Brightly Burning Bridges by Ivy Wild
Present
A whole weekhad gone by since the time Silas all but ran out of my new apartment at break neck speeds. I tried not to feel self-conscious about it, but the more and more days that passed without getting anything more from him than a forwarded email was disconcerting.
My first paycheck had arrived by FedEx on Monday morning before 8 a.m. I’d held it in my hands, still not truly believing that my enemy from high school had really agreed to pay me six figures to be his glorified secretary. But, the check cashed and I was able to give mom the money she so desperately needed to stay afloat for another month ahead of schedule.
The temptation to go out and spend the rather generous paycheck on all manner of things I didn’t need was tempting. But, I kept reminding myself that I had no way of knowing how long things between me and Silas would last. And if experience taught me anything, things were going to either dissolve slowly with Silas or the ground was going to drop out beneath my feet at the most unexpected time. If either happened, I wanted to have a good cushion saved up.
Silas had told me to expense my move, but since he’d provided me with a furnished apartment, I didn’t see the sense in hiring movers. It had taken me the better part of the weekend, but I’d stuffed most of my everyday items in random bins, boxes and suitcases I had laying around and packed my Prius to the brim.
The one extra item I’d allowed myself to bring over was the framed piece of notebook paper I had hanging in the kitchen that read, “You are the victim of a series of accidents” written by a very specific high school bully. I don’t know why it was so important to me. But maybe, it was because I wanted a reminder of just who I was dealing with. I set it up on my new kitchen counter so I could look at it every day.
I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t tried to sneak peeks at Silas’ apartment. Mine was on the same level with his and the buildings were fairly close together being just across the street. And both units had balconies that faced the river. But every time I looked over at his side of the street, the blinds were shut tight and I couldn’t tell whether he was even home or not. It frustrated me and that frustrated me even more.
I knew I shouldn’t be thinking about him or caring what he was doing. Silas and I were hot and cold. Mixing us together was sure to form a tornado and bring about an equal amount of destruction.
So, on a Friday morning, as I ate an extremely plebeian breakfast of overnight oats and homemade drip coffee with almond milk creamer while reading a BuzzFeed article entitled “Fifteen Celebrity Tweets you Missed this Week,” my phone screen lit up just as I was about to watch Ryan Reynold’s newest trolling video of Hugh Jackman.
The name on the screen had my heart doing somersaults and I tried to suck in calming breaths as I pressed the phone to my ear. “Hello?”
“Sky!” the voice boomed back at me from the other side of the phone. “Heard from Sophie that you got an upgrade.”
I chuckled half-heartedly. “Yeah, I guess you could say that.”
“You haven’t been by the shop recently and Soph and I were talking and we thought it might be nice to do a little housewarming for you. So this is me formally inviting myself to your new place on behalf of myself.”
I laughed at Trevor’s antics. No matter the situation, he always made me feel at ease. He’d been one of the first people I’d met when I’d moved back to Washington from my failed attempts to become an actress in New York. We’d hooked up a few times, sure. But, ultimately we’d decided on keeping things to a strictly friends-only relationship, sans benefits. We were too similar to be any good together and we both understood that.
“Yeah, that sounds good, Trev. When were you guys thinking?”
“Tonight,” he replied immediately. “We’ve got to celebrate your first week on your new job in style.”
I bit my lower lip, trying to think if there was any reason why tonight wouldn’t work, but I was coming up empty. “Okay. Tonight it is. I’ll text you the address. Are you gonna pick up Soph?”
Trevor laughed. “As long as Connor lets me drive his pregnant wife and doesn’t insist on hiring us an armored vehicle, then yes.”
I laughed. Sophie’s husband, Connor, was a little overprotective of her. But, considering all they’d gone through to be together, I could understand that. “Good luck with that.” My phone started beeping in my ear, telling me I had another call. “I gotta go, Trev. See you tonight.”
I switched the call over without having a chance to see who was on the other line. “Hello?” I replied.
“Be in the lobby in fifteen minutes,” a deep voice said into my ear. My stomach dropped and I pulled the phone down to confirm the caller. Of course it was Silas. “Skyler?” His voice was insistent.
