Page 7 of The Show

They weren’t to know Lowe was already mine, but I still took great delight in making the boys’ lives a misery. That summer, the house was a war zone of strategically placed booby traps – exploding ketchup bottle at a BBQ or waterbombing them from one of the top windows whenever they left for a date - you get the picture of a thirteen-year old’s mind, obsessed with Home Alone and fed up with being the only boy in the house. I would also shoot out the occasional sly, emasculating comment, until all my sisters mutinied against me and complained so forcefully to my mom that I was shipped off to spend the summer with my grandparents on their yacht, sailing around the Adriatic.

By the time I’d gotten back, Lowe and Lauren had broken up with their respective summer boyfriends and found some new ones. And that pattern repeated until they left for college.

Once I hit puberty, I never lacked for female attention. After I first had sex at fifteen, I refined my behavior and approach when it came to women. During college, I learned that I had the ability to bring a woman to her knees with a simple raise of my eyebrow, and it’s only gotten easier.

Thanks to the family name, my bank balance, my natural boyish charm and wicked smile, I am widely regarded as one of the most eligible bachelors in the United States; something I have used to my advantage more times than I can count.

I could probably have any woman I wanted, except one…

In what is a rare occurrence for me, I become mute around Lowe – transporting myself back to the first time I saw her walk into the kitchen – the flame on my five-year-old self’s crush still burning bright.

As a result, though I have known Lowe for over twenty-five years, I have barely uttered a word to her.

Even as an adult I do my best to avoid her. Is it childish? Absolutely.

Am I going to stop anytime soon? Unlikely. Especially as she continues to date douches who are utterly undeserving of being in her presence, let alone breathing the same air as her.

I usually time my visits with Lauren so I can hang out with my sister, just the two of us - at a time I know Lowe would be at work - mostly after some family business. But since Lowe quit her job, she seemed to be hanging around a lot more than normal. I still wasn’t entirely sure why she’d quit; it was only a snippet of information I’d overheard from my sister talking one time, and I knew better than to ask.

As a result, she was unfortunately standing in front of me, next to Lauren, and there was nowhere I could hide.

“Lauren, how did you get in?” I repeated while brushing the popcorn off myself, before running my fingers through my hair until I realized it was totally pointless. I’d been on the couch since I’d gotten back from a run yesterday afternoon; it was fair to say I wasn’t looking my best.

Lauren batted her eyelashes in her usual flirtatious manner, and one that made my scowl deepen. “Your doorman likes me.”

“My doorman is about to get fired,” I grumbled.

She pursed her lips at my empty threat, though seeing as he seemed to be incapable of following the most simple of instructions, likedo not let any member of my family in under any circumstances,I would be well within my right. Only Murray and Rafe had keys and could come and go as they pleased, and that’s how it was going to stay.

“You haven’t been returning my texts, and I haven’t seen you in months,” she grumbled back, dropping her purse to the floor with a thud, before she leaned in to give me a kiss on the cheek.

“That’s because I don’t want to see anyone.”

“Tough shit. Lowe and I have come to save you, and get you ready.” She sniffed me, “and just in time, it seems.”

“What?” I rubbed away the telltale signs of an oncoming headache.

She waved her hand around in the air, like she was casting a spell.

“You shall go to the ball!” Her eyes lit up with a level of glee I had no wish to entertain.

“Lauren! Either get to the point or get out,” I snapped.

“Hmmm. See you’re still touchy. It’s Gramps’ birthday party. He’s announcing Nancy tonight, and you’re expected to be there.”

My stomach flipped, and not in the good way.

Fuck.

The thing with being in a totally self-absorbed mope – for want of a better word – the weeks kind of merge into one until you have no idea what day it is, what the date is, or even what the time is.

I’d totally missed the calendar.

Not that I had any intention of going anyway, not to a place where the sharks would be circling for my blood.

“I’m not going.”

Lauren’s head fell back in a loud, forced laugh. “Yeah, good one, Penny. You’re going.”

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