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As I pause with the rim of the cup on my lips, I smirk. “Try to keep up, little girl.”
I know she’s cursing me in her mind, but Elise will never let me best her in any way, so as I take my shot I see her do the same, this time followed by a full-bodied shiver and an eye roll.
I pick the bottle up to pour a third, but this time she snakes an arm out and snags it, sitting it decidedly on her side of the table. “Absolutely not.”
I ignore the rough, sultry sound of her abused throat. “Okay… for now.”
Before I can proceed, though, the server stops by our table holding the much-awaited bottle of Acqua Panna and two glasses. Once he fills hers, Elise wastes no time in giving a long gulp. We take this moment to order food and when the server departs from our table again, a small smirk emerges on my lips at what I have in mind. “Let’s hear about this mysterious meeting then, if we aren’t going to get drunk first.”
There is an obvious red flush to her cheekbones, telling me that the little lightweight might not be completely drunk, but she’s definitely feeling those two shots. She parts her lips to speak, pauses as if she’s deciding her words, and starts again. “It was nothing, Dan. I swear,” she repeats the same broken record like she did in the car, to which I give her a frown in annoyance.
“Fine.” She sighs, knowing fully well there’s no way to escape this conversation. “It was just about how my brother is a moron and how we need to break him and Roxanne up to teach him a lesson. The usual stuff.”
Fuck. I knew it.“God, that man is obsessed. I don’t know why he’s even so concerned about what his son is doing when he has you, the perfect heir.”
Elise preens. “I know, right?” she says, a muffled chuckle escaping her lips. “Having Andries not only spurn his offer but also get married to a former escort is just a bridge too far away for him.”
I nod, a few questions forming in my head. “You think he knows that Andries is never going to change his mind about taking the job?”
She doesn't answer immediately. Elise is too calculated for that. Instead, she takes a sip of her water, pondering her words carefully. “My impression is that Dad considers Andries young and foolish, and is still holding out some hope, but he’s already shifted gears to prepare me as his successor.” She pauses for a beat before her eyes meet mine again. “I think at this point, he just wants to punish Andries for his reckless behavior.”
“Fuck. How dreadful,” I blurt out, deadpan, before I lean forward, resting my forearms on the table and lowering my voice. “Do you know exactly what your dad intends to do?”
A few beats of silence ensue, my eyes locking on hers as if I could read the answer in her gaze.
Elise blinks twice, cutting eye contact, and her lips twitching with uncertainty, before she finally says, “Dad will never tell me what his actual plan is, but I do know he wants to make sure that wedding doesn’t happen—which is totally fucked up.”
Yeah, right… I’d bet a thousand bucks that both Elise and Sebastian are scheming together. But, of course, Elise knows what to say.
Just then, the server comes by, dropping off our meals. For me, two intricate sushi rolls topped with ruby-red roe for one roll and tempura crab on the other—decadent and not traditional in any way at all, but delicious nonetheless. Elise, unsurprisingly, has ordered simple nigiri with fatty slices of pink salmon and bright red tuna. She carefully fills a small dish with soy sauce and breaks apart her chopsticks, rubbing them together.
While she’s already engrossed with her food, I can’t help but ruminate over her last words. “What do you think he’s planning, then? I guess there’s no way we’d be lucky enough to persuade him to leave Andries alone.”
“Ha.” Elise delicately picks up a piece of nigiri, dipping it in her sauce before popping it in her mouth, chewing, and swallowing before continuing. “Definitely not. I’ve narrowed it down to a few things. I think the best-case scenario in his mind is dragging Andries away from Roxanne and back into the fold, and having both of us take over the company in a decade or so as co-CEOs. Even though we both know I’d be doing all the work and Andries would be staring out a window being broody.”
Despite her humorous tone, I can’t help but see the disappointment in her gaze. “That’s not fair to you, though.”
“Of course it isn’t, but life isn’t fair.” Her tone comes off as more gloomy than she had aimed for, signaling to me it struck a nerve. She then straightens her posture, regaining her usual confidence. “What I find more likely is the second option;making me CEO when he retires and painting Andries as some philanthropist to the media, doing charitable work, but having no actual title at the company. That would still involve him ditching Roxanne, though, which we know will never happen. Who knows how this will actually go down?”
We eat in silence for a few minutes as I think over what she’s told me. There’s still the glowing issue of Elise being tasked with breaking Andries and his fiancée up that she so carefully avoided talking about. Oh well, I’m not shy.
“Do you plan on following commands and splitting the happy couple up for daddy dearest?”
“I…” she breathes out, obviously twisted up inside about it. While I thought she’d snap something back at me, to my astonishment, she just looks confused, as if lost for words. “I sort of have to try, don’t I? If I don’t at least put some effort into it, Dad will never consider me.”
“Don’t do that, Elise,” I tell her, voice low and serious as I lean forward. She looks up at me in surprise, no doubt at the lack of levity. “You’ll just be making things even more distant than they already are between your family and your brother.”
She heaves a sigh, her gaze dropping for a moment. “I know that. It’s just that I don’t see much of an option.”
“Support your brother,” I say right away. “Love him when he feels abandoned by the rest of the household, and be part of his engagement. Part of his life. He’s your brother, after all, and I truly think he’d do the same for you. Look how far he went for his love for Roxanne. Andries doesn’t let the people he cares about down.”
“You’re right.” She sighs, mulling over what I just told her. “I know you are, but I feel like I’m being torn in two. This whole engagement thing caught my dad so off guard that it’s gonna take a few days for him to digest it.”
“Speaking of the engagement,” I begin cautiously, still not over the fact that my best friend is already engaged. “Did you try and persuade your dad to come to the party like Andries asked?”
She shakes her head as she finishes eating one of her nigiri. “There’s no way in hell that our parents will attend, so I didn’t even bother…not with how pissed off Dad is already. Andries will have to get used to the idea that I’ll be the only one of the family attending it.”
My face falls a little in disappointment at Sebastian’s behavior.What parents would refuse to attend their child's engagement party?
