Exquisite

It's You

~Damen~

"Nothing ruins breakfast like a bimbo's screams, does it?" Vivienne groaned as another shrill cry pierced our ears, making me wince slightly. It was followed by low, measured words from my brother and the furious sobbing that always seemed to follow.

To say my sister and I were shocked would have been a lie because we were used to this entire routine which worked like clockwork: A drunk Cassien bringing an equally drunk woman home and kicking her out as soon as they woke up the next morning.

Vivienne picked half-heartedly at her bacon and I knew she was thinking hard. "D?" She finally probed and I looked up, raising an eyebrow.

"Why does he do it?" She asked quietly, her eyes dimmer than usual. I knew instantly what she meant, but I didn't make a move to reply. Probably because I didn't know what to say.

"It kills him, Damen." I felt my fingers clutch tightly at the spoon. "Every time he does it, it breaks him from the inside; you see it as well as I do. I just don't understand why ..." She trailed off, her eyes flitting from me to her food.

I exhaled slowly, trying to find something to say. As if on cue my brother crossed us, dark bag under his eyes that looked like bruises. He flashed a smile at Viv and me before muttering something about a headache and disappearing into his bedroom.

"Why don't you tell Bruce you like him?" Vivienne's eyes widened as her fork stopped midway to her mouth. "Why do you joke around as a defense mechanism so you don't have to face what you really feel?"

All color had left her face and I almost wanted to take my words back, but it needed to be said. Cassien was too blind to see that Viv had grown up from a child into a woman; she needed more than her brothers to be happy. To feel loved.

And she herself was - if possible - even blinder than him. I couldn't make her see unless she herself chose to, but I could try.

"It's all just good fun, doesn't mean anything ..." She mumbled into her plate but I could see her fingers shaking slightly. "Not that I like him that way, you know?"

"Sure." I tried to not smile. "He doesn't either, I feel. That's probably why he remembers all your favorite eat out places without me ever telling him."

Her cheeks flushed as dark as the tomatoes in her plate. "I - uh ... late. I'm late for work, loveyougottago, see you around!" She said all in one breath as she kissed me on the forehead and almost ran out of the apartment, the door banging shut.

Cassien walked in a few minutes later, dressed in a suit that Viv had gotten for him from Italy last year.

"Where's Vivienne? I wanted to talk to her about Valdez." He frowned as he piled food on his plate and sat across from me. I rolled my eyes; all of this was so tragic it was almost funny.

"She doesn't like him, Cassien. She brushes him off faster than you can say fuck off; she's not a kid anymore. She's twenty-two, for Christ's sake." I wanted to say more to him, so much more but I bit my tongue to stop it from running around like a dog without its leash.

"Jordan wants us to come to his summer house for lunch instead, said it would be more appropriate." He told me and I frowned. "I have things planned for the afternoon - weren't we going for dinner?" I mentally made a note to call Bruce and tell him to postpone all work for tomorrow.

"We do this for our meetings sometimes." He explained. "Change the time at the last minute to confuse anyone who might ... plan to interrupt." His eye moved to mine for a quick second, almost a reassurance.

I won't let anything happen to you.

I nodded shortly, not wanting to extend this conversation further. "Anything I should know about or carry with me?"