Chapter Text
“Can I ask you a question?” He was lying flat on his back, the top of his head pressed against one arm of the short couch while his ankles overhung the other. His left hand was relaxed over his stomach while his right arm was angled up against the cushion, hand curled on his forehead. He was staring at the rectangle foam panels of the false ceiling, wondering how his life had come to this. Come to lying on a too-short couch in an expensive custom-tailored suit and wingtips worth more than Jay’s car payment.
He knew that was true. The car thing. Jay had bitched about it for a week.
A slight scoff interrupted the constant scratch of pen on paper. It was the only acknowledgement of his question.
“Was there ever a point where you hated having the money?”
The pen carried on scratching on the paper. The desk chair creaked a bit and then he listened to the wheels against the plastic floor protector. There was a soft clatter of a shoe being slipped off and then the chair creaked louder. A throat was cleared.
Blake turned his head, readjusting himself so he was staring across the room and across her desk.
Nadine was staring back at him sitting back in her chair, elbow resting on the arm rests. Sure enough, she had one foot tucked up under her. Once their eyes met, she offered him a quick smile. “It’s different for me.”
He sighed, returning his focus to the ceiling. “I was afraid of that.”
He expected her to go back to working and ignoring him, but he didn’t hear her pick up her pen.
He started counting holes in the ceiling tile directly above himself.
“Blake?”
“Money is stupid.”
In his periphery he saw her lean forward and rest her weight on the desk. “I don’t think you mean that.”
“No. I do.” He did.
“I think it’s a matter of perspective.” She stood but he kept staring at the ceiling. He listened to a chair be dragged across the carpet until it was close. She settled into it with a sigh. “I came from a blue collar family. College degrees were nonsense. Of course, attempting to dance professionally, or at all, was nonsense too, but… My mother cried about my prospects at getting married and having a family if I was too educated. What man wanted a wife with a law degree?”
His lips twitched toward a smile at the thought of Nadine as a stereotypical Fifties housewife.
She must’ve caught it because she laughed. “I couldn’t stand the thought of being dependent on someone else my whole life. It was hard. I spent a lot of Roman’s childhood worrying about bills.”
She went quiet so long he ducked his chin to look at her face.
“The first year I earned six figures? I didn’t spend a dime extra of it. Or the next. Or the next.”
“Six figures…I had more than that in the bank by the time the ink on my birth certificate was dry.”
“I know.”
“Money makes people weird.”
“I’m pretty sure you were already weird.”
That it rolled off her tongue so fast, as if she’d been waiting ages for the right moment to say it, made him grin. He looked down again. She was grinning too.
“That’s why you don’t live like you have money.” Her right hand lifted as if she was about to make some point and then waved a bit before landing back in her lap. “I live like I do now because I feel I’ve earned it. We’re both single and yet my apartment is three times the size of yours and my car worth four times as much. I know what your family’s company is worth and while your wardrobe is just as expensive as mine, you don’t live rich otherwise. You aren’t a season pass holder to the Kennedy Center.”
“No.”
“But I hazard a guess money isn’t what’s holding you back.”
“No.”
“What’s eating at you, Blake?”
He lifted one foot in the air and stared at it a moment before dropping his leg back down. “Jay talked for a week about my shoes.”
“Jay is your friend.”
“Why is everyone so obsessed with money?”
“Society tells us to be.”
Wasn’t that the truth. “Maybe I should talk to Elizabeth about this.” A thought crossed his mind. “Your upbringing sounds a lot like Henry’s.”
“I know.” When he looked at her again, her left shoulder lifted and dropped. “He and I talk.”
“Elizabeth hates talking about money too.”
“She does.”
“It doesn’t make the problems go away.”
“No. It doesn’t.” She leaned forward, patting his thigh and then leaving her hand there. The warm spot almost felt like a hug to him. “You can still talk to me about anything. I’m not going to look at you differently if you have to bring up that part of your life.”
“I know.” Which, he did. “My parents asked me to meet them at the lawyer’s office.” He tipped his face down again.
She had her head tipped to one side. “For what reason?”
“Among other things? To sign over the remainder of my inheritance from my grandparents to me.”
“Which includes?”
“Stocks, several bank accounts, and two properties.” He sighed. “And their part ownership in the family business. I’m not looking forward to going.” This was why he’d come in here and taken up residence on her couch. There wasn’t anyone else in his life he could admit these things to, Elizabeth included.
“Why’s that?”
“There’s a lot of technical legal stuff and I’m never certain where the lawyer’s loyalties lie. He’s been the family lawyer and the company lawyer for decades and I can’t quite shake the feeling that he’s going to do what’s best for the business, my individual needs be damned.”
“Well… it sounds like you need to show up with your own lawyer.” He arched a brow at her and she straightened her back, extending her arms out and nodding her head forward in a kind of seated bow. She sank back again, hand returning to his leg.
“You’d really do that for me?”
“In a heartbeat.” She flashed a playful smirk at him. “I’ve heard you can afford my rates.”
He laughed at her joke and this time the crack about his wealth didn’t create a gnawing hole in his chest. He sat up, turning to put his feet on the floor. They were so close that his right knee had to slot between hers but she didn’t back off, only moved her hand to his knee.
“Meet with your family. I will come with you, just let me know when.” She waited till he nodded to go on. “And then maybe take me with you when you go look over those properties. Where are they, anyway?”
“They had a summer property on Nantucket Island and a winter property on Saint Thomas.” He could see her doing her best not to react with surprise and chuckled. “I’ll take you. You don’t even have to ask.”