Page 46 of Outcast’s Return
“Remember what I told you when you first met my sister?” he asks.
“Yes, Clement. I do.”
“You can touch anything in this house, except her. That was hilarious. I was so controlling of her. Well, I still am. Whoever’s man enough to date my sister will have to reckon with me first.”
He walks out of the restaurant, still laughing.
It’s only when I stop hearing my best friend’s fading amusement that I finally allow myself to breathe.
15
JOLIE
It’s a long wait for Clement. I’m picking at my nails nervously. My foot bounces against the floor in our office boardroom.
Finally, the doors swing open, and my brother walks in. He’s chuckling to himself.
“God, Fabien’s a funny bastard.”
Fabien?
Oh, God.
“What? Fabien? Funny?”
“Oh, have you not heard about his vow of abstinence?” Clement asks me as he takes his seat opposite. “It’s hilarious.”
My pulse kicks hard.
“Abstinence? What are you talking about?”
“He’s sworn off women for years now,” my brother says. “He hasn’t touched a woman since he was a teenager, or so he tells me. I just met him for lunch.”
Me. This vow of abstinence is because of me.
I can decipher why. I ain’t no idiot. Fabien has never told me. That pain? That pain that I caused? It’s hit him even harder than I could imagine.
The thought is suffocating.
“I wouldn’t know anything about him,” I mutter. “I don’t really... talk to Fabien.”
My nails dig deep into my palm and Clement just smiles.
“Yeah, you two never got on,” he says.
“Nope.”
I feel sick.
Clement leans forward across the boardroom table, unaware of the storm raging in his sister.
“Okay, sis,” he says. “Down to business. Show me what you’ve got so far.”
He looks through my presentation notes. Clement takes his time. The folder pages turn over slowly. One by one.
I sit. Silently. Waiting for judgment. Clement’s face locked in concentration. It’s like being with Steven again in that coffee shop. The anxiety. The anticipation of being marked a failure.
Steven’s talk had reenergized me, but it hasn’t soothed my fears.
