Chapter Text
My phone has been ringing non-stop today. It has been somewhat of a welcome distraction from the scenario that I currently find myself in. It was another close call for Finneas Harkness which resulted in all four Harkness children gathering in Ireland to hopefully witness his ultimate demise. Based on what the doctors have told Tamryn, it seems we will not be celebrating during this visit. I have honestly had enough of him and really cannot wait to fly back to Austin as soon as this whole health debacle is finished. Poor Tamryn, there’s no escape for her. Being excluded from the will means I stand to inherit nothing once my father passes. I am really only here to support Tamryn in the event my idiot brothers decide to contest the will.
Eli is on a flight to Australia right now and I’m fielding all his phone calls, hence the constant phone ringing. I don’t understand how this man gets more phone calls than me. I had to ask his assistant, Veronica, to start screening the calls and only send through the important ones. I have now spoken to two telemarketers, Eli’s housekeeper, and some guy named Axel who wanted to know if Eli was free to shoot around this weekend at the rink. When I told him Eli was on a flight to Australia, he asked if I could check with Eli and give him a call back. I am so over playing Eli’s secretary and he still has about fifteen hours left in the flight.
The phone starts ringing again. I swear if it’s that Axel guy again asking for Eli’s availability, I’m throwing this phone in the toilet.
“Veronica, who is it now?”
“Hi Conor, I have Mayers on the line. They’re looking to speak with Eli, but since he’s in flight, can I patch them through to you?”
“Yes, of course.”
Mayers is the active deal we are currently working on. The company is based out of Australia and Eli is spearheading which is why he is on his way there now. This acquisition would be of significance to Harkness as it will solidify our first international deal. When I started Harkness with Eli, Minami, and Sul, I never imagined we would grow it into what it has become. The deal with Mayers is a significant step, not just for the company, but for the four of us as well. I have no doubt that Eli will close this deal for us, and once he’s back, we can all celebrate.
“Okay, connecting you now,” Veronica says.
The line connects. “Yes,” I say into the phone.
The sound of a throat clearing. “Hi. I’m looking for Eli?”
“Eli’s currently on his way to you.” I reply. They must have forgotten the time of Eli’s flight.
I hear some hesitation from the voice on the other line when they ask “Is he?”
I really hope they did not forget about this meeting. We are extremely eager to close out this deal and Mayers has been giving us a hard time since the beginning. The whole point of sending Eli there in person was to speed up the process of closing this deal out. I also don’t have time for these games considering the amount of calls I am receiving. I do recall Eli mentioning some of their hesitations before he left. They must be calling to discuss ahead of time. The least I can do is ease their concerns before Eli gets there and save him the trouble.
“Correct. In the meantime, I can discuss the financial incentives.” I respond.
“That’s very generous of you, but I’m good,” says the female voice on the other end.
What the hell is happening right now? “I see. It was communicated to me that you were worried about the carveouts, and –“
“I’m not. Because I don’t know what a carveout is.”
Something is not right here. “Excuse me?” I ask.
“All I Want is to…” there is a tremor to her voice. “Is to talk to Eli, so – “
Is she crying? I feel like I’m in a fever dream. For the sake of my sanity, I am not going to ask. “As the managing director,” I interrupt. “Let me reassure you that while Eli is in flight, I am more than capable of –“
“Are you capable of putting me through to Eli? Because that’s all I’m asking for.” Her voice is stern now. Is she yelling at me?
There is something really odd about this conversation. I pause for a minute before responding. “There may have been a misunderstanding. Am I speaking with the Mayers CEO?”
“I’m Maya. Maya Killgore. Eli’s sister.”
“You are – “ I let out a deep sigh. “Of course, you fucking are.”
Well, that explains the outburst and why this conversation made absolutely no sense to either of us. What does Maya need Eli for? Did he leave her home alone. I would think leaving a thirteen-year-old alone is frowned upon. I assume he would have hired a babysitter. No matter, I need to figure out what the hell is going on.
“Did you think I was Mayers something or other?” Her voice is strangely mature sounding for a thirteen-year-old. I pause for a second to think. She’s definitely thirteen, I’m sure of it. Last time I saw her she was a kid.
“Yeah.” I respond. “Be nice if you introduced yourself at the start of a call. Maya.” I’m a bit annoyed at this whole exchange and Veronica for not realizing who was actually on the line.
“Okay, well….Can I talk to my brother?”
