15. Walked All Over

At the end of the day, Lilian was gathering her things to leave. Braylon hadn't been able to meet for lunch at one and since Stella barely left her alone for her lunch hour, if her boss was in the office, she wasn't considerate enough to make sure Lilian got her lunch hour.

"I need another thing from you," Stella said when she was getting ready to pack up her laptop.

"What's that?" she asked, turning to look at her watch. It was deliberate on her part. One of Stella's passive-aggressive moves to let it be known it was past her normal workday.

Lilian had been hired for eight to five. She was getting their morning coffee by seven one to two times a week and at night worked in the office until seven thirty every other day. Most times she worked through her lunch and the only times she actually got out at five was when Stella wasn't around.

Even when Stella left at five, she always gave Lilian work to be done and not enough time to do it in the morning.

"There are a few policies coming from legal that we need to make sure are incorporated and then distributed out to everyone. They want them out and signed by ten tomorrow."

"Okay," she said. "I'll get to it first thing in the morning."

"You're not going to stay and start them tonight?" Stella asked, crossing her arms.

"Sorry," she said. "I've got to get home and take care of a few things. I was gone all weekend. But it will be the first thing I prioritize to get it done before ten."

She never offered those facts about her life. Never cared if anyone knew. But she was sick of being walked all over and, after talking to Laken this weekend, she'd been given some pointers on how to handle her boss professionally while drawing boundaries.

She found it funny since Laken worked all sorts of hours and days, but she knew that was different than her job as an assistant.

"You better," Stella said. "You're not going to get anywhere here if you always push your work off until the last minute."

You mean like Stella just did to her. She'd bet anything Stella knew about all of this hours ago.

She'd never voice that thought.

"Thanks for the advice," she said nicely.

Stella moved away from her in a quick stride.

"That was funny."

Lilian turned to see Evan standing there with two other guys he worked with. They had to pass by her cubicle on their way out.

"What was?"

"The way you replied to Stella. Normally you don't speak up," Evan said.

"Maybe it's time that I did a little. I'm just trying to find the right way to do it. And it's not a lie. I need to get home and do a bunch of things."

"I heard you were gone all weekend," Evan said. "Out with your boyfriend?"

Evan's eyes dropped to her hand. Since he liked to talk it was nice to get this over with. "Yes. We went away for the weekend. Now I have things to take care of at my place."

"Did you guys know that Lilian is engaged to Braylon Carlisle?"

She wanted to groan over that direct statement. It's not like she was going to jump in and correct him.

"Doesn't look like there is a big fat ring on her finger that I'd think he'd give her," one of the guys said. She didn't know his name and didn't care to know it either.

"Where is your ring?" Evan asked.

"I jammed it and it fell onto the floor. I need to get it fixed. Does it matter whether I've got it on or not?"

Nothing she was saying was a lie. She just wasn't correcting them either. She didn't know why at this point since she was dating someone and people were leaving her alone. But if she admitted she'd lied before, would they doubt everything she might say?

"Nope," Evan said. "Just didn't know if maybe you broke up."

"Far from that," she said. "We were with some of his siblings this weekend."

Evan frowned. "West?"

"Does it matter?" she asked. "I don't ask a lot of questions about your personal life and what you do outside of work. You asked if Braylon and I broke up and the answer is no. Now if you'll excuse me."

"She's a feisty one," she heard at her back.

"Yeah. She didn't used to be," Evan said.

She might have to watch herself. She didn't want anyone to think it was going to her head that she had some shield in front of her because of her boyfriend.

A guy that she was holding her heart back from because she just didn't see how this could ever work out.

She left the building and walked home quickly. She had to call Quinn tonight and at least let her sister know she had a boyfriend.

On her way home, she stopped and picked up a few groceries. She and Braylon brought her things back when they returned to Manhattan yesterday, she got her laptop and some work clothes and then left quickly. But she needed to do laundry on top of buying some food.

