Page 10 of Unconditionally With Me
~Julian~
“Karlson, this is a deal breaker,” I state unequivocally.
“But Julian, there’s no one on staff who has the connections you do. If you don’t write the column, we’re going to lose readership.”
There are times when Karlson Rice is absolutely my uncle, and there are times when he is indisputably my editor-in-chief. Right now, I’m dealing with the second. I’m tempted to tell him andCity Lightsto go hang, when the one voice that can offer any reason speaks up. “Karlson, learn from your mistakes,” my twin brother, Jonas, urges. Pushing away from where he’s been listening to us debate for the last thirty minutes, he enters the debate on my side. Always.
Our uncle glares at me as if it’s my fault I fell in love and no longer want to be known as “The Gossip Guy,” the consummate bachelor hitting every trendy nightspot around town.
I’d much rather be waiting for my wife to come home from work so we can cook together, laugh fiercely, with maybe a few kids crawling in between our feet. No, that’s not right. I want to be waiting for Elle.
Only her.
I can see the toll my job’s beginning to take on her, the nights when I don’t come in until three or four in the morning—when I manage to make plans with her at all. After three years, we’re still maintaining separate residences, and I’m so over it. I want her by my side every moment we don’t have to be apart.
And I’m not fooled by the dimming shine in her violet eyes or the dullness of her voice when she accepts I have to work. Something has to change, or I’m going to lose her. I’m certain of it.
“Well, what the hell am I supposed to do?” Karlson yells.
“Have you thought of letting Chelsea write a column? She knows more about the ins and outs of what’s going on in this city than either me or Jonas do,” I suggest. Chelsea is Karlson and his late wife, Lucy’s, only child. She’s one of our editors, who’s let more mistakes slip through that have turned Karlson’s rich dark hair silver as he’s had to print more retractions and offer more apologies than he cares to admit.
But I’m not wrong. She’d be a hell of a columnist. She has the perfect bubbly personality that evokes gossip out of complete strangers. And in her case, they happen to be the kind who have no problem dropping thousands of dollars on handbags at places like Bergdorf Goodman.
“Chelsea? That’s…” Karlson trips over his own tongue as he gives the idea some thought.
“Brilliant, Julian,” Jonas applauds. “Not only would it get her out of editing—”
“Stopping that nightmare lying in wait every morning,” I mutter.
Jonas swallows a laugh. “It will put her talent with people to good use. But what are you going to do, Julian?”
I lean forward and press my mouth against my steepled hands. “I love the writing, but I haven’t thought about what I want to do next,” I admit.
“So, I won’t lose you.” Karlson’s relief comes out in a whoosh.
“No, but I refuse to be ‘The Gossip Guy’ any longer.” Standing, I point a finger in his direction. “You’ve got two weeks to get it arranged.”
“And you have two weeks to figure out what you want to do next,” he fires back.
“Done.” We shake hands over the deal that I know will be in the form of a contract on my desk by the end of the business day.
But instead of letting me go, Karlson tugs me forward and wraps me in a hug. “She’s perfect for you, son.”
I pull back and grin. “How did you know Elle was at the heart of this?”
“Because without his heart, a man is worth nothing. And your last few columns have lacked heart, Julian.”
Jonas outright laughs. I mutter, “Asshole,” and flick him off.
Karlson holds out an arm which my brother willingly steps into. There was a time not too long ago Jonas would have rebuffed him. My eye catches the pictures on the edge of my desk of the two women who fill every space of my soul: my Elle and my mom.I wish you could have met her, Mom. She’s a nut, but you would have loved her.And even as we end our moment of family unity, my heart swells knowing that though we might have been hurt by my mother’s loss, she left us knowing she would have adored the women we picked because she loved us.
Karlson makes an excuse to leave before Jonas asks, “Now what?”
“Are you busy for the rest of the day?” I don’t take my eyes off the pictures.
“No. What are you thinking?”
“I’m thinking it’s past time I bought Elle a ring.”
