Chapter 16: Iris: Between the bloodline
TWO FUCKIN’ weeks of running away from Lucas and his dad at the company, only to see Mr.Andrews sitting cozily on the couch at my house by the end of the second week, sipping tea and laughing at my grandfather’s dad jokes.
I’m calling Mary, bombarding her with texts, asking her to co to pick
up from my house—but my silly friend has decided to gray-tick
for the night. To think she’s the one who told
to run away from both father and son every chance I got one fortnight ago.
After denying Lucas’ offer to drive
back ho because I was afraid my nosy grandparents would see him, I finally settled for Paul—which was a surprisingly good ride because we ended up bonding over the novels I edited since they are his favorites.
I told him to drop
off at the sibling’s house so that I could make a clean entrance ho as if coming from a sleepover next door—but Mary was taking out the trash by then, and she saw
coming out of the car.
Being the nosy bitch she is, she imdiately recognized the vehicle and put two and two together, before shalessly asking
questions imdiately—in front of my new buddy, Paul at that! In the end, I told her I had slept over at Lucas’, which led to an embarrassing early morning confession episode in her room a few monts later.
"Oh my god he’s a beast, look at this hickey," she said wrinkling her nose whilst applying makeup right behind her neck. If she had known that I had even bigger ones between my thighs, I’m pretty sure she’d have lost it that day. "When was the last ti he had so? He was literally eating you alive."
"In a sense, he was."
Mary scoffed, rolling her eyes. "I can see that Missy, thanks for nothing," she hissed, subtly jabbing my neck with the makeup sponge. "It’s a good thing his dad ca first thing in the morning, otherwise I’m pretty sure he’d have ravaged you a second ti today."
"You have no idea how embarrassing that was," I replied shuddering at the mory. Thank goodness Mr.Andrews was kind enough to leave imdiately after opening the door on us. I was so close to fake fainting if he kept staring and things got out of hand. "I’ll be abstaining from sex for a while now, thanks to the trauma."
Laughing heartily at my misfortune, Mary stopped applying the makeup and sat on her bed, turning the chair around until our eyes were level. Looking at
directly in the eyes like the eye contact girlie she is, she imdiately got down to business. "What are you going to do now?"
"About what?"
"About his dad. He’s our boss, rember?"
How could I forget? That was the first thing that popped into my mind when he saw
half-naked with his son’s hands resting on my waist.
"I don’t know. I’ll apologize to him properly on Monday."
Gasping, Mary pulled the chair closer to her. "You’ve got to be kidding . What the fuck are you going to say. Uhhh, Good morning sir, I’m sorry for fucking your son and letting you see us half-naked? You’ll sound ridiculous, and don’t get
started on the chances of you losing your job."
"I can’t lose my job! I made my grandparents pull a lot of strings for
to get there."
"That’s what I’m talking about," Mary asserted, grabbing both my hands into hers. "You can’t be near him or Lucas at that if you to keep your job."
"Why Lucas too?" I mumbled disappointedly. I only wanted my body to abstain, not my eyes.
"Umm, because that’ll show you haven’t reflected in yourselves?"
Right.
"Then what do you propose I do smarty? I can’t just ignore him when we accidentally et in the office."
"Simple. Don’t accidentally et him," Mary suggested, shrugging like she just said sothing only idiots can’t do.
"And how am I supposed to do that, genius?"
"Keep your eyes around you at all tis, and if you see anyone that looks just like them—run."
I scoffed at her, doing final touches to cover up my hickeys and leaving her room after telling her she was the worst advisor ever. But following her advice I did, and it was pretty effective.
Whenever I saw anyone who looked like Mr. Andrews, I’d turn the other way. If he ca to our office, I’d rush to the water dispenser by Dion’s corner—pretending to ask questions like an enthusiastic newbie and getting on Dion’s good side.
As for Lucas, I always had an excuse to be away from him, and I guess he didn’t want to make
mad because he never tried to create instances where we had to et by force. It was good for my plan, but it annoyed
for so reason—especially since Lynn kept showing up at our office regularly.
