sara blinked in confusion. Was it possible that Ethan actually couldn’t tell how much she cared about him? She felt as though she’d thrown out plenty of clues along the way, but it was obvious that he needed something more tangible .
“Ok, stop a second and cut out all this nonsense – because you’ve come out with more than enough of it for one day. Do you seriously think that I don’t want to be with you?” she asked. “That I would have done all this just because I’m a good person ?”
“You are a good person, that’s a fact.”
“True,” she laughed, “but I’m not that good. Believe me, I did have some personal interest in all of this.”
“Yeah, that’s what you say…” Ethan mumbled, still unconvinced.
“Look, I’ve been working on something I wanted you to see. It’s not quite ready yet, but I think it’ll be okay if I show you it now,” she said, getting up from the couch. “Wait a sec while I get my pen drive.”
She reappeared a few moments later with a tiny USB drive in hand, which she inserted into one of the sockets on the side of the top of the range TV.
“Be warned that I’m not an expert with some of the software yet, so some of my cutting and pasting might be a bit rough…” she explained, but stopped at the sight of Ethan sitting on the couch, as taut as a violin string. “I promise you: this pen drive is not going to self-destruct in five seconds.”
“If you don’t quit kidding, I’m going to throw you over my shoulder and drag you off into the bedroom. So let’s try and be serious and concentrate!” he begged her .
He had no idea how absurd this demand of his for seriousness was, given that until a few weeks ago he hadn’t even known that the word was in the dictionary, but decided not to make him any more anxious than he already was.
“Okay, then. This is a montage of the best, most important parts of some very female targeted films that I would certainly have forced you to watch in the near future. And since I care about you a lot , whatever you might think, I decided to boil down everything there is to know into a few clips. The montage starts with a scene from Meet Joe Black .”
“What the hell is Meet Joe Black ? Never heard of it.”
Exactly like about ninety percent of the men walking about out there, she thought.
“I’m sure you haven’t,” she laughed, “but women know it very well. Not because it’s a cinematic masterpiece – it really isn’t – but because female audiences tend not to be too demanding when there’s a naked Brad Pitt around.”
Ethan’s face went dark. “You like Brad Pitt?” He sounded almost offended.
“Err, excuse me, everybody likes Brad Pitt, especially naked – even lesbians,” she joked, but he didn’t seem to catch her sarcasm. “And anyway, you look like him, so what are you worried about?” Suddenly, he seemed to soften for the first time since she had walked into the house.
“Do you really think I look like Brad Pitt?”
“A little bit. You’ve got a beautiful jaw, nice cheekbones… And I don’t know if you realize it, but your eyes are a lot more memorable than his.”
Ethan puffed his chest out with pride and self-satisfaction like a peacock. “Of course I know that! I just wasn’t sure that you did!”
“I mean, okay, he’s a little bit more… sculpted than you…” she added.
“Hey, that’s just photo shop,” retorted Ethan.
“Or maybe in the nineties they actually were his own muscles. Nowadays, I couldn’t say. But anyway, instead of wasting time talking about it, do you want to watch the scene or not?”
“If I have to…” Ethan muttered without any great enthusiasm.
Sara grabbed the remote from his hand and pressed play. The reassuring face of Anthony Hopkins appeared on the immense screen, intent on explaining to his daughter the many mysteries of life.
