Page 4 of The Only Time

“Eric, your diva is showing right now. I wouldn’t ask for this if it wasn’t serious. The reasons are none of your business. She just needs to get away for a while.”

“How long is a while?” I sigh into the phone.

She grunts in response like it’s completely unreasonable for me to ask about the stranger who is going to be staying with me in my house.

“I don’t know. A month, maybe two.”

Fuck. That’s a long time to not feel comfortable in my own home. But there’s one thing you need to know about my sister Layla. She is relentless and fiercely protective of the ones she loves. She will lose her shit if I back out now.

Clearly, this chick is going through something. Since I’m the only one without a wife or kids, I get to take her in. Lucky me.

“Seriously, Lay? That’s a really long time. Why can’t she stay with you?”

“I tried to convince her, but she doesn’t want to impose since Josh just proposed and we’re still in my small two-bedroom home.”

“So, it’s okay to impose in my home?” I ask with annoyance.

“Well, you live in a five-bedroom freakin’ mansion where you guys can avoid each other if you wanted to.”

She’s got me there. My house is big. Much bigger than hers. “When does she come?”

“She’s driving down from Cleveland right now. She’ll be there around dinner time.”

“Layla! Are you kidding me?”

I now pull at my neck as the tension builds. I can’t believe she’s throwing this at me right now. And how is the reason she’s staying with me none of my business? That seems like a reasonable question for me to ask.

“You better at least be there to help her. It’ll be a little awkward if I have to welcome a complete stranger and get her settled in by myself.”

“Of course, I’ll be there. You think I’m gonna let her first impression of this place be you? I would never do that to her.”

“Gee. What a great thank you for doing this for your friend.”

“Well, it’s the truth. You are literally the grumpiest person on earth. She needs a smiling face and a warm hug when she gets here. Oh, I was going to make sure one of your guest rooms is nice and cozy for her. What’s the code to your garage?”

I clench my jaw in an effort to keep from going off on her. “It’s my birthday,” I say through gritted teeth.

“Thanks, Mr. Sunshine. Make sure to turn that frown upside down when you get home. Mia doesn’t need your negative energy. See ya tonight.”

She hangs up without so much as a goodbye or thanks again for doing this even though I know how much it’s going to irritate you. I slam the phone down on the receiver. How is this my life? I must have the shittiest luck of anybody. Not only does my sister expect me to let her friend, whom I’ve never met, stay with me for two months, but she wants me to act happy about it.

That’s not gonna happen.

She’s probably some airhead who lost her job and wants to mooch off her friend’s rich older brother for a while. Layla is too nice to see through people and their motives, but I’ve been burned enough times to know better.

I spend the rest of the afternoon trying not to think about what I am coming home to.

I begin researching the company that we are looking to acquire. It seems like it’s going to take a ton of my time to get a handle on an acquisition this size if they want to move forward as quickly as they do. They are a massive company with two thousand employees.

I’m going to need to get Adam involved to go over who we can keep on board and who will be given severance packages.

I dial his assistant and ask for him to see me as soon as possible.

While I shuffle through more numbers, I hear a knock on my door.

“You rang?” Adam walks in casually as he plops down on the seat across from me.

I met Adam when he started at this company a couple of years after me. We both really like mountain biking, so we’ve taken our bikes over to Greenville, North Carolina together to bike their trails. He’s a good guy.

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