Page 23 of Fierce-Zander

“If you were working from home there is no organization.”

“You haven’t been in my apartment in over a year,” he said. “How do you know?”

“I haven’t been in it because it’s a mess and it makes my eye twitch to step foot in there,” his mother said. “I want to say you need more space, but you might just clutter that up too.”

“If I had an actual office it’d be easier,” he said. “Everything is on the table.”

He’d been in the same one bedroom apartment for eight years now. He hated moving and it was a convenient location. They had a gym he could use at any time and normally went there when no one else was around.

He didn’t have to mow lawns or fix a damn thing.

But the walls were closing in on him and it was sad that his business office was bigger than his home.

“Well, that is your life,” his mother said.

“Nowit’s my life,” he said. “A few minutes ago you were telling me what to do.”

“Never,” Marley said. “No one can tell you what to do.”

“Don’t start taking Mom’s side.”

“That’s right,” his mother said. “You’re both single so I could get on both of your cases.”

“Don’t,” Marley said. “I don’t need it. I’ve got enough eyes on me as it is that I don’t need more.”

He frowned. “What is going on?”

“Nothing,” Marley said. “How would you like to be compared to your mother all the time at work?”

Zander lifted an eyebrow. “Geez, I wouldn’t know what that was like. Not working as an officer in a department where my father was a captain.”’

“Sorry,” Marley said. “You do get it. Why did we decide to follow in their footsteps?”

“Because we are great parents and raised our children well,” his mother said.

His father threw back a healthy taste of his bourbon. “And I learned to never argue with your mother. She can’t be beat.”

“It’s not about beating the other,” his mother said. “It’s about teamwork.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Zander said. “Here they go again. Are we sure it’s Dad’s birthday and you didn’t make that up to get us here and gang up on us?”

Marley laughed. “I want to side with Zander, but I know it’s Dad’s birthday and I don’t even need an assistant to mark my calendar for me to remember those things.”

He shut one eye at his sister. “Brat.”

“Slob,” Marley said.

“Children,” his mother said. “Yes, I made up your father’s birthday. It was last month.”

“No, it wasn’t, Mom,” Marley said. “Now that you got your way, you realized it’s not working out the way you planned it. But we’ll stop, for now.”

His phone went off in his pocket and he pulled it out to look at the message.

“No working,” his mother said.

He put it away. It wasn’t something that had to be handled now anyway. It was just a notification of some information that Garrett wanted him to look into.

He would check it out tomorrow.

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