Page 39 of Truth Forever
“How do I look?”
Her eyes roved over me, a tiny little line appearing between her eyebrows as she frowned. “You look like you haven’t slept for a week, but you will do.” She nodded her approval. “Go get them. And Cali…?”
“I won’t forget tonight, don’t worry,” I reassured her. “How could I forget my own leaving party?”
***
“You wanted to see me, Calista?” My brother leaned back against the opulent leather of his chair, making it creak in complaint.
“Cali.” I countered softly, wiping my sweaty hands down the camel coloured pencil skirt I was wearing. “I use Cali now.”
I couldn’t stand to be called Calista now. It was the name of a different woman. A woman who was focused on her career and designers shoes. I hadn’t been that woman since the moment I had left to rough it a little with a biker and had my heartbroken.
I was Cali now.
“Calista.” He said it again, and as always he was talking to me like a child. Something he had always done. “What can I do for you?” His hands steepled under his chin. Giving a flash of striped cuffs complete with a cuff link as his thousand pound suit sleeve lifted.
I took a deep breath. Straightening my shoulders, I met his eyes. “ I quit.”
There was a moment of silence as we stared at each other, and then he started to chuckle. “Seriously Calista, this is preposterous.” He shook his blonde head. “Stop acting like a child.”
“I am not…” I started to deny it and snapped my lips shut. “It’s decided, Curtis. I leave tomorrow. And even if this job was waiting for me when I got back, I wouldn’t want it.” I took a deep, steadying breath. “So, I quit.”
“And where exactly do you think you are going?”
I gave him a shrug. “I don’t know yet. It doesn’t really matter.”
My big brother’s eyes narrowed. “What happened to you?”
His words tore a pained laugh from my lips. That was the question, wasn’t it? What had happened to me? He wouldn’t believe me if I told him. Or maybe he would, and I would open a whole world of shit on the Black Aces. On Truth.
And that was something I would never do.
“I realised who I was… or maybe who I wasn’t,” I answered softly.
“And what do you think you aren’t?”
“This.” I motioned to my usual work outfit. The silk blouse and the knee-length skirt. My stockinged legs and heels that cost more than a months rent. “I am not this.”
“You are making a mistake Calista.” He sighed heavily. “Dad will be disappointed.”
I knew he would bring our parents up. I had steeled myself against him using our parents to make me feel guilty about leaving.
“They will get over it.”
“If this has something to do with the Black Aces, we can protect you.”
There it was. I frowned. “I’ve told you a thousand times Curtis. I do not know anything about the Black Aces.” That was the truth. Or at least part of it. I was in love with one, but it wouldn’t do to let that piece of information slip to my brother.
He didn’t believe me. But he didn’t push it. “You are taking the wrong side in this Calista.”
“I’m not taking anyone’s side but my own. I need to get away. Figure out who the fuck I am.”
He scowled at my profanity. “Fine, and how much notice do you plan on giving me?”
“I leave tomorrow,” I repeated.
“Tomorrow? You realise if you walk out of here today I will not be able to give you a reference.”