“His plane just took off. It’ll be a while.”
“Is there any way to get in touch with him.” God, she is persistent. What is so urgent that she needs to talk to Eli. I am trying to think what it was like when I was thirteen. It is probably just some teenage girl drama. How does Eli deal with this?
“You can text him, but after he boarded the pilot announced the Wi-Fi wasn’t working.”
“How many hours is the flight?”
“No clue. Twenty?” How the hell would I know how long the flight is. I’m not the pilot. I’m growing irritated by the barrage of questions from her.
“Twenty?”
“Might be more. Or less. I’m not a licensed air traffic controller. But there’s this new tech you might use to figure it out.”
“What tech?”
“Google, it’s called.” I know I’m being an asshole, but I don’t care. I don’t have time to make small talk with Eli’s kid sister.
“Well, if you hear from him before I do, please tell him to callmebackatthisnumber.” She says the last part quickly before hanging up the phone.
I hear the three beeps of the call ending. “What the fuck?” I whisper to myself as I stare confusingly at my phone. Shit. She definitely was crying. I will have to call her back. Eli will be livid if he finds out his little sister called me crying and I didn’t do anything to help. At the very least, I can find out what is wrong. I am doubtful in my abilities to solve any of her problems, I am unfamiliar with the woes of teenage girls.
I call her back and she answers on the first ring. “Eli?”
Does this girl not have called ID? I am done dancing around the topic so I flat out ask her, “Are you crying?” It comes out more of an accusation than a question.
“No.” I hear a loud sniffle on the other end followed by a hiccup.
“You are crying.”
“What do you care? Why did you even call me back?”
“Because you are Eli’s family. And you are crying.”
“Can we please just hang up? You have a Mayers to talk to, and I would love to not go through this shitty moment with someone I barely know.”
I pinch the bridge of my nose. How am I becoming wrapped up in teenage girl drama right now. How the hell does Eli deal with this shit? “Why shitty? What’s wrong?” I ask.
“Why would I tell you?”
The snark coming off her is heavy. I wonder if she talks to Eli this way. “Because your brother is unreachable, and I’m a fucking adult, and you aren’t. It is my civic responsibility to make sure children aren’t being abducted, or some similar horseshit.”
“Children? Are you for real?” She sounds really angry right now. “Do you even know who you’re talking to?” Funny she should ask because I’m pretty sure we established already that she is Maya Killgore and not the CEO of Mayers, but I’ll play along.
“Aren’t you Eli’s baby sister?” I question.
“Baby sister? How old do you think I am?”
“You’re thirteen, or thereabout.” I distinctly remember her being thirteen. I am searching through my memories of Maya and the last thing I remember is Eli mentioning she was starting middle school.
A deep exhale comes through the line before she responds, “I was thirteen. Seven years ago.”
I dig deeper into my long-term memories to see if I can find anything that would be evidence of Maya being twenty and not thirteen and nope, nothing comes to mind. “What? You are not twenty.”
“I sure am.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah.”
I have absolutely no memory of this girl being twenty. “Christ.”
“Now that I’ve caught you up with the rotations of Earth around the sun, goodbye.” Hmmm, yeah not the response of a thirteen-year-old. I am absolutely not letting her hang up the phone now that I know we are not dealing with the problems of a child.
“No, not goodbye. Tell me why the hell you’re crying, so we can establish that it is just a load of inconsequential shite, and I can hang up the call with a clean soul.”
“Okay first of all, your soul has never been anything but coal smeared. I bet you burned ants with magnifying lenses when you were a toddler, back during the Protestant Reformation.”
Damn, was not expecting that. I was also not expecting the smile that is now plastered on my face. I swipe my hand down my face, wiping the grin away. “That is patently libelous, and I do not deserve –“
She interrupts me. “Secondly, I do not see why I should be wasting my time on you, an absolute no one in my life who clearly thinks I still play with Polly Pockets despite the fact that I’ve been registered to vote for two dozen fucking moons. Dude, I barely know you, and what I’m discovering is not flattering. So forgive me if I don’t share my life story and tell you that my boyfriend of over a year dumped me last week for a girl who not only happens to be my best friend’s cousin, but also my roommate. And yesterday, when I came back from the gym, the three of them were waiting to give me some kind of makeshift intervention and tell me that it would be infinitely selfish and evil of me to stand between their whirlwind star-crossed romance. And since they were ganging up on me, I go t so angry that I forgot to do my stupid breathing exercises, I forgot the counting, too, and then I yelled that they could go at it on every surface of our apartment for all I cared, and that I wished them a life full of painful pus-infected STDs. And this m-morning when I woke up they were there, in the kitchen, watching a panel show, making out under my cupboard where I put my emotional support Tunnock’s wafers, and they t-told me that I should be ashamed of my behavior last n-night, that they are afraid of my anger and of my d-disproportionate reactions that I am the one at fault for being aggressive, and I couldn’t s-stand it anymore so I round out of the d-door and now I never want to fucking g-go back.”
