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SPENCER
Spencer emerged from his room, prepared to tell his cousin off, firstly for suggesting that Harley come talk to him face-to-face, and secondly, for not warning him. That’s when he realized Lily was still here. He assumed she had left.
Spencer dropped his head to avoid meeting her stare, hoping to remain invisible. Quietly, he detoured into the kitchen and opened the refrigerator. He pretended to search for something with the hope of making a beeline back to his room without being noticed.
It had taken everything in him to not run to Harley. But she was back with Isaac. And Spencer wasn’t ready for the breakup talk.
Lily’s head popped up over the refrigerator door, she shut the door on him.
“That was rude,” she scolded.
“I didn’t do anything. So how could it be rude?” he answered coolly.
“Don’t give me that.” Lily spun around to add Zane to her accusation. “And you, Zane. Why did you lie to Harley like that?”
“Lil, it isn’t our place to get involved. This is between Spencer and Harley.” Zane answered and took her hand.
Lily threw a nasty look in Spencer’s direction. “Except Spencer can’t bother to answer Harley’s calls, and then he hides out like a big chicken when she shows up here.”
“I’m not chicken,” Spencer countered.
“Could’ve fooled me,” Lily accused, her eyes narrowing into slits.
“Look, Lil,”—Zane pulled her away from Spencer and into his own arms—“we need to let them deal with this.”
“Then tell your cousin to face his problems and stop running away.”
Zane shot him a look that said, “Just listen to Lily.”
“I thought you weren’t getting involved.” This is why he would’ve stayed in his room had he known Lily was still here. He didn’t need her getting involved.
Maybe this was the problem with dating your friends. When it was over, they were still in your life. The thought made his stomach hurt. He wanted Harley to stay in his life. But how? How could he look at her, knowing she had left him to go back to Mr. Lame?
That guy was more of a jerk than she ever knew.
“Why would you lie for him?” Lily folded her arms and asked Zane.
Harley may not want to be with him, but he wasn’t going to do anything to make the situation worse. “Lily, I’m not the one with a problem.”
“Are you insinuating that Harley has a problem?” Lily retorted nastily.
“If that’s what you want to call him, then yes,” Spencer said calmly.
“Him who?” Lily snapped, her brows pinched in confusion. “What are you talking about?”
“It doesn’t matter.” Spencer grabbed a beer and shut the refrigerator door. Popping it open he took a long sip.
“Do you still care about her?” Lily persisted.
“Lil, please understand that I am not trying to be rude, but it’s not my place anymore.”
“Why not? Spencer, she’s—”
“She’s better off with Isaac.” Spencer brushed by Lily on his way towards his bedroom.
“Why would you even say that? Harley doesn’t care about Isaac!”
“If that’s what she told you, then she’s been about as honest with you as she has been with me.”
Lily’s eyes widened with shock. “What on earth are you talking about?”
“Lil, I know you love Harley like a sister, and that’s why I can’t talk about this anymore. You kids have fun, I’m out.”
Shutting his bedroom door, he climbed back in bed and turned on the television.
He missed Harley.
SPENCER WAS LATE THIS morning for the meeting with the security firm. They were heading into the next phase of the project, and this was a mandatory step. Not one he was looking forward to.
Maybe that was why he hadn’t wanted to get out of bed this morning. Or why he’d taken his time on his earlier conference call, or maybe it was why he’d taken a little longer at the morning meeting with his boss. But, even with good reasoning, he was, in fact, late.
Rushing into the conference room, he stiffened his body, preparing for some stupid comment from Isaac.
Or, maybe, with any luck, Isaac would have skipped the meeting. Was it too much to hope for that Isaac was maybe unexpectedly called out of town?
Nope. When he entered the room, the first person to look up at him was Mr. Lame himself.
“There he is, ladies and gentlemen.” Isaac obnoxiously clapped alone as Spencer entered the room. “So glad you could join us this morning, Spencer, albeit late.” He then mumbled out of the side of his mouth, as if he was hiding it from Spencer, “And that, ladies and gentlemen, is not a good quality in a leader.”
“Oh, is it still morning?” Spencer asked sarcastically, ignoring Isaac’s comment, and looked at his watch, then back at Isaac. “I’ve had so many conference calls already today that I figured it was at least two in the afternoon by now.”
He gritted his teeth and tried to keep his composure. Isaac was not going to get the best of him today. Spencer refused to let him.
“Yes, it is still morning, and I hope you don’t mind, but we started without you. We do have a schedule to keep.” Isaac turned to the screen and began talking about what they expected in the next phase of the project.
Everything Isaac pointed out, Spencer’s team had already planned and prepared for. This guy was so smug that he thought he was going to come in here and rule the place.
“Excuse me,” Ricky interrupted Isaac. “I believe that everything you’re going over is in the documents we all received last week.”