“I’m here,” I said, pulling the phone back up to my ear. “Is there something wrong?” I hadn’t heard from him all week and then the first time he calls me is to tell me to be in the lobby in an unreasonable amount of time? I figured something had to be up. Silas’ general demeanor was calm, easy and relaxed. Somehow, he sounded tense.
“Fine. Just be ready.”
“Okay,” I said, but the line went dead before I had the chance to finish saying the word.
I didn’t have time to dilly-dally anyways. I currently wasn’t wearing any makeup and I hadn’t gone out in public without a heavy dose of color on my face in the last decade.
I all but ran into the bathroom and with a practiced hand, applied eyeshadow, dark liner, mascara, primer, foundation, powder, blush and highlighter in under ten minutes. When I finally felt presentable, I rushed into my closet and threw on the nearest outfit, which ended up being ankle length navy trousers, a silver shell and a snow-leopard patterned blazer in purple. I was sure Silas would comment, but he hadn’t really given me much time to plan out my outfit.
I rushed past the large mirror in the foyer, trying to put my heels on at the same time and cursed as I saw the state of my hair. I had completely forgotten to brush it out and it sat there on the top of my head in a wild bun, mocking me. I groaned and looked at the clock, realizing I didn’t have enough time to brush it out. I pressed the button for the elevator and pulled the nest down, trying to smooth the lumps over with my fingers as best as possible as I fixed it into a more professional looking bun.
I grabbed my purse and put my other shoe on as the elevator carried me downstairs and tried to catch my breath before the doors opened. My heels clicked against the polished floors as I walked my way to the front and I noticed a black sedan waiting out front. I figured it was Silas and decided to take a chance and made my way outside.
The window rolled down as I approached and sure enough, Silas was in the back seat, looking at the Patek Philippe watch on his wrist. “I’m surprised.” His tone was back to its normal ease and I narrowed my eyes at him. “You actually pulled it off.”
His eyes moved up and down my outfit and twinkled as his mouth shifted into a smirk. “Well, mostly.”
“Was this some sort of test?” I snapped, not able to control my temper.
Silas didn’t answer. Instead, he rolled up the window and opened the door. He didn’t step outside, but instead gestured for me to enter. I complied, but with a scowl on my face.
“So, if this wasn’t a test, then where are we going?” I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.
“To the courthouse,” Silas said, scrolling through his phone absently.
“And why would we be going there?” I asked.
“Bankruptcy hearing.”
My breath caught in my throat. “For you?”
He laughed. “No, definitely not for me. For a company.”
“One of your companies?”
His brown eyes stayed fixated on his phone and I took a chance and looked him up and down. His blond hair had been styled slightly and pushed back and he was wearing a dark navy suit with a thin silver tie that contrasted with his slightly olive complexion. He was stunningly gorgeous, at least on the outside.
“Sort of,” he said. He finally looked up at me and I wished he hadn’t. His stares were so intense and they took me back to when we were in high school. To a time when he’d used those eyes of his to put me under some spell. That was the only explanation for everything I’d done for him.
“What does ‘sort of’ mean?”
“Curious today,” he said with a small smile.
“I am your assistant,” I pointed out. “I should know what’s going on.”
He shrugged. “It’s for R&R Realty. Maybe you’ve heard of it?”
I widened my eyes and nodded. “Yeah, everybody’s heard of it.” I didn’t elaborate because I wasn’t sure how sensitive Silas was about the subject. If he were a normal person of normal shame levels, he would have been highly embarrassed by the situation. Carter Ross had given up his position as CEO when he sold all his shares to his father and Silas. The company had not done well under their leadership and had filed for Chapter Seven last year. The carnage was akin to Enron level fallout with twice as much drama.
Sean Ross, Carter’s father, had disappeared soon after the company had filed for Bankruptcy protection and people speculated—a lot. Suicide, murder, kidnap, those were some of the tamer theories. As for Silas, he’d remained out front and visible through the whole thing, claiming he had only tried to do what was right for the company and its shareholders, but sometimes companies were too bloated to save. The media couldn’t seem to make up its mind about Silas and neither could the public. It was hard to stay mad at someone as beautiful and as smooth talking as him.
“Why are you taking me with you?” I asked.
“You’re my assistant, aren’t you?” he replied, as if that somehow answered the question.
