A Sensitive Arrangement

Chapter 4

I slept in longer than I should have. Yesterday, I would have thought I'd be racing out of bed this morning, hoping to spend as much time with Julian as possible. But after last night, I found myself wanting to avoid him. No, not him, the conversation that would almost inevitably end up crushing my heart. Around noon, I finally trudged my way downstairs unable to put it off any longer. Ella, Olivia, and Julian were all in the kitchen.

Max must be working today, again. I couldn't remember the last time he took a full weekend off. After my father died, he hired a few more executives to help with the workload. It didn't quite make up for the shortfall, but it did mean he could take most Saturdays off. His right hand man had moved on to a different company a few months ago, and he was hesitant to hire anyone new. He kept saying he was looking at candidates, but we were all certain he was just dragging his heels until Julian could take up the position. Ella did not like this plan. Julian would be expected to get his MBA at Columbia after he graduated from college and she didn't want him taking on too much. But that's just what Callaway men did. She tried convincing Max that a year and a half was a long time to do it all on his own anyway, and he really should just hire someone new. But he insisted he was fine. Julian would help over the summer. And his final semester included a work placement anyway. Of course, most students would be getting people coffee during their internships, not helping run a multi-billion dollar company. But Julian had never been most people.

"Morning Sleeping Beauty." He smirked as I entered the room. I tried not to let my brain hear it as a compliment. He was just teasing me, the same way he always did.

"And you lecture me about not coming down for breakfast." Olivia chimed in.

"We saved some pancakes for you. They're in the oven, so they should still be warm." Ella smiled. Finally a genuine smile. I was beginning to think the Callaway family had forgotten what one was. Except that's not entirely true, because it was impossible to forget Julian's smile. I went to the oven and grabbed the stack of pancakes, bringing them with me to the kitchen island, where I perched myself on a stool.

"I'm guessing you slept well last night?" Olivia teased. In truth, I had and I hadn't. I spent most of the night tossing and turning. But when I finally did get to sleep I had a very appealing dream featuring me, Julian, and his lips. Except this time they weren't just on my forehead. Unfortunately, the morning sun had a nasty habit of waking me up and instead of going back to sleep, I just spent hours pining. Is this really what I had become?

"I slept fine." I answered, knowing that wasn't what she wanted to hear.

"Oh, Olivia, Caroline from the church called, she wanted to know if you could fill in for their pianist on Christmas Eve, apparently Mr. Brady has the flu." Ella said, launching into a conversation with her daughter. Taking their momentary distraction as an opportunity, Julian came along behind me, wrapping his arm around my waist and very deliberately placing his fingertips on my hip.

"Since some other guy is so inconsiderately occupying your time tonight, can you pencil me in for tomorrow? Christmas movies, literally all the Swedish Fish and Twix the store had, and maybe we could even talk." He whispered, close to my ear.

"Well I'm definitely in for the Christmas movies and candy, and I'll think about the talk." I replied.

"I'm humbled by your generosity." He was playing up his gentleman act. I knew he had perfected it, but he had never used it on me.

"I'll even write it in pen."I replied, trying to one up him. I wasn't as good at his game as he was, and he knew it.

"Somehow I doubt that's true." I could feel his breath tickling my ear. He was definitely winning.