Mistake: A Bad Boy Stepbrother Romance (15 page)

"And you know why, Mom," I replied. "Hell, he believed a huge lie for most of his life, and he was angry about it. How would you have felt in his situation?"

"I know honey, it's just.... he's been that way for a very long time. Are you sure he's really changed, or at least ready to change?"

One of the servants brought breakfast, and I ate in silence for a long time, barely tasting what had been prepared. Part of me was pissed off at Mom, while the other part of me was trying to formulate an answer to what she had asked me. Thankfully, in the end, the part of me trying to answer won out.

"Mom, I watched Julian for weeks. He wasn't perfect. Hell, he got me in trouble at work his second night in Chicago. But, and I still don't know why or for what reason, he's acted with a pure heart towards me the whole time. He's worked hard to become a man since coming to Chicago, Mom. You know, one time he even had a chance to seduce me, and he walked away? I was there, and yes I was willing, but he didn't think it was right, so he walked away. Now, does that sound like the Julian Castelbon that he was?"

Mom thought about it until she finished her second cup of green tea, then set it down. "You know I'm still going to worry. I haven't had the chance to observe Julian the way you have. I only know him from second hand interactions and the pain he caused John. But I also know you're a smart young woman, and if you trust him, then I'll have to give him the benefit of the doubt."

"Thank you Mom," I said, not adding
like it's your decision anyway
. I'll be honest, I was mad at my mother. She'd never acted this way towards any of the other men I'd ever introduced her to, although that wasn't often, and not for a long time now. It offended me that after getting through college, working my way into the line at Alinea, and doing it all on my own, she still doubted me. I wasn't happy, but I knew blowing up at her wasn't going to make it any better. She's as stubborn as I am, and it takes a lot to change her mind once she says something.

I decided instead to change the subject. "So what are you doing after breakfast today?"

Mom shrugged. "Well, I was originally going to go into the office with John to help him out on his work today, I've really come to enjoy it, but with your Aunt Gina coming, in I knew I couldn't. God knows what she's got on her mind, but she insisted on coming up. Have you spoken to her recently?"

"No, not since the wedding. You know how Gina is, Mom. She's always had a side to her that's very strategic. She likes her surprises."

"I'll say. Although I will admit at times to thinking other words to describe her than strategic."

I nodded and pursed my lips. "I know, I know. Mom, I've said the same things about Gina you have. But she is Dad's youngest sister, and she's never directly tried to pull anything on us. So, despite her Machiavellian demeanor and, let's face it, her morals of Mae West, she's not all that bad. You did have her as the maid of honor after all."

We were going to continue the conversation when Julian came in, still rubbing his hand through his hair. He was so cute when he just woke up, I wanted to cuddle with him right then and there. While he normally shaved daily, that morning he looked scruffy and scrumptious. "Good morning ladies. Sorry I slept so long."

"That's okay, it gave us a chance to talk like two girls," Mom replied. She gave me a look that I returned, then finished her last bite of breakfast, and stood up. "Julian, I hate to say it, but I think the rest of breakfast is cold by now. Do you want the staff to heat something up for you?"

"That's okay Sandra, I'll probably just go raid the fridge. Let me go see what Chef has in the leftover pile and nuke that for two minutes. I don't want to put him out any more than he is, thanks though. So what's on the agenda for today?"

"Not much. You two go enjoy yourselves, and when John comes home we can all get together and figure out what to do later. In the mean time, I'm off. I'll see you soon." Mom got up and left, and Julian watched her go before turning to me.

"She's still not cool with us, is she?"

"I don't think so," I replied. "But she's trying, Julian. Give her time."

"I understand. If I were her, I'd be a little worried with my daughter dating a guy like me too." He walked towards the kitchen, and stopped about halfway there, turning towards me. "Whoa."

"What?"

"I just said dating in connection with us. It's true, isn't it? We're boyfriend and girlfriend now."

I sat there, surprised as well. "I'd never thought of it that way. I was just kind of going with the flow, you know?"

Julian thought about it and nodded. "Me too. Hold on though, I do need some food before I can actually think more."

