Page 70 of Great Pretender
Chad
“Where do you want this stuff?” Murray asks, picking up the box of paperwork I just put together.
“That can go in the attic, too.I don’t know why I thought I needed to keep all this stuff around.”
“I don’t know why you thought you needed a room for it.A person could live in here.”
“I agree.”
He laughs, looking around my former storage room.
Storage as in the room you put anything in you can’t be bothered to find a home for or throw away.I’m refurbishing the room so Piper can use it as an office.
She moved back in last night.
She’s here, back in the house, and her mere presence makes the house feel complete again.
The emptiness is gone from inside and outside me, and it feels like I’ve been given a new life.One where I get the chance to truly show her how much I love her, and without the fake everything.
Nothing is fake now, and I don’t have to hold back on how I can feel.
I’m like a fish out of water without the team and working at the company, but I will find a way.I’ll have to.
I messed that all up on my own, and Dad hasn’t spoken to me since that night.That’s been almost a week.
I haven’t gone back to clean out my office yet because that would mean seeing dad, facing him and my disappointment as a son.
Murray is the only contact I have, and he’s told me that he hadn’t been updated yet on what’s happening with me at work.He only knows what happened because I told him.
“I think we’re probably done here,” Murray says.
“Cool. We can start on the floor tomorrow then.” The floor needs to be cleaned before the decorators come by.I want to make sure everything looks nice for Piper.
Murray places the box on top of the others we need to carry to the attic and looks back at me with a cautious expression.He’s been here for over an hour, and I know he’s wanted to talk about work but hasn’t.I’ve been worried about what might happen to him now that I’m not there.
“There are interviews tomorrow with some of the players, so I think I might head out.”
“That’s fine.” I nod. Those interviews are the ones I set up with our PR company.
“Don’t you miss it?”
“Of course I do, and what’s worse is I don’t know what to do about my father.”
“Have you spoken to him?”
“No.”
At least my mother has called me.That softened the blow because when I didn’t hear from either of my parents for a few days, I thought they’d cut me off.
I wouldn’t have been able to hold that against them.What I did was enough, and I embarrassed my father in front of Georgiou too.
“Don’t you think that maybe you should try to speak to him?”
“No, everything is still too raw.”
“Well, maybe that’s true. I haven’t really seen your father at work, and Georgiou looks like the thrill of being in charge is gone because you are.”
“I don’t care anymore about getting one over on him.That’s how shit started in the first place.” It doesn’t surprise me that the thrill of being in charge is gone because Georgiou can’t do shit to belittle me.