Hours later, her food and laundry were put away and she knew Quinn would have Carson in bed for the night. Jocelyn might be too.

It was eight and she picked up her phone and called her sister.

"Hi, Lilian. You don't normally call me during the week. Is everything okay?"

"It is," she said. "I just wanted to let you know I went away this weekend...with my boyfriend."

"Oh," Quinn said. "I didn't know you were seeing anyone."

"For a little over a month at this point. I met three of his siblings this weekend."

"Three?" Quinn asked. "How many are there?"

"There are eight of them total. Braylon is the second oldest. And before you ask, he's nine years older than me."

"I can't say anything about that with Max being older than me too," Quinn said.

"You could have, but I'm glad you're not."

"How did you meet and what does he do?"

There was no way she was telling her sister the complete truth of how they met and she'd make sure Braylon knew that. Quinn would throw a fit and want her to come back home. Or send Max here to make sure everything was fine. That was the last thing she wanted.

She decided to skirt the truth some. "He works in the same building as me. He'd seen me getting coffee before and then we met in the elevator one day. We had lunch and it's gone from there."

"That's nice," Quinn said. "What does he do?"

"He's an attorney. He works for his brother," she said. She was still trying to figure this out in her head. How much she wanted to say.

"His brother is an attorney too?" Quinn asked.

"No," she said. There was no way to avoid this part. "His brother is West Carlisle."

"Why does that name sound familiar?" Quinn asked.

"Is Max home?" she asked.

"Yes."

"Tell him that name and see what he says."

"Okay," Quinn said. She heard Quinn ask, and Max say who West was. "It's not the same person, right?"

"It is," she said. "West is Braylon's older brother. He's the oldest. Then Braylon. As you can tell, it's a little bit out of my league and element."

"Is he trying to take advantage of you?" Quinn asked.

She started to laugh. "Hardly that. I'd think more would be worried I was after him for his money, but I didn't even know who he was for a few weeks."

"What did he say when he found out you didn't know?"

"He was happy in a way. I think he liked that part of it. He's down to earth when we are together. So are his siblings. I met West this weekend at his beach house in the Hamptons."

Quinn burst out laughing. "You know how funny that sounds right? I never thought either one of us would visit the Hamptons."

"Says the woman living in a multi-million dollar house in Lake Placid on the water."

"Good point," Quinn said.

"It's early yet," she said. "But I really like him. His sister gave me some pointers about work this weekend and that was nice too."

"That was nice of her," Quinn said. "Wish I could help you some, but office politics aren't quite my thing."

"They don't seem to be mine either, but I'm getting there." She thought of how she handled work this afternoon. She was proud of herself but wasn't sure what tomorrow would bring either.

"Isn't that life?" Quinn asked. "We have to learn."

"We do," she said. "I wanted you to know about Braylon. It's not like we see much of each other. I haven't even heard from him today. I might not. Or sometimes I get a text later at night or early in the morning. As you can imagine he works a lot. He travels too."

"Sometimes it's good to take things slow. I didn't have that luxury living under the same roof with Max."

She heard laughter in the background. "You were sneaking into my bed when the kids were sleeping. Don't play this off as I put pressure on you," Max said a little loud.

She giggled. "Quinn. That is horrible."

"He's lucky I don't smack his arm for saying that. But Lara is across the street at her friends and due home any minute and the other two are in bed."

"I will say, thanks to you, I've got relationship goals."

"Aww," Quinn said. "That's a sweet thing to say. Now I've got to go fill Max in on why I asked him who West Carlisle was. Do you think maybe Braylon would be interested in coming with you to Thanksgiving so that we can meet him?"

"I'll ask," she said. "I'm not sure. He said a few times a year his mother wants them all home. Thanksgiving and Christmas are those times, but he did mention they were all there this summer to meet West's girlfriend."

"Oh," Quinn said. "Do you think that might happen to you?"

"I don't even want to think of it right now," she said. Meeting siblings was one thing. Meeting someone's mother… She'd rather hold off as long as she could for that.