A Summer Like No Other

Chapter 16 - Nick

"Let me walk you." I lean against the door as Em puts on her flip-flops. "Let me do the gentleman thing here." I smile my most charming smile, the one that usually gets me out of trouble easily.

"I need some time alone," she says.

"You're breaking my heart," I tease her, but I'm not getting the expected reaction.

"Am I?" she mutters, looking up at me and then glancing away. "I can walk the ten minutes by myself. I need a bit of time anyways." She pauses. "I'll call you after I talk to them."

"Okay. I'm going to talk to my dad again. Not that I have high hopes for what he's going to tell me." We stand in front of one another awkwardly.

I've never noticed until now how much preparation or thought there is behind saying goodbye to someone. Should I hug her? And if I hug her, for how long? And I think Em got my balls tied somewhere in her bag.

She leans forward at the same time as I do and we barely avoid a head-on collision. This time, she smiles and it's genuine and it's making it difficult to not pull her to me. Like this morning, in the guest bedroom. She's going through such a tough time and all I think about it tasting her lips again, feeling her body underneath mine, making her laugh, discovering every inch of her skin, forgetting the real world and creating our own.

She grabs her picnic basket and kisses my cheek quickly before hurrying out of the door. My eyes follow her silhouette until she disappears around the corner.

"Nick!" my father yells from his office. He's been here all along and he hasn't even come out to acknowledge Em's presence. Way to go, Dad. Way to show me how to be a man.

"Nicholas!" he calls again and I slam the door.

"What?"

"I need to talk to you." His voice sounds super calm, and it's always a bad omen when he's too Zen.

I'm tempted to ignore him. Ignoring him would only anger him though, so that might not be the best strategy.

"I'm coming," I reply and drag my feet past the dining room into his large office. His diplomas are all over the wall and above the fireplace, he has a portrait of his own father, the one who started Grawski & Sons. He's staring at me like I've done something wrong. Pretty much the same look my father has right now.

"We need to talk, son. Please, sit down," he says, gesturing to one of the two empty leather chairs in front of his imposing desk. I lick my dry lips. Em's kiss seems so far away. "What's going on?" I ask.

He taps his index finger on the globe standing by his lamp. He's the one who asked to see me, who summoned me in here, who made it seem like it was urgent, but now he has all the time in the world. One of his many tactics. He stops tapping and purses his lips before answering. "I understand you want to have fun this summer, but is Emilia really the best choice you have?"

"You used to like Emilia and her family," I reply.

"Used to being the operative words here, son. And I need you to think very carefully about all of this."

"Do you need be to be so careful because of Em's adoption? Why don't you answer me? Why don't you tell me why you even know something about it?"

"This has nothing to do with her adoption. And her adoption has nothing to do with what I'm telling you right now. Em's a good girl. She's smart and pretty, I get it. But she's not the one for you. She has a lot of baggage, and her future is uncertain." He pauses. "You and I have a deal."

I cringe but nod.

"Do I need to remind you that if you do not fulfill your side of the agreement, I will stop all donations to the school, I will stop paying your tuition, I will step down as member of the foundation."

"I remember," I reply. If he steps down as member of the foundation, I'm pretty sure my career will be doomed. It would be hard to hire someone whose father brought down such a prestigious institution like the School of Performing Arts. And I have no doubt he would do it without blinking.

"You're supposed to actually show up at work this summer. You're only interning three days a week—that's not a lot."

"I know. And I'm sorry. I'll be there on Monday."

"Fine." He crosses his arms. "I also wanted to talk to you about your mother."

"We should go see her. We used to go see her when she went to the spa. Make a field trip out of it."

He sets his elbows on the desk, leaning forward. "I don't have time. Work is very busy."

"Driving from New York to Connecticut takes about two to three hours. It's not that far and if we go with the driver, you could still work in the car." I hate my voice for sounding needy. Like I'm back to being a ten-year-old begging for him to go trick-or-treating with me.

He blinks once, but then leans back in his chair. "Your mother and I are having some issues."

"I know." I lean back in mine, mirroring his gesture. I know all his tactics to destabilize the person in front of him and I won't let him win.

He clears his throat—very unlike him. "We're thinking about getting separated for a bit."

"I know," I say again, staring at him, analyzing his face to see if there's any hint of regret. There's nothing. Only exasperation that I don't do as he pleases.

"Anyways. Enough about that." He pauses. "I have something else to ask you."

I don't like where this is going. He only asks me to do stupid things for his job: run errands, show up at fundraisers, and spend time with the daughters of possible clients. Like Jen five months ago. Like Maria ten months ago. I do change girlfriends very easily and he's not to blame, but some of those girls I only dated because of him.

"I need you to entertain Jen again."

Shit. I can't do that now. Not with everything that's going on with Em.

I raise an eyebrow. "Are you pimping me out?"

"Watch your mouth." He squares his shoulders and leans forward on his desk again, boring his eyes into mine and tapping his fingers on the lamp. "I'm only reminding you of our deal."

I don't want to think about our deal. Not when it can hurt Emilia,

"Our deal was for me to behave and to think about my options. Not to screw some random girl because you said so."

Dad slams his fist on the desk in a rare outburst of emotion. "I never asked you to screw her. I would never ask you to do anything like that. I only want you to remember that you have duties here too. It's not only do-as-you-please at your dance school, it's not only about what Nick wants!"

"That's right, it's all about what you want. Dino wasn't helping you with your shitty deals anymore so you fired him. I'm not doing as you please, so what, you're going to fire me too?"

"Don't tempt me, Nick. Do. Not. Tempt. Me." His tone is back to being super calm, very even.

"Whatever."

"And let me tell you something else. You stay out of Dino's affairs. You're so narrow-minded. You think you have all the answers? You have none. You leave Claire out of everything and you leave Emilia alone."

I bow to him as graciously as possible. "Yes, sir. Yes."

And then turn on myheels and slam the door. 

Author's note:

Thank you so much for reading! I hope you're enjoying getting to know Em & Nick! I'll be publishing two new chapters every Friday and would love to hear from you, so don't hesitate to leave a comment. The full novella is already published/available on all e-retailers for only $0.99 in case you don't want to wait for the next chapter :) More information on www.elodienowodazkij.com :)