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“I’m here, Dad,” I tell him, not wanting to shock him into dropping the watch. “Just letting you know.”
“Of course, son. Come here, come here. Look how beautiful this one is.”
He isn’t wrong, either. The watch is a 1908 vintage Omega World Time on a dark leather band. The face of the piece is a dark orange-brown, with names of multiple countries around the face and a painted image of the world in the center. Dad handles it gently, turning it this way and that, so I watch over his shoulder as he examines it.
Being here brings me back to what it was like when I was a kid and Dad would teach me what to look for in collectibles. I was enraptured, watching every minute little thing that he did when he would let me, and when he wouldn’t, I would sit on thefloor in the workshop and read or do my homework, just to be close to Dad and all the excitement.
I feel like that today, staying quiet while Dad explains everything about the watch, treating it with reverence as he does so. He looks over at me a few times and frowns.
“Dan, is something bothering you?”
I shake my head. “No, just feeling a little nostalgic and… weird, I guess.”
He smiles knowingly, pulling his standalone magnifier over to look closer at the Omega. “It’s that Van den Bosch girl, isn’t it? Elise?”
“What?” I ask sharply. “How do you even know that?”
He shrugs one shoulder, bringing the watch closer to the magnifying glass. “Whenever you talk about her, you get reflective. No one else does that to you.”
I’m suddenly concerned, not wanting my parents to know my feelings for Elise and how much they are bothering me. Not when I can’t ever be with her, according to Andries, not to mention her still being seventeen. I’m trying desperately to come up with an excuse.
“There’s just a lot going on between her and Andries,” I explain.
“Ah, well, that makes sense. What happened between her and her brother?”
Thankfully, Dad seems to accept the excuse easily enough, probably distracted by the watch he’s working on. “It’s complicated. Basically, Elise has been commanded by her father to air some confidential private information about her brother at the annual shareholders’ meeting tomorrow, because it will help save another employee’s reputation. Andries is going to go berserk.”
“Yes, I can see why he would. He’ll feel betrayed.” Dad looks over at me, his expression kind and understanding. “You knowyou shouldn’t get between them, right? You’re going to get burned in the end.”
“I know.” I sigh. “Thanks, Dad.”
It’s been settling over me, all day long, that I may have made a mistake taking Elise to the gala. It had been an incredible time, and the memories were worth their weight in gold, but by taking her I basically signed off on Elise trashing Andries publicly. Was a date that wasn’t even really a date worth sabotaging my best friend like this?
Fuck, it wasn’t, no matter how strongly I feel about Elise. I desperately need to stop this before it goes any further. Not sure what else to do, I message Elise and ask if she needs a plus one for the shareholders’ meeting. When she gives me the affirmative, a plan starts to snap together in my mind.
I have to stop her from giving that speech.
10
Amsterdam, May 2, 2022
Elise
I’ve beensick all night, and now all morning, leaning over the porcelain toilet bowl to heave a few times but producing nothing. I don’t want to go to this shareholders meeting, and it’s only hours now until I can’t escape my fate.
I know I’m going to ruin my relationship with my brother today. I don’t even know if Dan can save it, but I have to depend on him. It’s the only lifeline I have, and at least I won’t be alone out there today. Dan is always a comfort to have at my side, even if he can be an asshole sometimes.
But of course, I’m also dreading seeing him. Dreading and anticipating, all at the same time, and all because of the stupid almost kiss that we had nearly shared at the charity gala. I can’t believe I was so weak. Kissing Dan would have ruinedeverything.
So why, when I think about it now, do I have butterflies in my stomach?
I can’t get him off my mind; not when I dress in the Chanel ivory suit I had purchased just for this occasion, not when I lightly curl my hair and pin it above the back of my neck, and not when doing my makeup in front of my lit vanity. The way he felt against me, the heaviness of his body pressing against mine, and his breath ghosting across my lips from how close he was. I blush even thinking about it, and it makes me giddy and nervous.
Still, though… at least I won’t have to be alone, talking to a room full of strangers while I ruin so many parts of my life just to keep Dad and Karl happy. There will be a hand for me to hold when it’s all over, the hand of a man I trust, and that’s more than I really could have hoped for.
Dan arrives to get me, and there is no Cinderella moment on the stairs like there was the night of the gala. I feel grim and still a bit ill, a bottle of San Pellegrino clutched in one hand so I can try to settle my stomach.
He doesn’t bother with the polite arm-in-arm loop but seems to sense how on edge I am, taking my hand and intertwining our fingers instead. “I know you feel like crap, but that suit is beautiful on you.”
