Page 23 of Falling for Fury

“Thanks, I will be away, though. I might see if I can schedule a tutor session before the final.”

“That will be fine. The break will be good, too. Law School is a lot, you’ve made it this far, not long to go now.” He gives me a sympathetic smile, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose as I leave the lecture hall. He’s right. I’ve made it this far coasting on a 3.5 GPA average. My grade improved with only a few tutoring lessons, and this is good news. Whether it is the high I was already riding from my morning with the girls, or the excitement I am letting myself feel when it comes to Noah, but this lecture ended up being a drop of sunshine amongst the gloomy days.

Today really seems to be everything I’ve been hoping for: a day of just feeling good.

Noah

“Noah relax, I haven’t told a soul a thing! There isn’t even anything to tell. We have no details from the engineering firm or any of the staff from EcoX—the leak isn’t us,” Caleb reassures me as I pace the floor of my office.

We were notified this morning that there has been a leak of some of the details pertaining to the latest product for EcoX. Another company, newer on the market, has teased a product that is similar, and now there is apparently some fucking race for a patent. I don’t really know the workings, the EcoX contact just dribbled information, and I stopped listening after she said the words, ‘pausing the contract.’ Of course, this comes out only a week after they sign with us, and now they have cold feet. Their contract has a cooling-off period, which they are currently sitting on while they investigate the leak of information and work out what went wrong. Until then, the contract is frozen. Which means my goal and my plan are frozen, in the air, potentially at risk. The image of my mom’s face when I have to tell her that no, in fact, there will be no Chicago office, I won’t be moving back home, and I will probably be working this hard until the day I die or am forced into retirement.

I still haven’t seen the doctor about mysterious chest pains.

“I need you and Ava to run a sweep of our systems. I know we have no details on file, but I want everything triple checked. I can’t let this jeopardize the deal. We need this deal.” I need this deal. Caleb pretends to be cool, but he is as concerned about this as I am. He nods and quietly leaves the office as I grab out my phone to dial Matt.

“Karvelas, I assume you heard?”

“They put the contract on hold. Six months of promises and work down the fucking drain.” I slump into my chair and run a hand down my face.

“Alright drama queen, nothing is down the drain. They just need to investigate the leak. You guys have nowhere near enough information for it to be you. AIM is also running a sweep, but that is unlikely because again, the only person who has anything is me, and I haven’t even told Ava anything, let alone someone in the company. It’ll work itself out, I promise.” That eternal sunshine Addison complains about shines through, and I wonder if this is what she means. Matt’s lackluster explanation of the situation grates on my nerves. He should care more about this. Or perhaps he just doesn’t have anywhere near as much riding on this deal going through. I grunt into the phone, which gives me a laugh on the other end.

“Can we organize a meeting next week? I want to go over the details of the contract and perhaps sweep over everything we did to make sure there were no issues on our end, and to also make sure we don’t fall behind because of this pause. I can’t hire any more staff until we aren’t on pause, but I can’t make this amount of work happen at the click of my fingers. I’m going to need to make some arrangements.” I pull up my laptop to book a time on the calendar.

“We’re at Maplewood next week, remember? Didn’t Ava put in leave?” Fuck’s sake.

“Yes, she did. I forgot.” I sit back in my chair and think about my family. My mom and Evie alone in Chicago. I think about my dad, how hard he worked to set both Evie and me up. I can’t screw this up, can’t let him down. This needs to work out. “You know what De Luca? A vacation is just what I need.”

“It’s an actual vacation, Karvelas. As in, no work. I get to switch my brain off, vacation.”

“It could be fun.” I try to convince him.

“C’mon man, it’s just a week.”

“And we didn’t get where we are by cutting corners and taking time off De Luca, you know that.” I didn’t mean to dad-voice lecture him, but my stress is really gripping me hard right now.

He sighs from the other side and grunts out a, “fine.”

“Pack your laptop. We’re taking this meeting on the road.”

Addison

Two hours in a car with a five-year-old is like an eternity. I love Mia with the entirety of my heart and soul, but my god, can that child talk. Literally, for the entire. Two. Hours.

Monday morning, I met Ava and family as planned to hitch a ride with them to the lodge for the weeklong getaway. Ava spent most of the car ride laughing at my inability to handle the ramblings of her adorable child. It took twenty minutes of me playing along before I asked Mia, “Hey, how about we play the silent game? See who can stay quiet the longest?” I threw her a look of mischief in an attempt to entice her into agreeing. She is unfortunately too smart for her own good.

“Hmmm, that doesn’t sound very fun. I want to play I-spy instead.” And so, that was the rest of the trip. I make a mental note to find an alternate route next year.

That thought alone… next year… still trips me up sometimes. I remember a time where I couldn’t imagine a next year. A next week or even the next day. I allow myself to smile softly, a small internal celebration at my growth. As my therapist would say, I need to acknowledge my own strength when it shows, because I worked fucking hard at it.

We arrive at the lodge, a beautiful expanse of nature, a thick blanket of greenery covering the ground with trees surrounding the area, giving us private uninterrupted space around the lake. We head up the porch stairs, me holding Mia’s hand and letting her talk at me, while I wrangle the chatter induced migraine throbbing in my head. The lodge is relatively large, with seven bedrooms, a wrap-around porch, and a private jetty.

As we enter the front door, I try to slow down the mini-human from bolting upstairs to get to the playroom—unfortunately, five-year-old’s don’t understand the need for adult supervision around sixty-year-old stairs—when I hear my name from upstairs

“Addy!” I turn my head as I see my little sister Riley running down the stairs to me. Little in age only, Riley got the rare mix of genes, while JJ, Ava, and I got the fair skin and blonde hair, Riley has the same fierce green eyes but with long dark locks and light olive skin. I think this is the result of some Mediterranean ancestor way, way back through our lineage. JJ and Riley also got the height from Dad’s side; Ava and I remain short enough to blend in with toddlers.

“Aunty Ri! We’re at the lodge!” Mia yells as Riley reaches down to wrap her in a hug. She stands again as Matt and Ava approach. Matt grabs Mia and offers a quick kiss on the cheek to Riley in greeting, before heading upstairs to set up their room. Riley dramatically wraps her arms around Ava and me in a big and uncomfortable hug. “Thank god you two are here. Please never leave me alone in a car with our parents again,” she grunts.

“What’s happening now?” Ava asks on a giggle. I trace the room with my eyes and spot Mom and Dad through the kitchen window by the car. Dad is grumbling expletives as Mom is trying to drag the luggage out of the car, not taking his eyes off his phone. His typical behavior of late. The last time we visited for dinner, I don’t think I saw his eyeballs once. He even tried to have a normal conversation with me… while checking his phone. I roll my eyes and tune back into the conversation with Riley.

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