Julian ended up with leftover hamburger patties with a bit of barbecue sauce, which he heated up and then ate in efficient, large bites, wiping his mouth with a napkin in between. "If we have time later, I'd like to head down to the community center. I want to see if my record is still on the wall," he said as he washed the plate and put it away. I noticed that the washing caused the kitchen staff to whisper in surprise to each other, and they watched Julian like he was a total stranger. In a lot of ways though, he was. "I mean, that and get a workout in."

"I'm sure. But we should probably be back by early afternoon. My Aunt Gina is coming in."

For the first time, I saw something pass over Julian's face that I didn't understand. "Gina?"

"Yeah, you remember her. She was the maid of honor at Mom's wedding, and you had a dance with her at the reception."

Julian nodded like he was in shock. "Um yeah...yeah. I remember Gina."

G
ina
.

Fuck.

Of all the people in the world, why did Krystal's aunt, who I had just happened to have had sex with, come to visit at the exact same time that Krystal and I came out to our parents about our relationship? Talk about karma coming to bite me in the ass.

"Julian? What's wrong?"

I blinked and saw Krystal looking at me, concern mixed with something else on her face. She was confused, and I could see why. But what was I supposed to say? "Uh, nothing. Just something crossed my mind. Okay, so we'll be back by early afternoon. Before that though, I'd like to find Yuki and ask her some stuff. Would you mind letting me cut loose and talk to her? Some of it goes back to before you and I met, and I don't want to drag up too many old problems."

Krystal looked at me, that same expression on her face, and nodded slowly. "Okay," she said, and I knew I had to do some serious thinking and quick. "Maybe we can head down to the community center at about eleven?"

"Okay," I said. I wiped my hands on the kitchen towel and hung it back on its rack. Leaning in, I whispered in Krystal's ear. "Please. I know it's weird, but it'll be okay."

Krystal nodded again, and whispered back. "You sure?"

"Yeah. I love you."

"I love you too."

We headed off our separate directions, and I looked furiously for Yuki. It wasn't that I really needed to apologize for anything, or to rehash old issues from my high school days. Instead, I wanted to find Yuki for the exact purpose my father had her around. Besides being an excellent house manager, she was smart as hell, and had given my father plenty of good advice over the years. If she could advise Dad, maybe she'd have some advice for me as well. My father already had enough to think about with Krystal and I, and I didn't want to bother him.

I finally found Yuki in the place I least expected, her office, which was next to the servant's dining room. She rarely used it, preferring to be out and around the grounds either doing things herself or monitoring the other workers. However, she was also responsible for the household budgeting, which meant a couple hours a month on the computer using Quicken, and that was where I found her, going through receipts and double checking account balances. I knocked on the door frame, causing her to look up. "Yuki? Do you have a minute?"

"Of course Julian," she said, closing the lid on her laptop. "Come in, have a seat. Is there something I can do for you?"

I came into the office and closed the door behind me. She looked at me with the same inscrutable eyes she always had as I collapsed into the chair across from her, and put my face in my hands. "Yuki, I think I've seriously fucked up."

I heard her sigh, and I looked up to see her pursing her lips and putting her chin in the cup of one palm. "How so?"

I laid it all out for her. My original plan, how I ended up fucking Gina in the library, and the entire aftermath. I even told her the truth about what caused me to go from Los Angeles to Chicago, and how Krystal had changed me. I told her everything, editing out only the parts that would be considered a bit too pornographic.

"Yuki, you've helped my Dad so often with advice. I don't really want to talk to him or Sandra, they're already skeptical about my relationship with Krystal. I don't know who I can turn to. What should I do?"

Yuki sat silently for a moment, then set her hands on the desk. "Julian, it comes down to one question, and one question only. Do you truly love Krystal?"

The first tears spilled down my face and I nodded. "More than life itself."

"Then you need to tell her. Tell her the truth."

I looked up at the ceiling of her office, and felt my heart tighten in my chest. "If I do that, she'll hate me. Yuki, I originally planned on fucking her just to get to my father. That's not the sort of foundation a loving relationship is built on."

Yuki nodded, but shrugged. "There have been stranger ones. You could be like me and Lizette."

Lizette was Yuki's wife, the two lesbians having gotten married in Massachusetts as soon as it was legal. "I've never met her, Yuki. You've never let me meet her, probably for good reason. The most I've ever seen is photos of her."

"Well did you know that Lizette and I met at a conversion therapy seminar?"