Spencer’s cell phone buzzed. Pulling it from his pocket, he glanced at the screen. It was a text message reminding him of an afternoon conference call, but he acted like it was an important notification. Looking back at his team gathered around the table and the few folks from Isaac’s team, he said with a grin, “Well, folks, I have another meeting that needs my attention. Since my team has already been prepped on the next phase, I am going to leave you in the capable hands of my associate, Ricky.”
Spencer needed this for his own mental health. There was no good reason to subject himself to Isaac any longer, when Ricky was more than qualified to finish this project.
Panic hit Ricky’s face, and all the color drained from his cheeks.
“Ricky has been the lead on this project since the beginning; he can answer any question that I can. You’ll be reporting to him for the rest of the meeting.”
Isaac glared at him, unamused. “You’re just leaving?”
Feigning an apologetic look, Spencer replied, “Like I said, I’m a busy person.” He shrugged.
Before excusing himself from the conference room, he pulled Ricky off to the side.
Spencer was done with Isaac today. The man had no power over him anymore. This was his office, and he didn’t have to stand here and take that kind of abuse from a client.
“Ricky, you know this project inside and out. I need you to run point for the meeting—actually for the rest of the project. I’ll be in my office if you need me.”
“Are you sure, boss?” Ricky asked, the shock of his suggestion showing on his face.
“Absolutely. I have complete faith in you. You were one of the leads on this project when it was in the infant stages. You got this!” Spencer patted him on the shoulder.
Unconvinced, Ricky nodded with a nervous smile. “Okay. And you’ll be at your desk?”
“No, I’m actually going to work the rest of the day from home. You can get me by text, email, or phone.”
“If you’re sure?” Ricky asked again.
“Ricky, you’re my right-hand man. You know this job as well as I do. I trust you, now you need to trust you.”
Ricky turned towards the board room, and then a grin filled his face. “Yeah, I got this. I’ll call if I need anything.” He puffed his chest out and marched back to the meeting.
SPENCER PUT HIS SOCK-clad feet up on the coffee table. He used his bare hand to scoop the sugary cereal from the box and into his mouth. It was Saturday morning, well, almost afternoon, and he wasn’t planning on leaving his apartment today. He had a full day planned of eating cereal, cookies, and ice cream, washing it down with some beer, and binging on sports.
His cousin was moving more of his boxes to Lily’s apartment today, and as of this afternoon he would be all on his own for the first time ever.
Next weekend was the big day. Zane was moving the big furniture items and he was supposed to move in with Harley.
“Wow, you only look like this”—Zane waved his hand at Spencer and the hot mess that he was today—“when you’re pining over Harley. Why don’t you just call her?”
“I’m not going to call her,” he replied flatly.
He was no stranger to this level of miserableness. This was exactly how he’d felt last Valentine’s Day, when he thought Isaac was proposing to Harley. Now, here he was, a little shy of one year later, and another tin of cookies waited for him in the kitchen.
“Why not? Don’t you think this is all very strange? There is no good reason that Harley would go back to Isaac. I was there. I saw how happy she was with you. I never saw that smile on her face when she was with Isaac. And she is not a glutton for punishment. She would not willingly go back to that life.”
“Z.” Spencer continued to stare at the television screen. He was tired of people telling him what to do. “No offense, but just stay out of this.”
Spencer wasn’t going to play this game with Harley if she’d already made her choice—even if that choice was Isaac.
“Sorry, cuz, I am part of this, whether you like it or not. I live with you—”
Spencer interrupted him. “Not anymore.”
“Okay, that’s enough!” Zane exclaimed. He shoved Spencer’s feet from the coffee table. “Get up and get dressed. I have an hour before I’m supposed to meet Lily. First of all, you are stronger than this. Second, you’re going about this all wrong. Even if she is back with Isaac—which I do not believe for one second—you need to fight for her. I witnessed something I never thought I would. You, the ladies’ man, fell in love with Harley. You became a one-woman man because of her!”
He had. And it was the first time he’d ever loved anyone.
“Yes, and I still love her. I always will. But she wants things that I could never give her. She wanted a husband that could provide stability for her. She wanted a house that was a home, and a loving relationship. Does this look like stability to you?” Spencer pointed at his holey sweatpants and old t-shirt. “Maybe he is what she needs.”
“You are really clueless.” Zane shook his head. Taking a deep breath, he threw his hands in the air. “Fine. You win. If you truly believe that, then you’ve already lost her. But I think if you would take one second to really think about what you just said, you’d see you give her every one of those things. And she knows it, too. You are very wrong about all of this. But, cuz, you do you.”
He watched as Zane all but gave up on him. His cousin grabbed his coat and stormed out.
Spencer didn’t like fighting with his cousin. Especially now that he was moving out for good. The only consolation was that Spencer knew from experience that Zane never stayed mad at him for long. But he was left with the raw feeling that his cousin had given up on him for the first time ever.