The crying is picking up, I am at a loss for words and am unsure how to respond to this predicament. While I want to pretend like this problem does not concern me and wait for Eli to land and handle this, I can’t help feel bad for Maya. I have some familiarity with situations involving ex-partners. “Well, fuck.”
“Indeed,” She replies.
“I don’t know what the hell to do with this information.” I really don’t. I’m not good at things like this, mainly because I never had a sister and my brothers are idiots that I avoid contact with.
“That’s the exact point I was trying to make, you prickhead.”
At this point, I can’t help myself. I let out a deep laugh. I don’t know why, but her insulting me is having an this effect on me. She is undeniably funny, even when she is completely raging. I hear her laugh in response before I say, “I am willing to concede that ‘load of inconsequential shite’ might not be the most accurate description for your predicament.
“Yeah?” she replies. “How magnanimous.”
I don’t want her feeling uncomfortable in her own apartment. “Is there anywhere else you could stay for a while? With a friend?”
“A park bench. Does that count?”
I scoff. There is absolutely no way in hell I’m letting her sleep in the park. First off, Eli would kill me if he knew I didn’t make an effort to help. Second, I have the slightest bit of concern for Maya, and her safety. “I’m going to book you a hotel for you to stay at. And pay for it.”
“That’s nice, but…money is not an issue.”
Not surprised. Eli probably floats her money when she needs. I realize, though, I have no idea where she even lives. I have not seen her at Eli’s in years. Now that I think more about it, I don’t even know what she looks like. Has it really been that long? I think harder, trying to remember the texts Eli has sent in our group chat. I think he may have invited me to Maya’s high school graduation. I remember him saying something about her attending university in Europe. “Where are you, anyway? It’s slowly coming back to me. You moved to Europe for uni, right?”
“So you do know that. Did you think thirteen-year-olds went to college in foreign countries?”
I’m smiling again at her response. “Can’t say I ever thought about it. Where are you, precisely?”
“I’m not telling you, a stranger, where I live.”
I have to say I am a bit offended by the sentiment that I am a stranger when I have had to spend the last twenty minutes helping her sort out the love triangle she has found herself in.
“Come on, Maya. It’s not like I don’t have the resources to find out.” I drum my fingers on the table parsing through the information she has already shared with me. “Let’s see. You mentioned Tunnock’s. Probably for sale anywhere in the world, but particularly popular in Scotland.” Well, that was easier than I thought it would be.
I hear a long-drawn-out exhale over the line and that is how I know I am right. I am pretty impressed with my ability to pick up on the context clues she provided. “Ah. St. Andrews? University of Edinburgh.”
She does not respond. Another indication that I am correct. Now all I have to do is figure out where her apartment is, which should be easy enough. I am almost certain Veronica has the address. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll figure it out. Back to the topic at hand – I’m not going to berate you for your choice in friends and roommates.”
“You’re too kind,” The sarcasm lining her response is thick.
“Oh, I’m not. I’m not even kind enough. I’ve just made similar mistakes. What I don’t get is, why should you not feel angry about them bringing their relationship inside your house?”
“Because –“ She starts, but doesn’t finish the thought, I’m even sure there was more to her response.
“Because…?” I prompt her to continue.
“I don’t know. I was – I shouldn’t have yelled at them.”
“Among all the blows being dealt here, that seems like the least egregious.”
“I know, but…I have anger-management issues.” As if that wasn’t already obvious to me based on her earlier reaction.
“You do?”
“Yeah. With some people. Not everyone. I don’t, you know, get mad at the customer service guy at Costco.”
“Is Costco in Scotland?” I honestly have no idea what the Costco international footprint is these days, but I’m curious. The Scots don’t strike me as the type to buy in bulk.
“Yeah. For a while now.”