"A what?"

"Conversion therapy. It's the idea that through counseling and other psychiatric therapies, homosexuality can be treated, and we can become straight."

I sat there, shocked. Yuki, the entire time she'd worked for my father, had always been up front about her lesbianism, and never had seemed the type to be ashamed of it. It wasn't like she was some militant feminazi in your face lesbian, but rather that it was just a matter of fact of life about her, like her black hair or her left handedness. To think that this confident, intelligent woman had been so tormented about her sexual identity as to go to such a sham seminar was shocking. "Okay, I've heard of that, just in a different name. Isn't it all, well, bullshit?"

"It is, but when you've put up with ostracism and outright bigotry all your life, even bullshit can have a ray of hope," Yuki replied. "Either way, we met there, and both of us were desperate. Lizette had been abused in past relationships, and as for me, well, growing up in Japan which is so male dominated and conservative in general, I was at the end of my rope. My father had said he would disown me if I didn't find a husband and pronto, and my mother.... well, my mother was just in total denial. Any picture she saw of me with a girlfriend was just friends, like many young Japanese have."

"Wow, I never knew. No offense Yuki, but you always have seemed to be pretty strong-willed."

"You were a very angry teenage boy at that time, Julian, I'm surprised you noticed anything. But in any case, there I was at the seminar, and as soon as I saw Lizette, I was smitten. I'd seen her glance at me a few times, and I knew regardless of what else was said, I was done. I was beyond hope. So that night, I climbed up to the roof of the center they were doing the seminar, and I planned to jump off the roof."

"Holy shit," I said, shocked. "What happened?"

"I found Lizette up there. When I approached, she turned and looked at me with those amber eyes of hers and she talked me out of it, and from then on, we've been inseparable.

"Jesus. I never knew."

It was hard to take in, the thought that Yuki the strong, wise, perfect house manager had once been a suicidal wreck. "So you and Lizette have lived happily ever after?"

"Hell no!" Yuki replied with a laugh. "We've had our share of ups and downs, Julian. We're a couple, and no couple outside of the fairy tales has a perfect relationship. I personally think that Cinderella probably gave Prince Charming a good smack upside his head more than once after their wedding. But we're still together because we're honest with each other. So tell Krystal. If your love is as strong as you say it is, then she'll stand by you. It may piss her off, it pisses me off to know what you did, but she'll forgive you in time."

I nodded, and stood up. "Thanks, Yuki. How is it you're not working as some sort of quarter million dollar a year executive or something?"

"Because working in this house and for your father is better than an extra fifty percent to my paycheck," Yuki replied. "Don't think I haven't gotten offers. But some things Julian, some things are more important than money. Now get out of here and find Krystal before Gina gets here. She's supposed to arrive before lunch."

I started, shocked. "Wait, before lunch? Krystal said after lunch."

Yuki shook her head. "Before. She's flying in from Detroit, remember? And last time she flew charter instead of renting a car. She could have already landed."

"Shit. Yuki, do me a favor. If Gina shows up, try to delay her from finding Krystal. At least until I tell her the truth."

"Go on. I'll do what I can."

I ran out of Yuki's office, looking desperately for Krystal. The one disadvantage of having a manor is that everything is so damn BIG. Eight bedrooms, three wings, three dining rooms, acres of land, and the list goes on and on. Hell, someone could disappear if they wanted and never leave the main manor building.

I ran as hard as I could through the house, calling Krystal's name, but nobody answered. Desperate, I looked out the back windows of the main dining room, and saw Krystal sitting under a tree in the manicured portion of the garden, reading a book from the library. I tore through the hallways for the door to the outside, sprinting out and calling her name. "Krystal!"

"Julian?" she said, looking up and putting her finger in the book, closing it. "What's wrong?"

I was panting, I had been sprinting and running through the manor for so long, and I had to put my hands on my knees. The green grass swam in my vision while I gulped the cool late summer air, and I could feel Krystal's hand on my shoulder. "Krystal, I made a huge mistake," I said, but before I could continue, a voice I'd dreaded hearing interrupted me.

"I'll say you did," Gina said from behind me. I spun on my heel, nearly falling on my ass. "You didn't call me at all in Detroit, Julian. Now, is that any way to treat the future mother of your child?"