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She raises a perfectly arched, brown eyebrow. “What are you doing here?”
“I just wanted to talk to your brother,” I reply.
“He isn’t here,” she says, crossing her arms. “But your clothes and belongings are.” She kicks her leg slightly to the side, hitting a stack of black garbage bags that I assume contain all my things. “So feel free to take them out, since this is exactly what I was doing.”
“I…” I look past her at the bags, temporarily lost for words, and then back up at Elise.
Am I really going to let this little girl talk to me like this? I fight back a sneer and begin grabbing the bags, tossing them in the elevator behind me while Elise watches. The way she holds a pretentious air in front of me feels like she’s watching her maidor something, and it pisses me off immediately, but I have to keep my cool. To get to Andries, I clearly have to go through his sister first.
After I throw the last bag behind me, I stand back up straight and say, “I left some of my jewelry in the case where he keeps his watches. I've never mentioned it, so I’m sure he wouldn’t have gotten them out. Can I get them?”
Elise sighs. “Very well. Andries isn’t home anyway. He went to the family estate to recharge and reset. I think he invited Dan and–” she pauses for dramatic effects, a small smirk forming at the corner of her mouth, “Tatiana.”
“Whatever,” I reply, hiding my disappointment in the fact that Andries isn’t here. All of my plans to talk to him are useless, and now I’ll have to wait for him to return. I clock the subtle way Elise slips in Tatiana’s name, but I ignore it, not wanting to give her the satisfaction.
I follow Elise inside, forcing myself not to get distracted by everything around me. Every space, every surface, is a memory. I feel tears pricking at the corner of my eyes and blink them away.
“Listen, Elise….” She raises an eyebrow as I pause for a moment. “Can I leave a note with you or something? Since Andries isn’t here. Or I could just leave it on his nightstand. We sort of ended things on a bad note and—”
“Absolutely not,” she snaps instantly.
Her snotty tone raises my hackles, but I keep my face blank. “Me leaving him a note doesn’t affect you at all, and it isn’t like I’m forcing my way into his face to talk, either.”
Elise lets out a single laugh. Stopping on a dime and turning to face me, she gives a step forward in my direction. “Let’s make it clear here. Do you see how kind, romantic, innocent, and naive my brother is? I’m the opposite. And I’ve got zero patience for your bullshit. So if I were you, I’d just move on and find someone else.”
I don’t back down. “My relationship with your brother is none of your business,” I tell her.
“Well, it kinda is.” She looks me up and down, and her expression says that she finds me lacking. I feel like she thinks that way about a lot of people, though. “His reputation and good name matter to me. And you have done enough to ruin it.”
“I understand you are mad at me for what I did but—”
“Oh, I’m not,” she interrupts. “I had a feeling something wasn’t right about you, and I’m glad we figured it out sooner rather than later.” She lowers her voice, sounding serious and threatening. “Andries was blindsided by his love for you, but I’m glad he finally managed to see who you truly are.”
“Elise—”
She makes a cutting motion in the air with her hand, and I stop mid-sentence. “Are you done?”
“I love your brother! I really do—but I knew once he found out, he’d break up with me.”
“So you were selfish enough to keep your true identity to yourself, huh?” she sneers.
I shake my head in denial. “I’m no longer an escort. I stopped doing that a long time ago.”
“Yet, you are still selling pussy, aren’t you?” Her voice is acidic, and her top lip curls in disgust at the words she’s saying. Hearing her prim and proper voice speaking that way even makes me freeze.
“It’s all consensual,” I insist. “I’m helping these girls. I am giving them real, lucrative work.”
“Yeah, right. Since when is laying on your back lucrative work? I’m pretty sure those women all have something in common.” Elise leans forward, bringing her face closer to mine, and it takes all my willpower not to slap the holier-than-thou look off her face. “Lack of money. Easy girls, easy money.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about. It’s a good way for them to earn money while still having time to live their lives. It’s a hard world out there for people who aren’t born with a silver spoon in their mouths.” My voice gets shriller the angrier I get, but Elise just rolls her eyes. “Most of them make more money than graduate students do,” I continue. “Some of them have even graduated in law and economics, but they still do it part time, because no one wants to hire you right out of university. But you wouldn’t know anything about having to pay the bills, would you?”
“Reducing sex to a financial transaction is beyond disgusting,” Elise retorts, tossing her hair over her shoulder as she straightens. “And the fact you don’t see how wrong it is, is the very reason why I’m glad you guys broke up.”
“Your mindset is a flagrant display of how ignorant and privileged you are, Elise,” I grit between my teeth. “But I guess you don’t care about those who are out of your little bubble, do you?”
I don’t give her time to respond, pushing past her close enough that her shoulder meets mine, and she gasps at the contact. I ignore her, yanking my things out of Andries’s watch box and shoving them into the purse slung over my shoulder. Elise comes into the doorway to watch me, as if I’m some common thief, and I can’t hold my tongue anymore.
She acts as if she’s going to block my way until the last second, but when she moves, instead of walking by her, I stop so we are both in the doorframe, closer than is comfortable for either of us.