“But you don’t berate their workers.”
“No, I… It’s mostly with people I care about. When I feel hurt by them, I tend to lash back.” Funny, she called me a stranger, but she has been relentless with the insults since this phone call started.
“Hmm. Right. You drove Eli absolutely off his rocker when you were a teenager, didn’t you?” Vague memories of Eli complaining about Maya’s defiant behavior flash across my memory. I don’t remember much of what Eli had told us back then, but I do remember he had a hard time handling Maya’s grief after their parents passed away.
I hear her laugh and it makes me smile. “I may have, and look where it got me. He and I barely talk. But when I moved here, I decided that I wanted to become a better version of myself. And since most of my issues boil down to how angry I always am, I started doing all that shit. Therapy. Journaling. Identifying my triggers. And it works, for the most part. But now I … I’m furious at them, and I can’t figure out if this is me backsliding, or a righteous, legitimate feeling. Should I just bottle this up? I just … I wanted Scotland Maya to be grounded and easygoing and carefree, but …”
I’m taken aback by how open and honest she is being with me, a stranger, right now. My respect for her grows and I have the faintest feeling of companionship beginning to bloom between us. I understand her struggle and I can relate, but I don’t tell her that. “It sounds like Scotland Maya is more like a plastic doll than a real person.”
“Yeah. Scotland Maya is a bit of a pick-me.”
At this risk of revealing how out of touch I am with the trending lingo, I ask “What does that mean?”
“It’s just a …” I hear her sigh. “Listen, I’m going to hand up now. And…”
I am worried she is going to do something she regrets and I have a weird feeling that I don’t want this phone call to end. “Are you going to do something daft?” I ask her. I’m stalling, trying to keep her on the line. Ultimately, I want to make sure she is okay for Eli’s sake, but also I have somewhat of a vested interest in her safety as well, and I’m not too sure why.
“What? No. It’s not like that” she says. “I’ll just…I’ll go home, I guess.”
“To your roommate. And your ex.”
“Yeah. I…yeah. Actually, maybe I’ll go to the library for a couple of hours. Just to maximize my chances that they’ll be asleep.”
I wish she would just let me find her a hotel. At least then I would know she is safe and comfortable. I know she probably has the money to find a hotel, but I would feel better if I knew she had an option besides the library, or a park bench.
“Maya. I can find you another place to stay in a second.”
“Are you handy with Booking.com.”
“No, but I have an executive assistant at my beck and call.”
“The problem is, that is my apartment. And I have a couple months left in the semester. And my graduation ceremony – I have first-class honors. I worked hard for it. I’m not going to drop out of my life, or even out of our shared D&D campaign. I’m n-not going to run away like I’m the one who s-should be ashamed.
I can hear the catch in her voice and I know she is about to start crying again. Shit. She’s right why should she have to upend her life for these assholes.
“You shouldn’t.”
“It’s just…rejection. Alfie was my first long-term boyfriend and one of the people who knows me best in the whole world, and it’s mortifying that one morning he woke up and decided that I wasn’t smart or funny or hot enough for him. Georgia is so effortless and beautiful and everyone wants to hang out with her. In the meantime, I … I feel like the odd man out, and I’m starting to wonder if this is what the rest of my life is going to be. So knowing that for the next two months those two will be pitying me, and basking in their togetherness, and maybe constructing five to ten percent of their pillow talk around how I’ll undoubtedly die along…”
Now she’s really crying again, and I weirdly know exactly how she feels. When Minami got together with Sul, it fucking sucked watching them flaunt their love. Especially knowing that it was something I was incapable of ever experiencing. It was bad enough watching them together, then we brough Sul on as a founding partner of Harkness and now, I have had to grow to accept that while Minami has found her second chance at love, I just don’t think it’s in the cards for me.
Before I can respond she adds on “Thank you for talking to me. I feel better now.” The call disconnects before I can respond. I know exactly what my next move is. There is no fucking way I’m letting her go back to that apartment. I feel a bit of rage coursing through me which is…odd. I chalk it up to the fact that I have been in this exact situation. And while Minami and Sul were nothing but graceful about it, and got together well after the break up, it still hurt to have to acknowledge that I was too broken to ever have what Minami was able to find with Sul.
I don’t bother calling Maya back. I pick up the phone and find Seb’s contact information.
“Hey, it’s Conor. I need you to book me on the earliest possible flight to Edinburgh.”