My adrenaline rush had started to fade and was slowly being replaced with increasing amounts of anxiety. “I’m not going to have to say anything, am I?” I had no idea what I was walking into and I knew Silas wasn’t above ambushing people, as evidenced by this morning.
He chuckled. “No. It doesn’t quite work like that. We’ll just be observing. The lawyers will be doing all the work. I’m just trying to stay visible.”
“Okay,” I said uncertainly.
The next twohours of my life passed by at the slowest rate humanly possible. Bank after bank got up to make their claims against the remaining assets of the company as we sat in the church-like pews behind counsel table. I had to stifle exactly twelve yawns and I’m quite sure that Silas had purposefully elbowed me out of a short nap somewhere around the halfway mark.
When we were finally done, the mere act of walking out of the courtroom and back to the lobby felt like some sort of high. “Just hang back a moment,” Silas said to me and I nodded as I stood on the mezzanine overlooking the security checkpoint at the entrance. I turned around to watch as Silas strode over to one of the many men in dark suits. I thought it odd that they didn’t exchange handshakes. The slightly balding man opposite Silas seemed irritated and Silas was his normal calm, easy, charming self.
The man continued to get redder and redder in the face, until it was about the color of Toaster Strudel filling. Finally, Silas laughed, clapped him on the shoulder and walked away, leaving the man fuming over something.
“What was that all about?” I asked as Silas approached me.
“Nothing,” he said, slipping his hand around my waist to rest on my lower back, leading me gently towards the escalators. It was the first time he’d touched me this way since high school and my body began to quake slightly, with what, I wasn’t sure.
He didn’t notice and as soon as we were outside, he excused himself again to speak with yet another suited man. I looked down at the bannister next to me. The slightly worn metal was twisted and faded and I momentarily distracted myself by grabbing my phone and snapping a quick picture.
Cameras flashed as the press tried to snag photos for the newspaper and everything suddenly started to feel like it was too much. I pressed my nails into my palm as I waited for him, trying to remind myself that Silas’ touches brought nothing but pain.
“Ready?” he asked as he walked back over to me. The black sedan pulled up and I smiled as I released my hand.
“Yeah,” I said, escaping the flashing lights as we climbed into the shadowy vehicle.
We rode in relative silence until we made it back to Georgetown, the driver pulling over between our two respective buildings. It was late afternoon, almost time for Sophie and Trevor to arrive. I climbed out first and Silas followed me and I suddenly felt unsure of the entire situation. Did he expect me to invite him upstairs? Did he want to go over some of the meetings I’d booked for him over the course of the week? Maybe he wanted to see my progress on getting his documents organized.
“Did you want to—?”
“Mind if we go up?” we said at the same time.
My heart beat fast in my chest at the thought of being alone with Silas in my apartment. It was all too familiar and all too dangerous. But I didn’t really feel like I had a choice.
“Sure,” I finally said, pulling the big glass door to the complex open. Silas followed behind me silently and the awkward silence stretched between us all the way up the elevator. By the time we reached my apartment, it was nearly suffocating me. I looked over at Silas and he seemed entirely undisturbed, once again scrolling through things on his phone.
“You’re on your phone an awful lot,” I remarked, my big mouth operating independent of my brain.
He raised an eyebrow but didn’t look up as we walked over to the living area. “My whole life is on this phone,” he said absently, not paying the question much attention.
I thought about his words. “That’s a rather sad idea, if that’s really true.”
He finally looked up at me and our gazes met. “You know me, Sky. I’m about as sad as they come.” The smile on his face was at complete odds with his words and I felt my carefully constructed anti-Silas defenses quake just a little.
“Did you want to go over what I’ve done so far this week?” I asked, but he shook his head.
“Not particularly. I trust that you’ve got everything under control.”
“So then why did you want to come up?”
“You’ve been working for me for a week now. I just wanted to check in and see how you’re doing.”
I hesitated. “That’s oddly thoughtful of you.”
He barked out a laugh. “Oddly. Why oddly?”
“You caring about other people is odd,” my mouth said again as my brain groaned.
He laughed again, his white teeth flashing in a dangerous smile. “I may be heartless, but I care about my friends.”
“We’re not friends, Silas,” I pointed out.
“So you keep telling me.”