When Mary drove us back ho from work today, the last thing I expected to see was a black G-wagon parked outside the garage. I wasn’t surprised by it though, I’ve lived with my grandparents long enough to know they have filthy rich friends.
What I hadn’t set my probabilities on was the rich friend being the very person I’d been desperately trying to avoid for an entire week now—Marcus Andrews—in the flesh.
My grandparents oblivious to the awkward atmosphere between us imdiately went into a frenzy of introducing us to each other and praising
so much, it was embarrassing.
I was holding my heart in my trembling sweaty hands the entire ti, waiting for Lucas’ dad to tell them he already knew
before explaining how we t. But nothing of the sort has happened to date.
"How is the magazine doing lately now that it has our master’s degree holder as its editor? She’s the finest, and it hurts to say this but she might be even better than my late friend," Grandma blurts out with a huge grin on her face, oblivious to my internal groaning.
Clasping his hands together, Marcus gives
a quick glance, turning to my grandparents with a smile. "It is doing well. We just hit number three this month on the bestsellers chart."
"Oh my goodness, that’s very comndable," both my grandparents blurt out.
"That’s one spot down last month’s position," I mumble before I can stop myself.
Marcus gives
his full attention now, sothing I can’t risk having at the mont. "Looks like you’re well updated about this than I’d given you credit for."
My stomach churns and I let out a small laugh that cos out more strained than I want it to.
"She always wanted to work for Adder ever since falling in love with editing in high school. That’s why she kept herself updated with the company just in case vacancies ca up," Grandma chips in.
"Oh, really?" Marcus smirks at . I can’t tell if he’s surprised or annoyed by the sudden news he just received. "You must have been very happy when you got your dream job then?"
"You have no idea," Grandpa adds to his wife’s comntaries, laughing smugly. "She woke up at around four AM because she didn’t want to be late for her first day."
Oh my god, the exaggeration! It’s making
stand out in this conversation for no reason even though I just want to be invisible—or dead. Marcus turns back to , the genuineness in his smile more evident now.
"If I may ask, what caused your love for editing?"
His question is unexpected, random even, but surprisingly, I welco it. "My love for reading," I reply. "When I was little, my mom would leave
with a fairytale book and go to work. I used to hate reading it, but after my friends from school started talking about fairytales, the peer pressure got to
and I decided to try it. Turns out that was the beginning of my origin story."
I don’t realize Grandma is crying until she lets out a sniff. "She had a rough childhood, but look at her powering all of it up and growing so fast."
"I know right," Grandpa asserts, "I wouldn’t be surprised if she brought a boy ho anyti soon."
Great way to fuck up my speech and remind Marcus of his son and , you old couple.
Don’t get
wrong, I love my grandparents. But sotis their extre dramatic display of love cos out in all the wrong ways possible—like how it’s doing right now.
My eyes keep glancing at Marcus, waiting for him to finally betray
and tell my grandparents I’m dating his son, but he pulls a number scarier than I’m expecting him to.
"I would love to have a strong daughter-in-law like you one day."
That’s all it takes for my dramatic grandparents to let out low grunts of approval, nodding at their friend and asking if his son has a girlfriend as of late. The questions and answers keep flowing back and forth, and I stand on edge, waiting to tip over every ti one of them opens their mouth to speak about Lucas or .
We end up eating dinner with Mr. Andrews, and the conversations carry on for about an hour until my boss decides it’s ti to go back ho.
I’m in the middle of silently giving thanks that nothing out of the ordinary happened throughout the bittersweet ordeal when Mr. Andrews decides that opening his mouth for the last ti after already saying goodbyes to my grandparents is a good idea.
"Iris dear, can you help
carry this to my car?" He asks, gesturing at the plastic bag full of fruits my grandmother got from their farm earlier today.
All eyes are on , waiting for my answer. Denying him would make
the bad guy, and yet, accepting to help him would fuck up the plan I had been perfectly executing for two weeks now.
"Yes, sir," I blurt out, taking the plastic in one hand whilst the other rubs the back of my neck.
Where’s Voldemort when you need him? If only I could Avada Kedavra myself to death right now, that would be really helpful.
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