His brother

15. Chapter

New York, United States
June

I went to the kitchen and grabbed my head, which was humming outrageously. I felt as if a herd of horses ran over her. I massaged my temples with my hands and poured mineral water into the glass. I drank and shoved Sahara in my mouth. I widened my eyes as all the memories from yesterday hit me like lightning. I grabbed my mouth, "For God's sake, for God's sake!" I wanted to sink underground from shame. I leaned against the kitchen counter and closed my eyes.

"Are you awake yet? How are you?" I raised my head to her and frowned, "Shannon, I will not forgive you for this! You got drunk without me! And with such a handsome man!" she shook her head in disbelief. Drinking alcohol has never been my thing and I'd rather avoid it from now on. I didn't know how to drink, I always got drunk quickly and suffered the next day.

"I'm going to kill you, Lacey! I shook such nonsense! And all because of you!" she raised an eyebrow.

"Because of me?"

"He overheard our conversation and he also heard me talking about it..." she held her mouth and held back her laughter, "then I told him drunk, for God's sake, such a shame!" and she started giggling like crazy.

"Stop laughing! He's going to fire me now! And only because of you!" she continued to laugh. I rolled my eyes, "I'll kill you!"

"I-I..." she laughed, "no-no-I can't," she kept laughing, "Phew, my stomach hurts," she calmed down after a while, "woman, it's getting worse with you more fun." she laughed. I gave her a nasty look and she raised her hands in a defensive gesture.

"He'll throw me out," I said.

"It won't throw out, don't worry. When he brought you in, he didn't look like he was going to throw you out. He is very sexy, Shannon. I'd jump on him right away, man." I rolled my eyes.

"Shut up! I'm warning you-" I was stopped by the beep of the message. I scrolled through my phone and opened the message.

Unknown number: I hope you are well. The boss

"It's him," I said and Lacey raised an eyebrow, "He's asking if I'm okay." she raised her eyebrows again, "jeez, Lacey" I rolled my eyes and answered yes. Soon my phone rang, "oh my god, he's calling me. He definitely wants to fire me. I can't. It's such a shame, for God's sake "I started to panic, tell him I died."

"Shannon, it's your boss," she laughed and left the room, "pick it up because you're really going to get fired!" she screamed.

"Fine!" I grunted and took a deep breath. I clicked to accept the call and he put the phone to my ear, "yes?"

"Good morning, Shannon. We fly to Paris on a business trip on Wednesday. Reschedule all my appointments for next week. Leave the ones that are on Monday and Tuesday as they are. I have emailed you all my appointments, meetings and negotiations. Make me a work diary for the whole month, except for Saturdays and Sundays, I don't work. We're staying in Paris for at least three days, a week at most." I listened to his every word.

"Yes, fine, fine," I said.

"Great, see you," he said.

"Mr. Grey?" I decided before he hung up, "I'm sorry about yesterday." and he didn't say anything to me, he just hung up.

"Great!" I commented ironically and got to work.

***

I sat on an uncomfortable chair among people and fidgeted nervously. I kept tapping my feet restlessly and my stomach was doing somersaults. At times I felt like I was going to drop out.

There were so many people and mostly strangers. My chest was tight and I wanted to cry. Lacey quickly squeezed my hand and reassured me.

"How can you be so damn calm!?" she smirked.

"Because I don't care," she shrugged and took a sip of her juice, but I doubted it enough that she only had orange juice. I rolled my eyes and tried not to collapse. I looked up nervously at the elderly gentleman in the robes.

,,..as the dean of New York University in New York, I took the liberty of inviting you to the ceremonial gathering of graduates and graduates of our faculty who have successfully completed their studies and will receive their university diploma. I consider it an honor to inform you on behalf of the professors and associate professors of the New York University in New York that there are graduates who successfully completed all the prescribed examinations today and completed their studies of the first level of higher education with the state examination. They have lived as it is required of university students and have met all the conditions of the United States of America, so they can be issued a diploma of completion of university studies and the academic title of bachelor based on the provision of section thirty-five, paragraph seven of the law number one hundred and twenty-one, two thousand two ." he spoke his long monologue.

"Is he trying to put me to sleep?" Lacey said, taking another sip of her orange juice.

"Shut up, please," Molly rubbed at her. I rolled my eyes and listened again to the monologue of the other older gentleman with black spots of gray hair.

"...they graduated with honors and were awarded an academic commendation by the Rector of New York University for excellent performance of their studies and duties during the entire three-year course," and when I finally heard mine after naming some names, I almost had a heart attack, "Shannon Wood born in Dallas.." I rolled my eyes. There was applause.

"For God's sake, it's me," I whispered to Lacey.

"Shannon, it's you! Get up!" she rubbed me.

"For God's sake, it's me!" I shot out of the chair so quickly that my legs buckled, but I stopped.

"Yes! It's you! So get out on stage! Congratulations!" I smiled and adjusted my blue robe. I walked to the stage and my nervousness was rising more and more. My hands were extremely sweaty, my knees were shaking and I felt like I was really going to fall off. I walked three steps and reached out to I squeezed it and accepted my red diploma from the last one.

"Dallas born Lacey Davies graduated successfully" I clapped along with the others and Lacey stood.

"Well, screw me!" I hugged her and went to get my blue diploma.

"Molly Gelbero born in New York" we smiled at her and she also went to get her diploma.

"We did it!" all three of us squealed and hugged each other.

"I didn't believe that I could do it! That we made it! And you have a red diploma to go with it, amazing!" Lacey shouted.

"Shannon, Shannon!" cried little Rose. I turned and she threw her arms around my neck.

"I'm proud of you, daughter." I looked at my father and smiled.

"Hi, Dad."

"Congratulations Shannon, I'm proud of you," her ringing voice said. She smiled and showed off a row of perfect white teeth.

"Thank you, Rebecca," I reluctantly hugged her.

"Congratulations, little carrot," I rolled my eyes at him, "come here, little sister." he reached out to me and pulled me into a brotherly hug.

"Thank you, Matthew," I said.

I got a message beep.

"I'm here too, if you're interested!" Lacey said.

I clicked on the message and blinked in surprise.

Boss: Congratulations on your red diploma, you're forgiven.

"Three, two..." she called from the microphone and all the students ran to the stage, "one!" and everyone threw their caps in the air..

and the feeling was indescribable. All that stress fell away from me and was replaced by genuine joy.