10. Staked Your Claim

10

STAKED YOUR CLAIM

“ I ’m fucked,” Easton said the next morning when he was talking to Abe.

It was their weekly Sunday call to catch up on business and anything else going on that he was able to put off.

“What’s going on?” Abe asked.

“I went on another date with Laurel last night.”

“Damn,” Abe said. “I think you covering for me is working for you and messed me up. I’m the neighbor. It should be me and not you.”

“Don’t go there,” he said.

“That growl said it all,” Abe said. “You staked your claim. Got it.”

“We aren’t in tenth grade anymore.”

“Nope,” Abe said. “And Laurel isn’t Elise Stanley either.”

He snorted. Elise was the wet dream of all the boys back in the day. Everyone wanted her attention and neither he nor Abe got it.

They weren’t good enough, but it didn’t stop many from trying. “Where the hell is she now? Do you know?”

“She’s married to someone old enough to be her father with a shit ton of money. She’s the pampered little housewife she always wanted to be,” Abe said. “Living in Greenwich, I believe, with a summer home in Mystic.”

“Good for her,” he said. “Glad she got what she had coming to her.”

Abe laughed. “You’re a dick.”

“Just like Elise likes those old wrinkly ones. Wonder if her husband can get it up anymore.”

Abe was laughing so hard he was probably bent over with tears in his eyes. “Now I know something is going on because you’re being a jerk on purpose. You never say insulting shit like that unless you want to distract me.”

Aunt Carrie would smack him upside the head if she’d heard this conversation. “Maybe,” he said.

“You’re the one who said you were fucked. I’m guessing you didn’t get fucked and maybe that is your frustration?”

He didn’t want Laurel talked about like that and that just told him how messed up this whole situation was for a short period of time.

“We’ve had two dates,” he said.

“So?” Abe said. “In your past, you might not have had one date before you brought a woman home. When I used to go visit you in college, I heard enough about it from Liam.”

Liam and he were roommates their freshman year and then just continued for those four years before he went to law school.

“Liam always exaggerated because he wasn’t good with women,” he said.

“Not everyone has your confidence,” Abe said. “Unlike me. It’s just we are different people and attract different women.”

He was glad everyone thought he was confident when most of the time he never felt it.

“And that is why I’m fucked,” he said.

“Tell me,” Abe said.

“Things were going well,” he said. “I told you about her dickhead ex.”

“You did.”

“I learned more about him. The dude won’t eat with his fingers,” he said.

“Jesus, is he royalty or something?”

“Sounds like he thinks he is,” he said. “But the point is, we got talking about types and she said she learned her lesson there. To go for what she always did rather than trying something different.”

“Okay,” Abe said. “What’s her type?”

“You,” he snarled. “She fucking wants someone who has manners, is rough around the edges, isn’t afraid to get dirty.”

Abe was roaring with laughter. “Damn,” Abe said. “I knew I should have introduced myself before you came. But you described yourself too, so not sure about the issue.”

“She hates lawyers. Said they are all smooth talking and have to win at everything. You can’t trust them. Doesn’t like men in suits because flashy means high maintenance. Dude, stop laughing or you're going to wet yourself.”

“Sounds like you’re in a bind,” Abe said.

“You think?” he said sarcastically.

“You’re quick on your feet. You can figure this out.”

“I’m not sure how.”

“It seems to me you’ve got two options. One, don’t tell her and let it play out. Maybe things fizzle and you leave soon and move on and I come back home and when she finds out the truth, you’re long gone and I get my shot.”

“Asshole,” he said.

His cousin still hadn’t stopped laughing. “Or you tell her the truth. Say that you didn’t think to say it beforehand. That she just assumed you were the owner of the business. As you said, it’s two dates. You’re not the type to talk much on the first one.”

“No,” he said. “I didn’t. Nothing more than the work we were doing. She even mentioned I didn’t talk much.”

“There you go. On the second date you were getting to know each other and once she said what she had, you were afraid she was going to make a scene in public.”

“That would only cause her to make a scene if I said that,” he said. Though what Abe was saying so far did have merit.

“You’re better at phrasing things than me. It’s that smooth-talking lawyer in you.”

“Now you’re being the dick,” he said.

“And anyone listening to you talk right now wouldn’t even think you were an attorney, so remember that,” Abe said seriously.

“You’ve got a point.”

“You’ve got a fancy career and put on the professional business attire and persona when you’re working. When you’re not, you’re what she is looking for. If she is going to judge you completely on your career and how you might dress for it when you go into the office, then she doesn’t sound much different than Rachelle.”

“Not even close,” he said.

“Doesn’t sound it to me. Rachelle was all for your career and not what you were like outside of it. So their likes are reversed, but it’s still someone that isn’t accepting of the whole you.”

“You’re right,” he said.

“Wow. Mom!” Abe yelled. “Easton just told me I was right.”

“Jerk,” he said. “Now she is going to want to know what is going on.”

“Yep,” Abe said. “She’s rolling this way. She wants to talk to you.”

He ground his teeth. “Hi, Aunt Carrie.”

“What’s going on, Easton?”

He could lie but didn’t want to do that to the woman who was more of a mother to him than anyone else ever had been.

He filled her in but kept some details and swear words out of it. “I’m not sure what to do.”

“Believe it or not, Abe isn’t one hundred percent right.”

“I know he’s not,” he argued. “Can you tell him that?”

“I will,” Aunt Carrie said. “But he is right in that she might be someone who can’t accept the whole you. You’re more than your career and Rachelle couldn’t accept that. Laurel is seeing the real you and that is what she needs to be reminded of. What you do in an office in your house behind a computer isn’t what she has in her mind as an attorney. Though I find it very judgmental and hate that, it seems she has reason to be that way.”

“She admitted it was wrong of her to say what she had when I called her out on it, but said she was raw.”

“Then there is hope if she acknowledges that she knows it is wrong. The longer you wait to tell her, the harder and worse it will be. You’ll figure out what to say, but my advice is, that date number three has to be the truth. If you don’t do it then, then she has every right to be pissed off.”

“I thought the same thing,” he said.

“How long do you think you’re going to wait before you talk to her?” Aunt Carrie asked.

“If I don’t do it today then it most likely won’t be until next weekend. I’ve got too much going on during the week. The same as her.”

“Then you know what you need to do. We are here if you want to talk.”

“I know,” he said. “Thanks.”

“And, Easton. If she gets mad, it happens. Some people need time for information to sink in. Just like you told her at dinner yesterday. It’s what happens the day or so after she knows that matters.”

“Good advice,” he said.

“I’ve been known to have it now and again. And here is Abe. He at least stopped laughing.”

“That’s something,” he said.

His cousin got back on. “I heard what Mom said.”

“Good,” he said. “Then we don’t need to talk about it again. Let’s go over business.”

They talked for another thirty minutes, then hung up and he sent a text to Laurel asking if she was busy. If she had time to talk.

He was pretty sure the nature of that text would already light the flares to go off, but better than taking her unaware again.