Page 14 of Crashing Into Me
Wow. She took another sip of her wine.
“A Cornell graduate?”
“Yes. Now you.”
“I live in Florida, where I went to the University of Florida and majored in Nursing. Why architecture?” she continued.
Lana was sure the decision had to do with his family’s business, but was still interested to hear it. Not everyone chose to follow their parents’ footsteps, and something about them intrigued her. He poured himself a drink from the decanter on the end table and took a sip. As he leaned forward, holding his short glass tumbler, he seemed to struggle with what to say.
“My parents, naturally. They started a small company here when we were just kids. It expanded and eventually so did we.”
“And now you’re in charge of the company?” she asked, and he smiled.
“No. Not yet, anyway. My mother is still seated as the CEO, and when she’s ready to step down, I’ll take over.”
He took another sip of his drink and stared at the glass.
“Why were you driving like a maniac on the way up here?”
“I’d had a shitty day, and as you know, because of my flask, I had a few drinks. I wasn’t thinking clearly, and I’m truly sorry for the entire ordeal.” he picked up his drink again, and she couldn’t help but look at it as he raised it to his mouth.
“Do you have a drinking problem?” she continued.
“Perhaps,” he set the empty glass down.
“Why were you in such a rush to get here?”
He looked at her expressionless, and she locked eyes with him now. Searching for truth, she wasn’t nervous or looking away this time, and he looked caught off guard and uneasy. He took a deep breath and turned to the fireplace.
“My brother Joel. He died five years ago yesterday, and his ashes are here. I come every year to pay my respects, and this year I was hoping to do that with Paula, but you know the rest of the story.”
His eyes grew dark as he said this, never looking at her, only at the fire. He picked the glass up and poured another drink.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know you had a brother who died,” she rested her wine glass down on the table.
He took another sip of his drink, pain trapped behind his eyes. He was good at guarding his feelings, she could tell, but she was better at spotting them in the most reluctant of people—a gift she acquired in her nursing profession.
“Of course not. I’m not surprised Paula didn’t fill you in about it. It’s our family’s dirty laundry. Best kept under the rug.”
“Do you mind me asking how it happened?” Lana sat closer to the edge of the couch, her eyes intense and sincere.
He could sense that she was genuinely interested in his story, so he rubbed his stubbly chin and took a deep breath before speaking.
“It was a car accident,” he said, looking down at the glass in his hands, staring at the amber liquid.
“It was after our annual Capshaw Realty Gala in Shelby, and we had both been drinking. I thought I was the soberest of the two of us and decided to drive instead of calling a cab like I should have. We were blasting music and singing, so I was distracted and wasn’t paying attention. With the road covered in black ice that night, I lost control of the car at around eighty miles per hour and crashed into a pole. He died on impact. I survived and...” he couldn’t finish. He swirled the drink around in his hand a few times, then gulped the last of it.
He reached for the decanter again, and Lana got up, walked over, and sat next to him as he poured another.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have asked,” she whispered.
She didn’t realize how close she was sitting to him until he turned his head to her, and they were almost nose to nose for the second time that day. This didn’t cause the usual reaction in her, though. This confession was way deeper for him, and she got the feeling he didn’t get to express what he’d been dealing with since it happened. He obviously had a lot of guilt and hadn’t forgivenhimself either, although he was looking for it from his family. He smiled weakly at her, his eyes glassy. She thought about taking his hand for a moment, feeling awful about coercing him into talking, but decided not to. She didn’t want to give him the wrong idea about her intention.
“It’s okay,” he replied.
He stood from the couch and walked towards the panoramic windows. Watching him, Lana realized she had judged him too quickly. There was more to him than good looks and arrogance, but that begged the question. If he felt this badly about his actions, why not be more cautious? Why continue to behave the same way that caused the tragedy in the first place? It didn’t make any sense to her.
“The accident is the reason I’m not the CEO right now. My mother blames me for losing her son and husband, and she doesn’t want me ruining everything they’ve built. Can’t say I blame her.”
