Page 21 of Tell Me Softly
“Does this mean you’ll stop messing with me, then?” I asked.
“I will if you do one thing for me.” There it was again, that sly grin.
“If it’s another kiss you’re thinking about, Thiago Di Bianco, you can forget it.”
He grunted, leaned back, and looked up.
“So I did all this for nothing.”
I smiled, but he couldn’t see.
***
The next morning, I got dressed in shorts and a T-shirt and went downstairs for breakfast. Dad was busy on the phone with someone, and my brother was chasing flakes of cereal around the bowl with his spoon. Mom was nowhere to be seen, and I can’t say I minded. I wasn’t in the mood to get grilled about where I’d been, who I was with, whether I made a good impression, whattime I got home… I sometimes felt like she was reliving her teenage years through me.
But then I heard that familiar voice behind me. “Kamila, what time did you come back last night?”
Rolling my eyes, I grabbed strawberries and milk out of the fridge. “Twelve or something, I don’t know.”
I spoke over my father, who was on the phone with some lawyer or accountant or something, shouting, “Impossible, I told you. That building was purchased more than three months ago; ask my secretary.” He was usually so calm, but he looked upset today. He was holding his cell phone so tight against his head, I was worried he’d crush it.
“Damn right I will!” he screamed. My mother, brother, and I all jumped in the air. She quickly regained her cool and asked, “Who brought you home, then?”
I was grabbing the blender from under the sink just then, and I pretended to be fiddling with it as I tried to come up with a convincing story. I couldn’t tell her it had been Taylor––she’d kill me if she found out.
“Kate’s brother did,” I lied, but at least there was a grain of truth to it––Julian had offered, after all. My brother turned on the TV in the corner and flipped to the cartoon channel.
“Kate’s brother? You mean the one her father tried to pretend didn’t exist for all those years?” Mom asked sternly.
“It’s her brother, Mom. He’s going to go to school with us, and I’m going to be hanging out with him. He needs it. He doesn’t even know anyone here.” To keep from having to hear her, I turned the blender on high and watched the strawberries disintegrate, turning the milk of my smoothie pink. She seemed to be waiting for me to finish so she could continue interrogating me, but that was when Dad walked back in. I guess he was done screaming at whoever was on the other line.
“I need to go out of town this weekend. There are problems with the company,” he said, for some inexplicable reason addressing this statement to me.
“Everything OK?” I asked, pouring my breakfast into a glass. He smiled, but it was hollow.
“Yeah, everything’s great, Kam. Nothing to worry about.” Then he turned to my brother: “Cameron, we’re going to have to put the park off for another day, OK?”
My brother was used to Dad canceling plans out of nowhere, so he nodded and kept chewing his cereal, barely paying any attention to him.
“Tell Prudence to pack my suitcase,” he said to my mother, who nodded, her mind clearly elsewhere. “Two suits and two shirts should do it. And my golf clothes. I’ll swing by to get it after a while, when I wrap things up at the office.”
“Bye, Dad,” I said, hugging him. My mother gave him a kiss on the cheek.
“Take care,” he said. “I’ll be back Tuesday afternoon.” And then he left.
“What’s going on with the company, Mom?” I asked.
“You know I don’t like to get mixed up in your father’s business, especially when he’s having problems. It gives me a headache.” She took a hand mirror out of her purse and started spreading scarlet lipstick across her lips.
“Are you going out?” I asked. Some timing. Cameron couldn’t stay by himself, and I had plans. I was going for a run, and then Ellie and I were headed to the mall for clothes and school supplies.
“Yeah, they’ve opened a new spa about an hour from here, and I want to go check it out. I won’t be home till late.” I tried to respond, but she cut me off: “So Cameron will have to stay with you.”
Looking over from the TV, my brother asked, “Can we go to the park, Kami?”
I wasn’t going to disappoint him in front of Mom, especially not after Dad had done so. Really, she should have stepped in, but asking her to act like a real mother would be like asking for a miracle.
“Sure, but I’m going for a run first. Mom, what time’s Prue coming?”
